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Email a FriendWe were very informed, our Pastor had an article a week for a whole year explaining each change. our cantor went over the new parts of mass we would be singing beforehand. I had my children(the ones who could read) all ready with bookmarked missals. Unfortunately, our Pastor was away (our parish only has 1 priest), and the priest scheduled to celebrate the 11:30 mass never showed. our Deacon did his best and we went up the the Eucharistic prayer, said an Our Father, received previously consecrated Host (broken into little tiny pieces as it was quite crowded) and ended the service. With the new words, the new music, and half the mass missing, I didn’t really get a feel for what the new translation will be like. looking forward to next week 
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New Missal Mania
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Faith on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 10:00 AM
After months of talking about it, preparing for it, and educating our families about it, we finally welcomed the Roman Missal Third Edition this past weekend at my local parish. My husband, whose involved in liturgical music at our parish, came home from morning mass with a report that all had gone well and that everyone seemed ready and well prepared.
When we returned for the evening mass at our parish, my experience felt a bit different from what Greg had described. The 6:00 pm mass at my church is the youth mass, and I knew for a fact that our teen population was well informed and educated about the changes. Our main music minister did a great job before mass started of reminding people about the changes and gently encouraging them to keep their missals handy for reference. The presiding priest did a fantastic job—I was listening carefully for missteps or hesitations, and honestly he prayed the new edition as though he’d been doing it all his life.
But from my vantage point in the middle of the second pew, it sounded a bit more messy.
I’m not ashamed to say that I held the missal in my hands the entire mass and genuinely did my best with the new language. Remember ladies that as the “senior citizen” here at Faith & Family, it takes older ladies like me a bit longer sometimes to master memory projects! Around I heard a variety of reactions to the changes. Some of my fellow parishioners were like me—doing our best to be accurate by following the book. Others actually had it all memorized. But sadly, a great number of people seemed completely oblivious and simply forged ahead with the their memorized responses, as if they had never heard a word about the Roman Missal Third Edition.
Our parish did a fantastic job of educating everyone. We had catechesis in Mass and weekly bulletin articles to inform and explain. I think the children in our Catholic school, our religious education programs and our teens were extremely well prepared. It’s the grown ups who seem to have a bit of work to do!
I’ll be anxious to return to Mass next week and hear what difference a week makes. In the mean time, I’d love to hear how things went in your parish? What type of preparation did you receive? Did you find that most of your fellow parishioners understood and embraced the Roman Missal Third Edition? Did Mass “feel different” to you this past Sunday?
Comments
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I felt the same way at our parish. They did a great job educating us and offering a variety of opportunities to gather together and and learn the new responses. Most everyone did well at the beginning, but by the end it was like they just gave up. I felt like I was the only person who said, “And with your spirit” as Mass was ending. I am sure it will get better as we go along!
It went well at our parish; our diocese has had chant workshops for all the priests and deacons, so the added chant sounded good. We spent the past 8 weeks hearing homilies about the new Mass parts, but also about the Mass in general and not just what we say, but why we say it. So everyone was pretty well-prepared and was following along in the missalettes (Father gave us the page numbers as we went), and everything seemed much more deliberate and thoughtful than usual.
We didn’t sing much of the new settings - though one parish we went to a few weeks ago was practicing with the Gloria - and it sounded awful due to the pianist playing the music not as Gregorian-style chant but as early-piano-lessons-Indian-song-to-learn-minor-chords. So I hope our parish doesn’t do the Gloria that way at Christmas…
My only sadness about the new Missal is that a beloved priest friend, age 92, celebrated his last public Mass on Saturday. He can’t see well enough to implement all the changes, so we will miss out on his powerful preaching and prayerful Masses. :-(
Anna, wow, thank you for mentioning that priest so we can keep him in our prayers as a thanksgiving for his many years of service. Do you mind stating the diocese you live in?
Anna,
Wow, 92 years old! What a blessing to have a priest serve the Lord that long! A priest friend of my sister’s is legally blind, but he is still able to celebrate the Divine Liturgy by using a large print Missal & a special lighted magnifying glass. Could this be a possible option for the priest you referred to? Perhaps he could put his wonderful preaching to use by offering a mini-retreat or afternoon of reflection at your parish?
I’m in the Omaha diocese; Msgr. Dunne has been the chaplain of our Catholic radio station, KVSS, since its inception, so if you’re in the state or listen online, he’s the one leading the night rosary.
He is an amazing priest; he started out at Boys Town after his ordination (he worked with Fr. Flanagan) and that’s where he’s been since retirement. He tends to draw quite a crowd for both daily and Sunday Mass. The intensity of his devotion to the Eucharist is beautiful to experience. He will continue to hear confessions, so we won’t lose him completely. But he’s had the large print missal for awhile and still has the deacon “feed” him the words for the opening prayer and prayer after Communion, so now he’ll just be saying the old version in his private chapel (which seats about 4 maybe, since it’s a room in his apartment - he’s had permission for some time for a Eucharistic chapel there), but I’ll be tempted to request invites… 
Anyway, thank you for your prayers for him! I know his ministry has meant everything to him - that’s why he’s still at it at 92 - and it will be hard on him to not say Mass in the church where he has been for something like 20 years now.
