http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/index.shtml
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have rolled out a new website on the new English translation of the Roman Missal.
This new translation into English from the Latin will probably be implemented in all US parishes by Advent 2011.
You will have to relearn (and hopefully study and ponder) most of the memorized responses that you currently say during Mass. (A dozen years ago when I went through RCIA to join the Church, I sweated to learn the Mass: now we can all do it together!).
Check out the sample texts. They are really great -- much, much closer to the intent of the Latin. In my parish, we use bilingual missals, with English on one side and Spanish on the other. The Spanish has always been far closer to the Latin. Interesting.
Start preparing yourself, your family and your fellow parishioners for the new translation of the Roman Catholic missal from Latin into English. This is going to be great! We'll all have to think about what we are saying during Mass for a few months!
But the "changes" will probably bother some folks since we are all now used to saying all the English memorized responses during Mass. I recommend that you learn so that you can help others.
What is coming are not really changes to the liturgy -- what is changing is merely the translation from Latin into English; our current Mass in English is not very accurate. Hey, back in the 1970's the Church was awfully busy translating the Latin missal into every language on Earth!
Here are websites that talk about the new English translation from the Latin in detail:
http://catholicinsight.com/online/church/liturgy/new_mass.shtml
http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/missalformation/index.shtml
I think this is a terrific idea -- but I also hope that every parish gives orientation lectures to explain what's going on so people aren't thrown by the change. The changes will not roll out until 2010, but this really needs to be understood, welcomed and embraced now.
Remember -- it's only a new translation from the Latin, not a brand new liturgy.
