The Revised Mass Texts

To help you to have a better understanding of these, the following may be helpful:

• The new Simple Prayer Book (£1.95) contains the words of the new Mass. It is available in the repository.

• Particularly useful and detailed teaching on the new Mass is found in a series of weekly newsletters for parishioners, commencing 1 May 2011, published online by Liverpool Archdiocese. See here (or, if that link breaks, search for “Archdiocese of Liverpool / New translation of the Missal”).

• A booklet from the hierarchy Understanding the Revised Mass Texts is published by McCrimmons (Phone 01702 218956; email: sales@mccrimmons.com). Cost £1.95 plus postage.

• The East Anglian Diocesan web site used to have a page explaining the thinking behind some of the more obvious changes, but in a recent revision this page seems to have vanished.

The approach of the new translation has not been without controversy so...

• The story of the changes in the Mass (from Vatican II until the new text) is clearly explained in a series of four articles, starting June 11, in the weekly magazine The Tablet. Back copies are available at Cambridge Central Library, and some (though not all) articles can be read free of charge on their web site (go to the Archive section and search for “translation”).

• Two articles by teacher/theologian Neil Darragh in the New Zealand Catholic monthly Tui Motu (Maori for “Joining the Islands”) give a balanced view comparing the original and revised versions of the Mass. See the September and October issues.

New Mass Cards are now available in church for purchase, and also can be borrowed free of charge at Mass.