Sources

“Google it!”  That seems to be one of our most common contemporary catchphrases.  We use Internet search engines like Google, Yahoo and  Bing along with the online encyclopedia  Wikipedia as our go-to sources for just about everything.  Knowledge is literally at the tip of our fingers. 

Have you ever wondered what we use as our go-to source for Mass?  How does the priest and deacon know what to say and when?  How do we know when to stand and kneel and sit and process and sing?  All of these answers are contained in the Roman Missal.   The Roman Missal is the big red book used mainly by the priest at Mass.   In that book is found not only the prayers for Mass, but also instructions on how to carry out the Mass.   The Roman Missal is the English translation for the Latin Missale Romanum.    This book is also called the Sacramentary.

The Sacramentary is our latest prayer book.   But from the beginning the Church has sought to revise and reform its prayers and books.  The first centuries of Christian prayer were improvised.  As worship became more formalized, various books evolved with prayers, readings, chants and instructions on how to pray.   Different countries prayed different prayers in different styles.    But, Church authorities were continually trying to encourage everyone to pray the same prayers in the same way by using similar prayer books.  The Council of Trent in the late 16^th century called not only for reforms of the current prayer books used in various dioceses, but imposed a single Roman missal to be used throughout the Latin Church.   This uniformity was made easy by the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press in the 15^th century.  Now the entire Catholic world could literally be on the same page.   The Roman Missal has been reformed once again.  The structure of the Mass will be the same.  The changes made are changes in the prayers themselves.  The prayers adhere more closely to the original Latin prayers.  We will begin praying with these new words on the First Sunday of Advent.   May these prayers encourage us to keep God as our “go-to” source for living.

Lord, help us as we prepare to pray in new ways.  Amen.