Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Solemnities, Feasts, Memorials
ROME, OCT. 21, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Our Oct. 8 column on solemnities, memorials and feasts brings to mind a question from a priest based in Oregon. He asked: "[Jan. 3] is listed in the Ordo as an 'optional memorial' of the Holy Name of Jesus and it says that this feast was recently introduced into the Sacramentary. I should like to have offered that Mass, but have no approved texts for it. Is there some source where I could have found such a text (e.g., a Website)? There are similar celebrations throughout the year, some of them even mandatory memorials for which no texts are readily available."
The difficulty of some new celebrations with no corresponding proper texts is a temporary one that should be resolved within a few years.
The cause of this difficulty is that Pope John Paul II, on the occasion of the publication of the new Latin missal, took the initiative to add some new celebrations or restore some older ones that had been dropped from the old calendar. Among these restored celebrations were the Holy Name of Jesus and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Even after the publication of the missal, he added one or two more saints to the universal calendar such as St. Pio of Pietrelcina.
The problem arises because, although they already form part of the calendar, the proper texts of some of them have yet to receive an officially approved rendering into English. There is a certain degree of logic to this situation. Since the translation of the entire missal is currently under review, it makes sense to do everything as part of a single project even though it means that these feasts will not have proper texts for another couple of years.
Some bishops' conferences have taken a different approach. For example, the Italian bishops have produced an elegant but economic supplement containing a translation of all the new texts with the same typeset as the altar missal. It is thus possible to celebrate these memorials in Italian even though the definitive Italian translation of the missal is still in the pipeline. I don't know if any English-speaking conference has done something similar.
An Italian-language Website called maranatha.it contains most of these texts online. This site also has large portions of other sacramental rites and blessings and little by little is including the Latin texts of the missals of John XXIII and Paul VI. I am unaware of an English-speaking site that has the translations of these new liturgical texts, and it is likely that their publication would infringe on legitimate copyright.
Therefore, what to do? For some feasts such as the Holy Name of Jesus there appears to be little to do but wait for the definitive translation of the missal.
The new saints can be celebrated using texts from the common of the saints: Martyrs, Pastors, Virgins, etc., as best fits the saint in question.
Our Oct. 8 column on solemnities, memorials and feasts brings to mind a question from a priest based in Oregon. He asked: "[Jan. 3] is listed in the Ordo as an 'optional memorial' of the Holy Name of Jesus and it says that this feast was recently introduced into the Sacramentary. I should like to have offered that Mass, but have no approved texts for it. Is there some source where I could have found such a text (e.g., a Website)? There are similar celebrations throughout the year, some of them even mandatory memorials for which no texts are readily available."
The difficulty of some new celebrations with no corresponding proper texts is a temporary one that should be resolved within a few years.
The cause of this difficulty is that Pope John Paul II, on the occasion of the publication of the new Latin missal, took the initiative to add some new celebrations or restore some older ones that had been dropped from the old calendar. Among these restored celebrations were the Holy Name of Jesus and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Even after the publication of the missal, he added one or two more saints to the universal calendar such as St. Pio of Pietrelcina.
The problem arises because, although they already form part of the calendar, the proper texts of some of them have yet to receive an officially approved rendering into English. There is a certain degree of logic to this situation. Since the translation of the entire missal is currently under review, it makes sense to do everything as part of a single project even though it means that these feasts will not have proper texts for another couple of years.
Some bishops' conferences have taken a different approach. For example, the Italian bishops have produced an elegant but economic supplement containing a translation of all the new texts with the same typeset as the altar missal. It is thus possible to celebrate these memorials in Italian even though the definitive Italian translation of the missal is still in the pipeline. I don't know if any English-speaking conference has done something similar.
An Italian-language Website called maranatha.it contains most of these texts online. This site also has large portions of other sacramental rites and blessings and little by little is including the Latin texts of the missals of John XXIII and Paul VI. I am unaware of an English-speaking site that has the translations of these new liturgical texts, and it is likely that their publication would infringe on legitimate copyright.
Therefore, what to do? For some feasts such as the Holy Name of Jesus there appears to be little to do but wait for the definitive translation of the missal.
The new saints can be celebrated using texts from the common of the saints: Martyrs, Pastors, Virgins, etc., as best fits the saint in question.
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