“The only person who likes change is a baby in a wet diaper!” (Mark Twain)
Change isn't easy; it presents challenges and uncertainty. But getting to change Mass settings for the Roman Missal 3rd Edition offers us an opportunity to sing our parts of the Mass with renewed vigor. (A "Mass setting" refers to the music composed for certain parts of the Liturgy.) Here at Immaculate Heart of Mary, we sing Curtis Stephan’s Mass of Renewal at our Sunday Masses, solemnities and feasts; Kathleen Demny’s Mass of Joy at school or children’s Masses and chants at special celebrations of a more solemn character.
One of the reasons Blessed John Paul II promulgated these changes a decade ago was so that the English and other vernacular versions would match the original Latin more literally. The texts for what the congregation sings are below, with any changes from the previous translation in bold. For further commentary on changes in the people’s parts, please visit the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Lord, Have Mercy
The Kyrie Eleison remains simultaneously a petition and a prayer of thanksgiving; an acknowledgment of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will continue to do…
Glory to God
The first line is derived from the Angels heralding the glad tidings of Christ’s birth in Luke 2:14. (The opening words, “Gloria in excelsis Deo” are a phrase universally familiar from the popular Christmas carol, Angels We Have Heard on High.) In the second line, we recover entire phrases that were left out, as the Latin text offers five successive ways in which we should pay homage to God. The addition of “Only Begotten Son” recovers a key venerable title of Jesus Christ from the Latin text – “Fili Unigenite.” And the new text includes two lines (rather than one) that begin with “you take away the sins of the world,” thereby reflecting the Latin.
Holy, Holy, Holy
This is almost exactly the same as it was in 1968, prior to the last translation, the only difference is that “God of power and might” now becomes “God of hosts”. This reference has a Biblical foundation in Isaiah 6:1-3, where the prophet writes, “I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne… Seraphim were stationed above… ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!’ they cried one to the other. ‘All the earth is filled with his glory!’” And in Luke 2:13, a “multitude of the heavenly host” also announces the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. This acclamation, like the Gloria, is intended to be sung. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal states “the whole congregation, joining with the heavenly powers, sings the Sanctus” (which in Latin means “Holy”.)
Mystery of Faith We make one of three revised acclamations, all or which are rooted in Scripture. The first two are derived from 1 Corinthians 11:26. And Christ’s title in the third is found in John 4:42, when the woman who met Jesus at the well is told by her fellow Samaritans, “we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” Blessed John Paul II wrote in Ecclesia de Eucharistia “The very thought of the mysterious gift of the Holy Eucharist should fill us with ‘profound amazement and gratitude’”.
Lamb of God
This supplication as the Priest breaks the sacred Host remains unchanged, though it is always good to recall its origin in the words of John the Baptist, as he heralds Christ’s arrival at the River Jordan (John 1:29).
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. Have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. Have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. Grant us peace. |