The new Mass translation is being phased in
gradually. From the weekday morning Mass here on Monday, the priest’s greetings
and people’s responses will be used. The full Missal will come into use on the
First Sunday of Advent. The reasoning behind the need to introduce a new
translation will become all the clearer when the whole Mass is celebrated with
the new translation. Therefore, here, let’s look at one example of an opening
prayer of Mass, the collect for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. Remember
that these prayers go back many centuries. When we have a good translation, not
only are we praying in unity with Catholics all over the world in every other
language, but we are also united across the ages with those who asked the same
things of God in the generations before us.
Here is the Latin of this prayer in the Latin
typical edition:
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
qui caelestia simul et terrena moderaris,
supplicationibus populi tui clementer exaudi,
et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus.
Here is the new translation, which faithfully gives
us what the Latin is saying:
Almighty
ever-living God,
who
govern all things,
both
in heaven and on earth,
mercifully
hear the pleading of your people,
and
bestow your peace on our times.
Now, below is the old translation we are finishing
up with. It is hard not to see that it is inadequate and in need of replacement
when we see just how much of the sense of the prayer it misses:
Father
of heaven and earth,
hear
our prayers, and show us the way
to
peace in the world.
If you would like to go through many more similar
examples, you might find the blog What does the Prayer Really Say? interesting. See more analysis of this
particular example here.
