Liturgy Lines

New Words for Worship Part 7
I can reassure readers who have expressed concern about preparing worshippers for the revised Missal that there will be a thorough program of formation before its introduction next year. The new texts will be introduced gradually, beginning next Pentecost at the earliest. A meeting of the National Liturgical Council was held in Melbourne last week to discuss how the new texts will be implemented in Australia and to prepare material such as pew cards, bulletin inserts and homily points for preachers to assist in the process.
Opportunities to learn about the new translation of the Mass include:
· a professional DVD resource being produced in Australia for the entire English-speaking Catholic world which uses a multi-layered approach to provide background material on the revised texts and open up a new appreciation of the Mass. Entitled ‘Become one Body, one Spirit in Christ’, the resource can be previewed at http://www.becomeonebodyonespiritinchrist.org/,
· the liturgy stream of Pray 2010 beginning in Brisbane this week which focuses on the new Missal,
· workshops conducted by Diocesan Liturgical Commissions around Australia,
· this on-going series of articles in the Catholic Leader.

Getting back to looking at the new texts, here are the existing and revised versions of the “Glory to God” or Gloria.

PRESENT TEXT

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,Lord God, Lamb of God,you take away the sin of the world:have mercy on us;

you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One,you alone are the Lord,you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

NEW TRANSLATION

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, O God, almighty Father.

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,you take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us;you take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer;you are seated at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.For you alone are the Holy One,you alone are the Lord,you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

It will take some time, I believe, for people to become sufficiently familiar with the revised version to be able to sing or recite it without looking at the words. The expansion of the triplet “we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you” to the five-fold “we praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks” is particularly tricky. It is clear that this new version of the Gloria cannot be sung to the musical settings currently in use.