Changes can be difficult for many people. The older we get the more we generally do not like change. We get used to a routine and get comfortable and when that way of doing things is disrupted, then most of us get upset and sometimes angry. The average person who goes to church on a regular basis sits in the same pew every time. Right? Ask that person to move to another part of the church and there might be a lot of dissatisfaction to say it mildly. We get comfortable and our prayer life and the way we worship give us a certain amount of security and calm that we find necessary. Over 40 years ago the Roman Catholic Church made many changes in its liturgical services that upset many people and made others very happy. Most eventually embraced the liturgical changes and said to themselves, “This is the way it is and I just have to get used to it.” Changing from the Mass in Latin to the Mass in various vernacular languages helped most people in their prayer life. It helped them to come closer to Jesus Christ through the liturgy. Now we are going to have some more changes in our liturgical life which are relatively minor compared to what happened in the late 1960’s. Most Catholics born after 1970 never experienced the “old way” of doing things so these changes about to begin in the English speaking world will be the first test of their ability to be comfortable with change.

What started all the changes in the post Vatican II Church was the decree “Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy” on December 4, 1963. This was the mandate of the Vatican II Council:

In order that the Christian people may more certainly derive an abundance of graces from the sacred liturgy, holy Mother Church desires to undertake with great care a general restoration of the liturgy itself. For the liturgy is made up of immutable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change. These not only may but ought to be changed with the passage of time if they have suffered from the intrusion of anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy or have become unsuited to it. In this restoration, both texts and rites should be drawn up so that they express more clearly the holy things which they signify; the Christian people, so far as possible, should be enabled to understand them with ease and to take part in them fully, actively, and as befits a community.

There is not going to be a big upheaval in the Mass this coming November 27th, on the first Sunday of Advent. There will be some changes of words that will affect the persons in the pew, but mainly the wording changes will affect the priest celebrants. Some people question the wisdom of changing these words. Some say the new translations are “too wordy” and may not be the English we are used to hearing. It will take time to see if we achieve the goal which is to provide a more beautiful and more exact language of prayer. Time will tell. If the church is always re-forming itself then future changes can always come to be.

(The next bulletin will discuss more of the changes in the new Roman Missal.)

Very Rev. Michael T. Driscoll, O. Carm.
Pastor Pro-Tem