Local Catholics don’t have to wait until November to become familiar with the newly translated third edition of the Roman Missal. Many parishes in the Diocese of Rochester already have started educating parishioners about the upcoming changes, which will be implemented in Advent.
Many parishes began this process in February, when Bishop Matthew H. Clark asked all preachers to devote their weekend homilies that month to educating parishioners about the Order of the Mass. Many parishes supplemented these homilies with bulletin inserts containing more information on the same topic, and others used the homilies as jumping-off points for further education.
“We followed it up with a four-part history of the Catholic Mass during the first four Sundays of Lent to help people see how the Mass has grown and developed over the many centuries since the Last Supper,” said Father Richard Shatzel, pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Community in southern Cayuga County.
At St. Francis of Assisi and St. Hyacinth parishes in Auburn, Deacon Gary DiLallo, pastoral administrator, supplemented his homilies on the Order of the Mass with four bulletin columns and 16 bulletin inserts about the coming changes. The parishes worked together to raise enough funds to purchase copies of the new Roman Missal, and will present training sessions in August for liturgical volunteers; in September for religious-education teachers; and in October for parishioners.
Catechists at Our Lady of Peace Parish in Geneva used lesson plans provided by the diocesan Department of Evangelization and Catechesis to bring the parish’s children up to date, and plan to continue with such lessons in the fall, according to faith-formation director Bev Guerrie.
Children enrolled in faith-formation classes at the clustered parishes of St. Dominic in Shortsville, St. Felix in Clifton Springs and St. Francis in Phelps also started learning about the new Roman Missal during their 2010-11 classes, said Sheryl Brown, faith-formation coordinator and youth minister. Children who recently made their first Communions received paperback missals with the new translations highlighted, and were told to start practicing the new responses, she added.
Daily Mass-goers at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Ithaca read through portions of the new translations after Mass and have regular question-and-answer sessions with Father Joseph Marcoux, pastor.
“Also through the summer my bulletin articles will be explicitly about the changes in the text and why,” Father Marcoux said.
Jennifer Lafler, youth minister at Rochester’s St. Monica Parish, has been including portions of the newly worded prayers in the margins of the parish bulletins for several weeks, and said the parish is planning to present an evening program before Advent so parishioners can practice their new responses.
Peace of Christ Parish in Rochester will conduct three evening sessions with Father Brian Carpenter, priest intern, on July 19 and 26 and Aug. 2 , said Mercy Sister Marlene Vigna, pastoral associate. The parish also will host a presentation by Joan Workmaster, former diocesan liturgy director.
Workmaster also has given presentations at St. Leo Parish in Hilton and Rochester’s Cathedral Community. During Lent, the Cathedral Community hosted five guest speakers who talked about various ways to implement the new Roman Missal. The community also is working together to prepare to implement the new translation, said Rose Davis, pastoral associate.
Father Joseph Catanise, pastor at St. Leo, also taught a four-week class on the revised Roman Missal and probably will teach a third one in coming months, said Patty Gorman, the parish’s music and liturgy director. Parish committee members are praying some of the revised prayers during meetings, and Gorman and several parish musicians have attended diocesan-sponsored seminars. Once the new translation is implemented in the fall, the parish will project the new words onto a movie screen in the church, she added.
The words of the revised prayers also will be projected onto large screens at Church of the Assumption in Fairport, said Sheryl Zabel, pastoral associate. Staff and volunteers at the parish have participated in days of reflection and even taken courses on the new Roman Missal. Clergy and lay ministers at St. John the Evangelist Church in Spencerport have attended diocesan workshops on the new translation and mentioned the coming changes during adult-education sessions, noted Tom Rizzo, catechetical leader.
Last January and February, parishioners and staff at Immaculate Conception Parish in Ithaca studied worship using videos from the diocesan Audio Visual Resource Center, and the parish plans to make Father Paul Turner’s book, Understanding the Revised Mass Text, available in the parish’s gift shop during late summer, said Mercy Sister Edna Slyck, pastoral associate.
Our Mother of Sorrows Parish in Greece held a training workshop for the leaders of parish groups and councils as well as a workshop on the beauty of chant in the Mass, said Jonathan Schott, parishioner and diocesan coordinator of adult, family and catechist formation.
The clustered parishes of St. Helen, Holy Ghost and St. Jude parishes in Gates, meanwhile, are offering monthly presentations to help parishioners learn about and understand the changes they’ll see in November, said pastoral associate and faith-formation director Sister Barbara Baker, MHSH.
And last winter seminarian David Tedesche gave a class on the new translation at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Greece, where he was serving his pastoral year. The audio recordings and handouts from the class are available here.
