Changed words

I can’t believe they are changing the words.

And, that they say they are changing the words in order to change the images that the worshippers have in their minds.

This is my reaction to the news, “Catholic liturgy has new translation,” from Sunday’s Boston Globe.

Wow.

It feels like when I read Bishop John Shelby Spong’s book, Liberating the Gospels: reading the bible with Jewish eyes, and learned that, no, Joanne, there was no star, no camels, no angels that holy night. It’s all poetry to spark your imagination, to move your heart, and to stir your soul.

Wow.

God’s revelation is not sealed, once again.

Instead of hearing, The Lord be with you.

And responding, And also with you.

Now, we will say, And with your spirit.

Sounds a lot like what they say at King’s Chapel, with the old Anglican now Unitarian Christian Book of Common Prayer: And with thy spirit.

I guess part of me is amazed that liturgy can be changed, is changed, and has been changed. My friend Beverly reminds me of the first changes that came post Vatican II, in the 1960s, when the mass went from Latin to English. She still misses the cadence and mystery of the ancient phrases.

Me? I came along just after that. So the 1973 English translation was my first liturgical language. Although I think my very first language was the images cast in marble and brushed in gold inside the sanctuary walls.

Mary, her hands in prayer, in the side chapel.

Jesus, in his arms, a sheep that was once lost.

Candle flame, flickering in red glass jars, lit by worshippers whispering prayers for healing and peace.

I wonder what new images the new translations, closer to the original Latin they say, will call forth?

I wonder what mystery, magic, and learning will emerge now?

I wonder what doors will be open for curious souls…