Saturday, October 1, 2011

Why is The Mass Changing?

From the time of the apostles, the Mass has been the central act of Christian worship. On the night before he died Jesus instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and resurrection, and as a pledge of his love. When Jesus said, “Do this in memory of me,” he was commanding the apostles to make present as a biblical memorial the sacrifice offering his body and blood at the Last Supper.

Although the Mass itself is not changing, some of the wording within the Mass is. When Vatican II authorized Mass in the common language, the Liturgy was translated from Latin into English which was then printed as the Missle we have been using since 1972. Unfortunately, unlike other languages, the English translation included wording that fails to accurately convey the meaning behind our Catholic traditons or the Biblical references from which the Liturgy comes. This is being corrected in the New Translation of the Missle, which we will begin using the first Sunday of Advent (November 27th, 2011). This New Translation better aligns the English to the original Latin and to other non English translations.

The Mass is, and will remain, nothing less than the celebration of the Eucharist that Jesus instituted at the Last Supper. The saving mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection is foreshadowed and concentrated forever in the gift of the Eucharist. Jesus, at the Last Supper, was already anticipating his sacrifice on the cross when he referred to his body and blood being offered like a Passover lamb being sacrificed.

Begining on the 5th of November, I'll present an indepth look at the Mass in a new section below the Written Assignments section in the right hand column. For the next few weeks, I'll present a few short posts detailing some of the more obvious changes.

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