During the months of October and November, I contacted several bookstores and distributors around the country (some by email, some in person) offering a complimentary copy of The Prayers of the People and asking if they would be interested in carrying my book. One company which responded in the affirmative was Leaflet Missal. They have a national and international audience, and I was told that my book would be listed in their Spring 2010 catalog.
On January 28, I was informed that my book had received front cover placement on their catalog! This is wonderful news! I could not have asked for better exposure for my book! (Now I will really have to get to work on the second volume...)
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf has a post today about a article from the Catholic News Service. This article reports that the new English translation of the Mass might be Advent of 2011.
I just finished reading one of my Christmas gifts, Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy by Mark Galli. The final chapter, "Words of Living W-A-T-E-R," discusses the use of a particular form of language in the liturgy. I think these paragraphs are apropos to the conversations, debates, and arguments surrounding the new English translation of the Roman Missal:
In a media age, words come at us from all directions, like arrows from a thousand bows. Most of these arrows are marketing words, advertising words, words designed to manipulate us, to sell us something. [...] For these reasons, among others, we distrust words, especially words that have been fashioned and shaped for the occasion by Madison or Pennsylvania Avenue.I liked this book a great deal. It's written by an Episcopalian, so it doesn't always portray a view of liturgy (and certain liturgical actions) that coincides with the Catholic view, but it is an excellent book about what the liturgy has that attracts us to it.
So it's not surprising that many are put off by the words of the liturgy. Surely, if we're trying to worship sincerely, praise a God who loves us as a father loves his children, we want to use language is "authentic." What child uses formal speech to communicate with their "daddy"? We want nothing to do with pretension, stuffiness, and any rhetoric that prevents us from being real.
In our desire to be real, we start thinking that authenticity is another word for spontaneity, as if everything we say at the spur of the moment is more true, more sincere than words we craft carefully. For many, the Freudian slip is considered more authentic than the measured reply.
Indeed, sometimes what we blurt out thoughtlessly is actually what we mean and feel. But more often than not, what we blurt out is ill-considered and something we either need to quality or apologize for.
The liturgy's answer to crafted language that deceives or manipulates is not to abandon crafted language but to shape it so that it reveals reality. The most carefully crafted language in our culture tends to be poetry. And poetry at its finest moments subverts our best attempts at hiding from reality. [...] The poetry of liturgy has just this power. The liturgy contains words that have been shaped and crafted over the centuries. It is formal speech. It is public poetry. As such it reaches into us to reveal not only the unnamed reality of our lives but the God who created us. "In worship the voice of the Church calls up thoughts and feelings often far beyond us," wrote one liturgical theologian, "yet to which something in us faintly but firmly responds." (pp. 113-114)
I might share a few other quotes from this book. It will certainly be in the bibliography of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the Priest. (I'll need to read it again with a highlighter and a notepad handy, though!)
I am currently awaiting the proof copy of the second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People. If all goes well, the second edition will be available for purchase by the end of this week. There are about a dozen pages of additional content, but the price of the book remains the same: $12.
The outline below is a brief summary of the changes and new content, and each section has a link to a post on www.PrayingTheMass.com for the benefit of those who already have the first edition and would rather not purchase the second edition as well. You can also download a PDF (also free) of all the changes as one document; this PDF includes two whole chapters ("Preparing for Prayer" and "Offertory Prayers").
- Introduction
- Excerpt from Pope John Paul II's address to US Bishops from 1998 on liturgical participation
- Chapter 1 - Preparing for Prayer
- Re-structured with major sections on "Personal Prayer", "Reading the Bible", "The Eucharistic Fast", "Sacramental Confession", "Silence and Stillness",
- Section on "Personal Prayer"
- Quotes from Vatican II documents
- Emphasis on how to develop a personal habit of prayer
- Section on "Reading the Bible"
- Included more online resources for Scripture meditations and reflections
- Included a reference to Vatican II on the Liturgy of the Hours (i.e. Divine Office)
- Section on "Silence and Stillness"
- Included quotes from Scripture on silence and stillness in prayer
- Questions
- Added a question about the importance of Scripture in a personal prayer life
- Chapter 7 - Profession of Faith
- Added explanation of "seated at the right hand of the Father"
- More information about "his kingdom will have no end"
- Chapter 9 - Offertory Prayers
- Added major section "Offertory Procession", rearranged content
- Section on "Offertory Procession"
- Explanation of the rite and its meaning
- Inclusion of quote from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's Calvary and the Mass
- Section on "Blessed be God forever."
- Explanation of bread and wine as sacramentals
- Section on "May the Lord accept..."
- Explanation about the physical, spiritual, and substantial likeness of the bread and wine to the sacrifice of Christ
- Inclusion of a quote from Archbishop Charles Chaput
- Inclusion of a quote from a sermon of St. Peter Chrysologus on the baptismal priesthood
- Conclusion
- Inclusion of another quote the sermon of St. Peter Chrysologus
- Questions
- Added question about the heart being an altar
- Chapter 11 - Communion Rite
- Section "Lamb of God"
- Added explanation of the title "Lamb of God"
I also made some general language corrections to the text:
- I use "old" and "new" throughout to refer to the two English translations, avoiding words like "current" and "future".
