"Revised Mass Texts: Exploring the Change" with Fr Paul Turner this Thursday night

This event organised by the Archbishop's Office of Evangelisation looks good. I've just rearranged my Thursday night schedule so that I can be there. You might want to go along too (if you are in Melbourne), as it will address a very important issue for all of us.

Fr Paul Turner is a prolific writer of books and articles on the sacraments of Christian Initiation and liturgical ministry and he will present a seminar on the revised Mass texts. Fr Turner is playing an integral role in this project and has a valuable perspective from which to view the revision process and the new texts themselves.

The seminar will be held 7.30 pm, Thursday August 27, 2009, Cardinal Knox Centre, 383 Albert Street, East Melbourne (enter via Lansdowne Street car park). Cost is $15 per person and for registrations and further information contact the Archbishop's Office for Evangelisation ph: 03 9926 5761 or email mrohban@melbourne.catholic.org.au

Fr Turner's website has a lot of interesting stuff on it. I have just read through a couple of his articles from the Articles section (which is quite extensive). From what I have read, it appears that Fr Paul is a meticulous yet pastoral scholar and celebrant of the liturgy. And a good scripture scholar to boot. (His article on the biblical roots of confirmation is one that I would like to write more about at some stage.) For those who can't get to his session on Thursday, you will find a number of articles on the new mass translations on this page.

The introduction of the new mass texts will be the greatest challenge the Archdiocese has faced liturgically since the introduction of the vernacular. Of course, we are living in a very different time from the early 70's and have many resources available to us today which were not available then. But then people are different too - and attitudes to liturgy have also changed. So it is good to be starting early to prepare the ground. I expect this is the first of many such sessions that we can look forward too over the coming years. Please pray for the Church in this regard at this time.

(Update: The US Bishops Conference has just launched this really helpful site: http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/, which includes a "Scripturally Annotated" version of the new translation - which emphasises the fact that scriptural allusions are much clearer in the new translation than in the one we are currently using).