It went pretty well at our parish, but there were of course people who said the wrong thing. I had the book in front of me the whole time and even so, I know at least once I said the old words without even thinking about it! I think Christmas is going to be a big mess, with all the people who don’t attend mass regularly there. I have a feeling many of them have not heard anything about these changes, and probably some of them will be upset about it. And it will be even more jumbled up than this week was with the regular mass attending crowds. But in general I think it’s not too different and that most people will get the hang of it pretty quickly.
I think you’re right. The ones who go only for Christmas and Easter will have a harder time. The rest of us will get used to it pretty quickly. I’m only 49, so I will go with the elders. Even the priest (bless him), stumbled as it is a learning process for him too (even more so).
On both Sunday and daily mass yesterday, if Father heard too many people responding “And also with you” he repeated “And with your spirit” as a gentle reminder. Old habits die hard, and of course it will be awhile until those responses are second nature, but the new canon is so beautiful I’m sure it will be worth it!
wait, we’re supposed to be having the new parts in CHANT???
all of our mass parts are the SAME old tune with the new words shoved in.
oh chant… wouldn’t that be nice!
We did the opening greeting in chant and the closing (made me think it was Easter Sunday, that being the only time we might ever have heard that part chanted before) and I think there were a couple other parts too, but I can’t remember which. We did sing the Our Father, a version I’ve heard other places, but we’ve never sung it at our parish before. The bits of extra chant added a whole new dimension of worship and beauty and reverence though, to an extent that surprised me.
You don’t have to have it in chant. There are many new masses that have been written to fit with the new text; there are also older masses that have “revised versions” (and from my understanding due to popular demand).
If you sing the Latin chant mass parts, nothing changes. That text is original. I assume that the English chant parts have been adjusted.
I (and most of my church music director friends) opted for a new setting as using a revised setting would be WAY too complicated and confusing. It seemed, like you said, that the new words were kinda shoved in there at times.
Lisa, did your parish not use pew cards with the new text? Many parishes are using them -they are quite handy as they consolidate the prayers/responses with the changes, and the new parts for the congregation are bolded. Much easier than following the missal, at this point at least. I did appreciate the missal when it came to the Eucharistic prayer - the new text is truly beautiful. Ours are 8.5 x 11 card stock, printed on 2 sides.
I am the music director at our parish I have to say it went beautifully! The first sunday of advent was also my due date with this second child and I smiled because even though I would have loved to have had my baby already, I was so thankful to be there, leading the people in the new sung mass parts, hearing the choir’s hard work, and most importantly, hearing music come from the pews!!
My pastor didn’t make a huge deal out of things; we had some bulletin articles and spoke briefly about it in homilies; I played the new mass parts as preludes for a couple months then started “teaching” it before mass 4 weeks before hand. At first I thought we weren’t doing “enough” but now I realize my pastor’s wisdom- we didn’t make a “big deal” and people didn’t respond to it as an “everything’s changning” kind of big deal. In fact, I heard at least one person come up to him and tell him how moving and beautiful the new Eucharistic prayers were to her.
I love it and it was great. We had pew cards in the pews with bolded text at the changes as well as our WLP missalettes that had the order of the mass non-bolded. I would say the usage of each tool was 50/50. It was nice to have the choice I guess- some people really preferred to use the missalette while others used the cards.
Anyway, it’s good, I love it, and it will just take time to get used to “and with your spirit!” to make that a habit. 
I thought it went well at our parish, at least from my perspective. I’m eager to see what my son has to say about this morning’s school Mass. I really liked the new Eucharistic prayer wording. I always use a book anyway (Magnificat), so that is no change for me (I like to follow along—keeps me from being distracted, which I am very prone to). We have been singing the new Mass parts for a month now, so really there was not too much “new” for us—moreso for the priests. Anna, I have an uncle who’s a priest in a retirement home, and I have wondered how it will go for them—thanks for sharing about your friend—a good reminder for us all to keep the priests in our prayers as they too deal with the changes.
Nice post, Lisa! I think it’s really exciting to have these new changes to the text.
It’s neat to have to focus a little more and hear a new set of beautiful words for the first time.
I’m offering a free giveaway of a craft kit printable to help familiarize kids with the new Mass while they learn Vessels, Vestments, Sacraments, Parts of the Mass…would love for more people to know about it! Thanks Lisa!
http://www.equippingcatholicfamilies.com/2011/11/win-free-printable-to-teach-new-mass.html
I’m not fond of the retrofit musical settings (would have preferred to learn an all-new Mass instead of the clumsily rebuilt one we’re using). Our pastor has cards in each pew with the new responses, and PICKS UP THE CARD when we’re getting close to a point in the Mass where we will need it. That helps—and I know he’s got much more to concentrate on. I think by Christmas, most people will get it, but then the “Christmas visitors” will come in and be completely at sea.
