Liturgy Lines

More Missal Matters: New Missal, Old Sacramentaries, Lord’s Prayer
St Pauls Publications began distributing the newly published Missal at the beginning of October. This Missal, which will be formally launched during the November Plenary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, is to be used from the 1st Sunday of Advent (27 November, 2011).
Some parishes have made enquiries about how they should dispose of their superseded Missals. This question applies to all sacred objects which cannot just be thrown in the dustbin when they are no longer useful or worthy for liturgical use.
Missals should certainly not be disposed of carelessly: they do, after all, contain the word of God. The classic solution is to burn them, mix the ashes with water and put the mixture into the earth. Missals could also be buried if that can be done simply and respectfully.
In reality, many parishes have only one Missal and that copy should be kept as a reference. The best solution is simply to store old Missals in a cupboard or drawer in the sacristy.
The Book of Blessings chapter 39 provides an order for blessing articles for liturgical use. This ritual could be used to bless the parish’s new Missal at Mass on the Solemnity of Christ the King or at the last weekday Mass prior to the First Sunday of Advent.
Many people are asking why the old Lord’s Prayer has been retained in the revised Missal. According to Liturgiam Authenticam, every word of vernacular Missals, even word-order and structure, must conform as far as possible to the Latin original. That directive has been ignored in the case of the Lord’s Prayer; the revised Missal retains the Elizabethan-language version “Our Father, who art in heaven ..”.
This means that the English Mass translation now uses contemporary language throughout - except for the Lord’s Prayer. But even then it is inconsistent: after the liturgical embolism (“Deliver us, Lord,…”), it continues: “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever” rather than, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever”.
The announcement of the Vatican’s recognitio for the new translation included this: “The ICET [International Consultation on English Texts] text of the Our Father was not among the texts given recognitio. This means that all English-speaking countries will now use the same text of the Our Father.”
In other words, the contemporary, ecumenical, international “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,…”, used by the Catholic Church in New Zealand since 1984 and by many Christian Churches, is now forbidden because it does not satisfy Liturgiam Authenticam. But nor does “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, …”!!!
How ironic also that a prayer taken from the 1928 Anglican Book of Common Prayer remains unchanged in the Missal when Liturgiam Authenticam bans contact with non-Catholic ecclesial communities!
It was argued that there would have been widespread dissatisfaction if the “beloved version” of the Our Father had been replaced by a text that complied with Liturgiam Authenticam. Does that mean that none of the other texts that have been changed were much loved?