EL DORADO — Father George Knab, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate from Chicago, recently led parishioners of Holy Redeemer Church in El Dorado through four days and nights of a missionary renewal titled “Call to Worship.”
The mission comes just weeks after World Mission Day, which was celebrated Oct. 18 with the theme “The nations will walk in its light.”
“The mission reminds us as Catholics of the profound sacraments of baptism and holy Eucharist, given to us by a loving Christ,” said Father Gregory Pilcher, OSB, pastor of Holy Redeemer.
“We live in a world in which sin is organized like this,” Knab told parishioners, as he held a clenched fist high in the air at the start of the mission. “The good news is that God not only saves us from sin, he saves us for life.”
Father Pilcher said another aim of the mission was to renew appreciation for, and participation in, the liturgy with special attention given to the forthcoming changes in the new Roman Missal.
After six years of work, the U.S. bishops are nearing completion of the English translation and U.S. adaptations of the Roman Missal. They are meeting Nov. 16-19 in Baltimore to approve the final section of the Missal. While awaiting the Vatican’s final approval, Catholic dioceses and parishes will be providing catechesis to parishioners about the changes.
The best way to learn and adopt those changes is to see them within the context of the celebration of Mass, according to Father Knab.
“I didn’t want to focus on the trees, rather than the forest,” he explained.
Each night of the mission, which began Oct. 25, Father Knab focused on one of the four “life-giving energies” of the Mass. The first night emphasized the first part of Mass, known as the Introductory Rites. One change coming in the Introductory Rites will be the congregation’s response to “The Lord be with you.” The new response will be “And with your spirit,” as opposed to the current, “And also with you.”
This translation is in keeping with the original Latin, Et cum spiritu tuo.
“It invokes the presence of Christ in the congregation, as we invoke the Holy Spirit to be present for the priest,” Father Knab said.
The return to the use of original Latin is more reverent, the priest said. The overall tone of the new Missal — with its emphasis on Divine Liturgy and dependence on God’s goodness and mercy — is a marked contrast to the colloquial approach of the present translation, he said.
Father Knab said the changes would also bring Catholics closer to other Catholics throughout the world who use the more literal phrasing, while also connecting present-day Catholics to those who have gone before.
“It is a throwback to the old form (Pre-Vatican II), but it is new content,” he said.
Pope John Paul II promoted the third edition of the Roman Missal during the Jubilee Year in 2000. Among other things, it contains prayers for the celebration of recently canonized saints; additional prefaces for the eucharistic prayers, additional Masses and prayers for various needs and intentions, and some updated and revised instructions for the celebration of the Mass.
In addition, many biblical and poetic images, such as “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof …” from the Communion Rite and “… from the rising of the sun to its setting” from the eucharistic prayer have been restored.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently introduced a Web site, produced to educate Catholics about the forthcoming changes.
The site, www.usccb.org/romanmissal, has background material on the process of development of liturgical texts, sample texts from the missal, a glossary of terms and answers to frequently asked questions.
Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., in a welcome video to visitors at the site, called the period leading to final approval “a great opportunity” not only to learn about the changes and the revised texts, “but also to deepen our own understanding of the liturgy itself.”
