Although I found your series on The New Missal informative, I am still left with doubt, confusion and lots of questions. The most nagging: Why change the Missals at all? Why is it so important to change the text of prayers we are so familiar with such as The Nicene Creed? I don’t even know what the word “consubstantial” means, much less how to say it. Is it really that important to say “incarnate” of the Virgin Mary instead of “born of the Virgin Mary”? Isn’t it important to have children understand the prayers they recite during Mass?
Next is the question of how? How much money will it cost to implement these changes in dioceses across the country? Couldn’t this money be better spent helping the poor in our communities or helping families in need in our parishes? Are the Bishops in Rome aware the Catholic schools in the United States are closing, not to mention the expense of sending children to Catholic schools which are still open? Is this where the Catholic Bishops should be focusing their attention?
I don’t believe that making these unnecessary changes in most of the prayers we say during Mass will have a positive result or help increase an already declining Mass attendance. I think it will only frustrate the committed Catholics who have never stopped attending Mass.