Things went well at the Mass we attended. I cantored, and the assembly caught on to the new Mass setting very well and sang out strong. The priest spoke about 5 minutes prior to Mass and reminded all of the changes. He walked through the roadmap of the changes that were listed on pew cards- it appeared we all depended on heavily on those as the Mass progressed. The funniest thing, though…when the priest said, “The Mass has ended…” we all didn’t know what to say so there was this pregnant pause where we left the priest hanging. All we had to say was “Thanks be to God” as it was prior. So we had the revisions down but were hesitant on the final blessing. It provided a good laugh and some needed comic relief after being a little “on edge.”
One last thought…the priest who celebrated is Kenyan and English is not his native tongue. He provided an outstanding homily in relation to the revisions about how words matter, and related it back to how we are now better praying the Mass in the English-speaking world, similar to as his family members are in Kenya.
It went reasonably well at our Mass, although it seemed like it went better towards the beginning than near the end! Our Mass is largely families with little ones and older and elderly people, so even though we knew what we were supposed to do, it wasn’t always easy to remember. We pray much of the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin already, so we aren’t as effected by the changes as a Mass completely in English. Because of this, none of our music changed, which was nice.
We have pew cards which work quite well, but even that was hard to juggle when I was bouncing the two month old and trying to keep the three year old from crawling under the pew in front of us. Those were the moments where I messed up and did the old response instead of the new - it helped me see how I am on autopilot at times during Mass and not fully present. But then again, it is awfully hard to be fully present at moments like I mentioned! But we’re working on memorizing it at home (probably more for my sake than my kids’, I sometimes think!) so I imagine we’ll get the hang of it soon. Even if I am completely distracted by the little ones at times!
I went to the Saturday evening Mass because I wanted to be an “early adopter”. Seriously, we had our associate priest who has done much of the education for the parish. He is younger and was trained in Rome, so he always sings more of the Mass and did a beautiful job. My kids only disappointment was that they wanted to do the striking of the breast 3 times and the grievous fault etc. but the choir sang the Kyrie Eliason instead! Also, I noticed that the songs which came from the modern songbook, “Spirit and Song” didn’t seem to go so well now that the Mass has more elevated language. I am curious to see if anyone else had this experience or if it was just me hoping to get rid of some of those 1970’s and 1980’s folk songs.
My parish has a media ministry, so the new words were projected onto the wall at the front of the church. This was helpful, but both the priest and the congregation stumbled at times. I’m not fond of these new changes.
just curious Claire - why don’t you like the changes? Does staying true to the original not appeal?
(not trying to antagonize, genuinely curious!)
Well, mostly it’s my personal preference. This translation seems more formal to me, too formal for my taste. A little more cumbersome. And, in my opinion, there are so many liturgical abuses that would be more important to address, rather than focusing on the translation (such as the tabernacle being off to the side, kneelers not being used, etc).
Didn’t go so well as our parish because both the priest (assistant weekend from an order from a foreign country) and the transitional deacon both messed up from the beginning. The congregation all had pew cards but the celebrant and the deacon didn’t for some reason. So when they started if off wrong everyone kind of got confused and even though during the Eucharistic prayers the priests read the new translation correctly, it had already fallen apart. I just don’t understand how our pastor can prep the parish for months and not prep the deacon and assistant.
We generally go to the Latin Mass at our parish on Sundays - no changes there! I look forward to experiencing the new English translation sometime soon. I wonder if attending the Latin Novus Ordo regularly will make the new responses come more easily, since they’re more accurate translations of the Latin? Did anyone have this experience?
It went well at our Parish too. The one thing I didn’t like was that our pastor would comment during the Mass how we were doing and even what part was coming up next, We had pew cards, mentioned above, and the new missals so I thought he didn’t need to keep reminding us. His comments made the Mass not flow well. I do love the new prayers, the language is wonderful!
Despite all the preparation, I found that the it was more difficult than I expected. I am around your age, Lisa, so I agree about the whole memorizing thing. It has gotten much more difficult. Surprisingly the one response I thought would be easy, “And with your spirit,” was the most difficult for me. I’d say the responses were about 50-50. I look forward to learning the new words. Our priest did a good job of explaining that the new translation is not only truer to the Latin, but also to what is said in the vernacular of other languages. We have a French Mass, and have been saying “Et avec votre esprit” right along. Now the English matches it with “And with your spirit.”
I stayed home with my brand new newborn last Sunday, so I have not experienced the new Mass yet… it is fascinating to read all the reflections and comments here, plus to hear about my husband and toddler’s experience from Sunday. I look forward to going to Mass soon and experieincing it for myself… although I will be “behind” everyone else, I think!!
We have been slowly changing since August (don’t know why—the military Archbishop wanted it that way) so there was not big change but as I spend about 70% of each mass out with a little one I think it should only take me 7 years or so to really learn it!
At one church we go to, they started implementing “And with your spirit” a month or so ago. It helped to ease into it. Another thing that helped a lot at that church was chanting the “and with your spirit” part. With the choir leading, people did it. At the church I went to Sunday, there was no chanting, and it was about half-and-half participation at the “and with your spirit” parts. The other parts people paid more attention.
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