In discussing with someone the new English translation of the Mass, which, among other things, will render "et cum spiritu tuo" more correctly as "and with your spirit." (it would be too much to hope for "and with thy spirit") we wondered out loud how easily many Catholics will be able to make the switch. The still current ICEL translation, "and also with you," is so ingrained that at the one Anglican Use Mass held at Christendom about five years ago, the otherwise very conservative students just instinctively replied, "And also with you" - even though for the Anglican Use requires "and with thy spirit," which was carefully printed in the program.
This reminded me of the joke about the priest who was having trouble with his microphone at the beginning of Mass and then, as he was saying to himself, "there must be some problem with the microphone," it suddenly went on.
The people instinctively, without thinking, replied, "and also with you."
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2 comments:
Haha, good one! Well, I've gone to plenty of Anglican Use masses back home, and it isn't actually that hard to make the switch. It's kind of like crossing yourself the other way if you attend an Eastern liturgy: if you make a conscious effort to do it, you can fit in with everyone else. I suppose you need some really LOUD responders at first to drill it into everyone else, though. Actually, given how Christendom works, people will probably have been talking about it at length beforehand and so will be prepared for the change when it comes.
Haha! I was expecting this to go into the joke about the Pope's phone number, but it went completely the other direction!
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