God is making all things new. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all things are being renewed in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Catholic Christians believe that in Baptism, through water and the Holy Spirit, people share in the renewal that God is working in the world. St. Paul gives praise for this wondrous activity of God:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, NRSV)
God is uniquely present to us through the Sacraments which change us and strengthen us to become more and more like Christ through God's grace. For Catholics, the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation lead us to the Eucharist: our ongoing worship of God and unique encounter with the Risen Lord. Our participation in the Eucharist is our participation God's work of salvation. St. Paul's words to the Corinthians continue to inspire us today:
So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NRSV)
The worship of God through our limited prayers, gestures, words, symbols, and song becomes an astonishing moment in which we enter into the unlimited and eternal work of Christ through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. Through full, active and conscious participation in the Mass, we encounter the saving presence of Christ and are renewed inwardly by the Holy Spirit. During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the priest prays the following:
Look, O Lord, upon the Sacrifice which you yourself have provided for your Church, and grant in your loving kindness to all who partake of this one Bread and one Chalice that, gathered into one body by the Holy Spirit, they may truly become a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your glory. (Eucharistic Prayer IV, 3rd ed. Roman Missal)
By participating in the Eucharist, we are united by the Holy Spirit to the saving action of Christ, and the Father's plan of salvation continues in our lives.
During the Second Vatican Council, the bishops desired to renew certain elements of the Mass and retrieve aspects that had fallen into disuse over time. In the first document promulgated at the Council, the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” (Sacrosanctum Concilium), the Council Fathers stated: “The rite of the Mass is to be revised in such a way that the intrinsic nature and purpose of its several parts, as well as the connection between them, may be more clearly manifested, and that devout and active participation by the faithful may be more easily achieved.” (par.50). The result of the Council's decision was the Novus Ordo, or New Order of Mass: the way we celebrate the Mass today.
In their wisdom, the bishops also allowed for the translation of the parts of the Mass from Latin into the vernacular or language of the people in order to encourage a fuller comprehension and participation by the whole community in the Eucharist. This allowance was readily embraced, which resulted in a great effort to translate the Order of Mass from the original Latin text into the various languages of the people, including English. The 1st edition of this new Roman Missal was completed English around 1974, and the 2nd edition was completed roughly ten years later.
During the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II promulgated a 3rd edition of this Roman Missal. It contains the same Order of the Mass that was promulgated after the Second Vatican Council. But many things have happened since the new Order of the Mass was promulgated in 1969, and even since the 2nd edition was implemented for use. For example: we have received from the Holy See additional Eucharistic Prayers; many saints were canonised and their feast days were added to the liturgical calendar of the Church; and the rules for the way we translate the Church's ritual texts from the original Latin into the vernacular have changed. All of these factors have required a new edition of the Roman Missal. Roman Catholic episcopal conferences, international committees, and the Holy See have been working on implementation throughout the world.
One of the most noticeable adjustments that will affect all of us with the advent of the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal is the way the original Latin texts have been translated into the English language.
More than 40 years have passed since the process of translating the Roman Missal from Latin into English began, resulting in the 1st and 2nd editions of the Roman Missal based on the directive from the bishops of the Second Vatican Council. These earlier editions were translated following the guidelines laid out in the instruction on the translation of liturgical texts called “Comme le Prevoit,” which was issued by the Consilium in 1969.
The principle of translation advocated in “Comme le Prevoit” is known as the principle of “dynamic equivalence.” Following this method, translators were concerned not only with the meaning in the original Latin form, but were also concerned about how the translated text would be understood by the community for which it was being translated. So, the translation using “dynamic equivalence” was not a word for word translation of the original text, but it was also shaped with attentiveness to common characteristics of the receiving language, such as style, idioms and colloquialisms. As a result, many of the prayers were substantially simplified to reflect contemporary English usage. Some texts were added, which were not found in the original Latin editions. Both 1st and 2nd editions of the Roman Missal were translated into English using this principle of dynamic equivalence.
In 2001, the Holy See changed the manner in which liturgical texts are to be translated in order to ensure accuracy and faithfulness to their Latin origins. The approach is described in the document from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments called “On the use of Vernacular Languages in the Publication of the Books of the Roman Liturgy” (Liturgiam authenticam). Now, translators have been asked to give particular attention to maintain biblical references, avoid simplifying the words and phrases into contemporary terms, and ensure as much continuity as possible between the original text promulgated in Latin and the text translated in another language. In other words, the Holy See has a great desire to guarantee that translated texts in the vernacular language mirror, as much as possible, the original texts found in the newest edition of the Missal promulgated in Latin. This principle of translation is called “formal equivalence”. The translation of the 3rd edition of the Missal (2000) from the original Latin text into English follows this principle of formal equivalence.