Crossed The Tiber

An Evangelical Converts to Catholicism

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Location: Pennsylvania, United States

I was born into the Catholic faith. At 14, I was "born again" and found Jesus personally but lost His Church. After thirty years as an evangelical protestant, I have come full circle to find that He has been there all the time, in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. I wish others to find the beauty and truth of the Catholic faith as I have found.

Monday, April 25, 2011

"To Whom Shall We Go? You Have the Words of Eternal Life."

On Easter Sunday, our local newspaper had a front page article on the new changes in the Roman Missal that are being introduced in Advent 2011. Over the past 40 years that the mass has been in the vernacular, it has come to the attention of the Vatican that the liturgy has lost some of its effectiveness and worse yet, the theology of the Eucharistic sacrifice, perhaps, has been watered-down or lost on those who assist in the liturgy (meaning us).
  So the Church has re-translated the Latin rendering it more accurate to the original meaning and intent . The entire mass is not changing but a few key parts will be changed slightly, and the faithful will have to learn the new responses with training and teaching occurring so we can all benefit from these new changes.
In the newspaper article, a local professor of law who is Catholic was criticizing the changes in the new liturgy
.
Donna Steslow of Macungie, researched the translations online and said she was dismayed enough by their strangeness and complexity to consider leaving Catholicism for the Episcopal or Lutheran church.

"If I have to stand there and hear things that don't sound familiar to me, it bothers me," she said, contending that a church beset by sexual abuse scandals should be making better use of its resources.

Steslow, 50, a parishioner at St. Thomas More in Salisbury Township, said she worries that the language hailed as "elevated" will only serve to confuse the young people who represent the future of the church.

"To me," she said, "it's a step backwards."

It saddens me that this lifelong Catholic would consider joining a faith tradition that does not have apostolic succession and thus is devoid of the Eucharist. Personally speaking, I would trade a "clumsy and complex sounding" liturgy any day if I knew that the end result is that I am privileged to go to the altar and receive the God of the Universe, His body, blood, soul and divinity, into my spirit, soul and body.

Doesn't sound like a bad trade to me,   Besides, this is not the first time that Jesus and his Church have been accused of saying something complex and strange and offensive to the listener. In John 6:66, a large amount of disciples were offended by His words and stopped following him. I pray though, that this woman in the Morning Call article will ultimately side with the apostle Peter (the first pope) who said:   "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68). 

For more information on the new translation, I encourage you to obtain a copy of Jeff Pinyan's Praying the Mass. It is a quick and easy read and will  help you understand and appreciate the new translation and see the Mass with new eyes and a new heart!

2 Comments:

Blogger Shirley said...

I like the new translation- it helps bring reverence back. It is more God oriented and less "we the people" oriented. For those who think it is a step backwards- they were probably not alive at the time that Vatican II changed Mass into the vernacular, along with the changes came mass confusion- and Mass confusion. So does D.S. when she says "If I have to stand there and hear things that don't sound familiar to me, it bothers me" stop to think about all the people back in the 60's who had tremendous change forced on them. Perhaps she thinks that all Catholics at that time should have become Lutheran or Episcopalian, to follow her reasoning?
Change is a good thing if it brings the sense of Sacred back to the forefront.
And as far as her comment about young people goes, the Church the way it is now isn't attracting youth in droves; but many of them are very drawn to the traditional, Tridentine Mass just because it fulfills their need for the sense of awe and majesty that is lacking in the white bread version of the Novus Ordo Mass.
God bless our Pope.

April 26, 2011 10:30 AM  
Blogger kkollwitz said...

The new translation definitely makes teaching catechism easier. I've already been using it this year.

April 27, 2011 12:01 PM  

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