- I use "internal" and "external" when referring to participation, instead of mixing interior/internal and exterior/external.
This is new content in the second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, Chapter 11, "Communion Rite".
We first called Christ the “Lamb of God” in the Gloria. This title is deeply significant and ancient in its origin, reaching back to Abraham, the first of the Patriarchs of Israel. God tested Abraham, asking him to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice. Isaac, bearing the wood for the sacrifice on his back as he and Abraham walked up the mountain, asked his father where the lamb to be offered was; Abraham replied “God will provide himself the lamb.” (Gen. 22:8) What Abraham found was no lamb, but a ram with its horns caught in a thicket.[1] From that time on, God’s people sought the “lamb of God.”
To commemorate His liberating the Hebrews from Egypt Jerusalem maintained a sacrificial flock of Temple
It was not until St. John St. John St. Paul St. Peter wrote that we have been ransomed “with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Pet. 1:19) And St. John
It is this Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, Who “takes away the sin of the world” by His self-sacrifice. (John 1:29) Every time we say that Jesus “take[s] away the sins of the world,” we should be aware that we are speaking in the present tense, not the past tense. This is a reminder that Christ’s work of redemption did not conclude with His death, but is continual and ongoing: the Mass is offered for the expiation of our sins.
[1] This scene is rich in Christological symbolism: Christ, like Isaac, bore the wood for His own sacrifice on His back, and He wore a crown of thorns, prefigured by the ram whose horns were caught in a thorn-bush.
[2] The ritual of the Passover also points to Christ: He, like the lamb, is pure and without blemish, and His bones were not broken when He was sacrificed.
[3] “Paschal” (as in “Paschal mystery”) comes from the Greek word pascha, which comes from the Hebrew word pesach, which means “Passover.”
This is new content in the second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, Chapter 9, "Offertory Prayers".
5) Relate: If your heart is your spiritual altar, as described by St. Peter Chrysologus in his sermon, consider the significance of the words of the priest in the Preface which follows the Offertory: “Lift up your hearts.” What are you placing on the altar of your heart, and what does it mean to bring that altar and its offering into the presence of the Lord?
This is new content in the second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, Chapter 9, "Offertory Prayers".
St. Peter Chrysologus ended his sermon with a challenge to live as self-sacrificing priests. First, he spoke of the preparation necessary:
Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest. Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you. Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your heart be an altar.
Once you are prepared, spiritually clothed in priestly attire and standing at the altar of your heart, ready to serve the Lord, then:
with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will.
This is the spiritual attitude we must strive to adopt in our daily lives, but especially during the Mass.
This is new content in the second edition of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, Chapter 9, "Offertory Prayers".
The bread and wine are changed into the Real Presence of Jesus Christ at the consecration of the Eucharistic Prayer, but this presence is hidden under what the Church calls a “sacramental veil,” the remaining appearance of bread and wine. When we see Christ in Heaven, there will be no veil. In much the same way, we pray that we may be changed to be more like Christ (“configured” to Christ, in the language of the Church) by receiving Holy Communion. This configuration to Christ is imperfect while we are on earth, but it will be perfected when our resurrected and glorified bodies enter Heaven.
Just as the bread and wine will be transubstantiated into Christ, what they represent – ourselves, the Church, the Body of Christ – is, in a sense, transubstantiated as well. By identifying ourselves with the bread and wine, as Archbishop Sheen wrote, we are anticipating the change which will occur in us at the end of time while conforming our lives to the change taking place now.
Because of what the bread and wine will become (once consecrated), the union of our spiritual sacrifices to the bread and wine during the Offertory is a sign of our participation in Christ and His sacrifice. The bread and wine already have a physical likeness to Christ’s sacrifice, because they are the same elements He used, and the same elements that were offered centuries before Him by Melchizedek. (cf. Gen. 14:18) When we join our spiritual sacrifices to them in the Offertory, each of us gives them a spiritual likeness to Christ’s sacrifice. Finally, in the Eucharistic Prayer, this likeness is perfected as they receive a substantial likeness to Christ’s sacrifice.
The bread and wine (and afterwards, the Eucharist) and ourselves are united as one at the hands of the priest: he offers them physically as we offer them spiritually. The bread and wine which the priest holds during the words of consecration represent us, since they represent the fruits of our labor. Then, as the priest offers the Eucharist to God, we join our very lives – all of our worries, cares, sufferings, and prayers – to Christ in the Eucharist. It is only by joining ourselves to Christ, the perfect sacrifice, that the contribution of our living, spiritual sacrifice can be truly acceptable to the Father. (cf. Rom.
Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., of Denver Italy ) spoke to his flock about St. Paul
Listen now to what the Apostle urges us to do: “I appeal to you,” he says, “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” By this exhortation of his, Paul has raised all men to priestly status.
How marvelous is the priesthood of the Christian, for he is both the victim that is offered on his own behalf, and the priest who makes the offering. He does not need to go beyond himself to seek what he is to immolate to God: with himself and in himself he brings the sacrifice he is to offer God for himself.
In a Christian’s self-offering to God, he is following the pattern of Christ Who is both priest and victim. [1] See the Appendix for excerpts from several Church documents (including Mediator Dei of Pope Pius XII) which provide a liturgical spirituality through which we learn to join ourselves to Christ.
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