A new draft of the ICEL translation is circulating and it is interesting to review it with an eye on those controversial bits.
Not only did people freak out about "dew of the Spirit in the 2nd Eucharistic Prayer being tooo harrrd for us dopes to understand, we are also not bright enough to grasp accurate translations of text like the response we make before Communion… the one based on the words spoken to Jesus by the Centurion.
The retooled ICEL, Vox Clara and the Holy See apparently think are are smart enough.
Here is the draft version:
Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word
and my soul shall be healed.
Ahhhhh…. refreshing!
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I really like this. It recalls the scriptural passage from which it comes more clearly–ie the centurion asking Christ to heal his servant on the strength of Christ’s authority because of who He is. If you recall the story in Scripture, it is an extreme expression of faith on the part of the centurion which Christ recognizes verbally. It’s completely appropriate for the place in the mass where it falls, just before Holy Communion. The passage is very deeply suited for meditation at that point. The Latin mass used to be filled with these “prayer feasts.” [I don’t know what else to call them.]
This passage used to be quite explicit in the Latin, was played down after V2, is back again because it belongs there.
I remember learning this response as a child preparing for First Holy Communion in 1969. “Ahhh” is right!
It’s ironic to hear constantly how the Novus Ordo opened up the scriptures to Catholics, yet systematically purged scriptural allusions — from “enter under my roof” to “from the rising of the sun to its setting” — from the liturgy.
I confess that the rampant mistranslations in the current English Mass annoy me quite a bit. Often I get around them by just saying, in a quiet voice, the original Latin, so I won’t have to utter something that doesn’t reflect what the Missal actually says. In this case, I habitually say “Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meam, . . . .”