Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Emasculating the Liturgy? Why "Power and Might"?

As explained by Adoremus http://www.adoremus.org/0602Sanctus.html , Dominus Deus Sabaoth means something close to Lord God of Armies, or Hosts, referring, probably, to the Heavenly Hosts of Angels.


Why was this changed to "Power and Might", an inaccurate translation? Was it anti-militarism, the wish to emasculate or feminise the Missal? Or what?


If we are talking about normal vernacular English, "The Lord be with you" contains a subjunctive, "be", which is hardly modern English usage. The response, "And also with you." is not a translation of the Latin; it is not modern English, which would be "And with you too." It dumps the word, and with it the idea, of Spirit. Why?


And why, forsooth, in my local very middle-class Catholic parish in England, did the Prayers of the Faithful, refer only to "the Spirit", and never to "the Holy Spirit"?


New ageism?


Ichabod.

1 comment:

An Irish Catholic said...

New ageism? Yes. And a need to treat us all like 14 year olds!