JMJ. Well, Advent has begun, and with it the new Roman Missal is now in use. And, as is usually par for the course, it's got the folks in the pews up in arms. (Those who don't normally come to Mass are totally clueless. They'll come to church for Christmas and when they haven't the faintest idea why everyone else is saying something entirely different they'll blame the Pastor for not telling them ahead of time. Go figure.)
Why the change? Well, it all goes back to Vatican II. It was Rome's intent to make the Mass more understandable to the people and in this she succeeded. In her haste to effect these changes, though, the translations from the Latin to the vernacular, specifically English, were less than precise shall we say. Not wrong, mind you, just imprecise. Finally, after forty-some odd years, the Church decided that this looseness had to be snugged up.
Now you might ask what the big deal is anyway. The big deal is that imprecision can lead to misunderstandings in doctrine. And that IS a big deal. Looseness in a recipe results in less than satisfactory food; laxness in doctrine might be enough to send someone down a wrong theological path. When salvation is on the line I'll re-learn some new words. For all the whining and complaining we will look back on these changes, scratch our collective heads, and wonder what the hu-hu was all about.
[To my one faithful reader--that I'm aware of anyway-- I say mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa for the huge hiatus between postings. Chalk it up to laziness, dear lady. I promise to try to do better.]
