New Lectionary
This Sunday we welcome Staff and pupils from St Edward’s College who will join the congregation at High Mass for the Celebration of the Feast of St Edward the Confessor. Also joining us for this celebration are the Dean and Choirs from Cologne Cathedral and the choir of Stonyhurst College.
At the time of writing, we have just had delivery of the new lectionaries which will come into use from the First Sunday of Advent this year. I haven’t had a chance to look at them yet but within a four volume edition they contain all the readings for the celebrations of Mass and the other Sacraments throughout the yearly cycle of celebrations. It will take the priests and sacristans a bit of time to get used to the new layout of these volumes but the biggest difference for the whole congregation is that we will be using a new translation of the scriptures. At present we use the text of the Jerusalem Bible but from Advent we will be using the New Revised Standard Catholic Edition Bible. So why is this change being made? According to the Sacred Congregation for the liturgy, we needed a translation that would be more suited to public proclamation. It will also give more of a word for word accurate translation of the Greek and Aramaic which will add a greater depth of meaning and be more up to date. There are many versions of the bible with a lesser number authenticated by the church. Some have raised concerns that it has not fully responded to the use of inclusive language although it has to some extent. Also that the change to a different translation of the psalms loses some of the rhythm and poetic metre of the Grail Version that we currently use. This will present greater challenges for the musical settings for the singing of the psalms. Thankfully the musical settings can be changed over a longer period whilst still using old texts in the interim.
As with the missal changes we will no doubt become accustomed to living with the change very quickly and as with all these things it will feel we may have lost some things we have loved from the old but also found new riches we have found in the new. The encouragement from the liturgy office is that it will give us the opportunity to hear the word with fresh ears and open hearts and the adoption of this new version will provide us with a stable version of the word of God which will endure for years to come.
Monsignor Anthony O’Brien
Cathedral Dean
