Below, we consider the changes to the texts within the Introductory Rites of the Mass. More general questions and answers on the new translation of the Roman Missal are available here.
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
This response is one of the very obvious changes as we use the new edition of the Missal. It is the literal translation of what we find in the Latin text “et cum spiritu tuo”. This translation is already found in other languages, for example, German, Italian, French and Spanish.
The source for this dialogue between priest and people is very much Scripture. In four letters, St. Paul uses the following greetings: Galatians 6:18 – May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit; Philippians 4:23 – The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit; 2 Timothy 4:22 – The Lord be with your spirit; Philemon 25 – The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Similar greetings can be found in the Old Testament.
What does “your spirit” mean? It is not a reference to the Holy Spirit though it is spoken by people who live according to that Spirit. For St. Paul, the spirit is our spiritual part that is closest to God. “And with your spirit” is about having the spirit or mind of Christ as your guiding light, as what guides us through the day – a Christian spirit.
While it sounds unfamiliar to us, this greeting and response captures our Biblical roots. It is a recognition of the spirit that is among us as Christians, a spirit that we must live and, in greeting one another, it proclaims the presence of Christ among us.
This greeting occurs elsewhere in the Mass and each time is accompanied by the response “And with your spirit”.
I confess …
The translation of the Confiteor that appears in the new edition of the Missal has a few changes to what we had been saying since 1975. The most obvious change is the use of the words “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault”. This was already retained in the Irish language translation of this prayer. The use of triplets is often employed in Latin and this was not always translated in the texts we had been using. A word not translated in the 1975 Missal is now translated as “greatly”, giving us the new phrase “that I have greatly sinned”. This has its Biblical roots in the words of David in 1 Chronicles 21:8. “David said to God, ‘I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing…’”.
Gloria
The new translation of this text is a good example of a very close following of the Latin. In the opening lines we hear the words of the Angels’ song over the shepherds’ field from Luke 2:14 which speaks of “on earth peace to people of goodwill”. Then five verbs as we stand before God in awe and thanksgiving, addressing God the Father: “We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks…”. This new translation closely follows the Latin rather than the shortened version that appeared in the 1975 Missal. In the next section we address God the Son under five titles: “Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father”. Very familiar, except perhaps for “Only Begotten”, which translated the Latin “unigenitum”.
The phrase “sins of the world” is in the Gloria twice; it is also in the Agnes Dei (Lamb of God) three times and in the invitation to Holy Communion. In all six places, the Latin has the plural as does the new English translation.
