The following is from http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/examples.shtml . The Third Edition of the Roman Catholic Missal is finally out as of August 21, 2009, and look what they changed back to.
| Changes in the Assembly’s Parts | ||
| PART OF MASS | PRESENT TEXT | NEW TEXT |
| Greeting | Priest: The Lord be with you. People: And also with you. |
Priest: The Lord be with you. People: And with your spirit. |
What Rome had changed 40 years ago in the First Edition Missal of 1969 and kept in the Second Edition of 1975, they were bold and brave enough to change in 2009. The LCMS made the same change in 1982 but couldn’t repent themselves in 2006. Interestingly enough, in 1969 the LCMS was not bold to go where Rome had gone. They kept “And with your spirit,” in the Worship Supplement.
We were out of it when Rome switched in 1969, but we jumped back in, in 1982 and though in 2006 we knew “And also with you” not only didn’t translate the historic liturgy it didn’t even mean the same thing, we couldn’t bring ourselves to change back. Thus once more we are out of it again. “Alone again naturally.”
We fail to be catholic in a way Rome does not. Rome came to realize that Jerome mistranslated Genesis 3:15 by translating a feminine where it is a neuter in Hebrew. Even though “She will bruise your head” nicely supported their view of Mary as Co-Redemptrix, The Jerusalem Bible, the official translation of Rome, changed Jerome’s “she” to the proper “it.” “It will bruise your head.” The LCMS could not be so catholic. After all we had said “And also with you” for 24 whole years!
Just as it is not the same to say, “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” as it is to say, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;” just as it is not the same to say, “Jesus says, ‘This is My Body,” as it is to say, “This is My Body,” so it is not the same to say “And also with you,” as it is say, “And with thy/ your spirit.”
We think our big problem as LCMSites is a Blue Ribbon Taskforce on Structure and/or who is elected president of our synod. No our big problem is that we who believe The Word became flesh don’t care about words, and this in some sense makes us out of touch, or at least step, with the fullness of that reality.
Wow, my hat is off to you, for you truly called this one. Since I do not yet possess these magic prophetic powers, I grabbed my magic 8 ball which you gave me until I am endowed with such mighty ability and asked it “will the LCMS ever repent of their ‘And also with you’ sin” and it responded “Don’t count on it”,
So I asked it again and it said “very doubtfull”, and again I asked it, and it said “My sources say No”, so I figure on last time but it said “Outlook not so good.”
Given the fact that a Magic 8 ball has a total of 20 possible answers with 5 being in the negative, and my question so far received 4 out of a possible 5, I decided to ask it one last time, and it responded
“My answer is No”. It is sad that even a cheap $1 dollar toy can correctly predict the dismal liturgical future of our Synod.
We responded “And with your spirit” this morning – using the newest hymnal in Divine Service III – and I thought of your post…