In the Adoremus Bulletin for August, 2011, Helen Hitchcock republished the sermon of the English Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols. The Archbishop was speaking to priests of his diocese about the spirit in which they should welcome the new translation of the Mass. Speaking of John 16, Nichols said that “the wonder of our calling, the wonder of the mystery we minister to (is) that we human beings are welcomed into the intimacy and love of the Father and Son, which is the life of the Holy Spirit.” Priests enter “most powerfully” through the celebration of Mass. In the Mass all is “gift of the Father.” These are the key words that Nichols uses to remind us of what Mass means. The Mass that Nichols was celebrating at the time used the new translation.
This new translation, Nichols thought, would suddenly awaken us to new words or to see old ones new again, to be even more alert to what is being said. But what Nichols was primarily concerned with, as was the Vatican Instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum, of 2004, was what we do, how we look on the celebration of Mass. Nichols gives some very excellent advice. “My first conviction is this: Liturgy is never my own possession, or my creation. It is something we are given by the Father.” These are noble, precise words. The Mass, while it is in a human language with human movements, is never simply what this priest makes up. Nichols adds: “We don vestments to minimize our personal preferences, not to express or emphasize them. Liturgy is not ours.” That is a refreshing idea. Vestments are meant to diminish the personality of the priest so that the priesthood of Christ becomes central. Liturgy is not “self-expression.”
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