Howdy!

Or perhaps I should be more exact and say “How do you do today?”

(See what I did there?  I translated my Okie greeting into more specific and more understandable English.)

So, about 96 days from when I’m writing this, the English-speaking parts of the Catholic Church will begin using a new English version of the Roman Missal.  This will be the 3rd official version of the Missal approved by the Church.    Only the third one since we began organizing all the various texts into one book more than 450 years ago.

What’s the Roman Missal, you ask?  It’s the ritual text that contains all the prayers and instructions for the celebration of the Holy Mass.    It’s a big deal.

The English version, and all the other language versions, are translations from the “official” Latin language Roman Missal that is issued by the Vatican with the approval of many, many people including the Pope.

There’s quite a bit of hub-bub about this new English Missal.  It’s taken many years to complete and there is quite a bit of confusion about why it’s being issued.  There’s also some resistance by some people who don’t want to change the prayers they’ve used their entire lives.  Understandable to have these feelings, but in my opinion, they are based on misunderstandings of the reasons for the changes.

I ran across the following three videos produced by Life Teen that give a brief yet entertaining explanation of the changes, the process involved, etc.  There’s one for adults/parent, one for teens, and one for middle school age kids.

They don’t tell the whole story, but I think they’re a good start and will hopefully open the minds of folks who are scared of change.

Have a look at these and let me know what you think in the comments.

Parent Version

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/25418499]

Teen Version (my favorite!)

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/25418957]

Middle School Version

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/25418061]

Thanks to the Christe, Audi Nos! blog for pointing the way to these videos.