New Roman Missal: "People of Good Will" - What Does That Mean?

Yesterday, a friend of mine currently revising a musical setting of the Gloria using the text of the new Roman Missal sent me an advance sample. I commented to him that the two longer notes on “good will” in the refrain force the singer, in effect, to accent “good” instead of “will” as one might expect, and that was interesting. His response was that he did that intentionally to help focus people on the meaning of the phrase. 


That, however, got me thinking. What does it actually mean to be “people of good will”?  What will people in the pews in Catholic parishes, asked to sing this “new” phrase think that it means?

Miriam Webster online gives several definitions that seem to apply to some degree: 

1 a : a kindly feeling of approval and support : benevolent interest or concern…

2 a : cheerful consent b : willing effort

Urban Dictionary.com is more realistic, perhaps: 

“A factor of humanity that is lacking in most people. Good will is the basic component of "good people," that is, those who are nonmalignant, those with clean motives, and those who possess a lack of cruelty and viciousness.”

So, to be people of good will in the worldly definition means merely to have a kindly feeling of approval and support, to give a cheerful consent or make a willing effort and/or to have clean motives and a lack of cruelty and viciousness? Is this our proper response to God and to God’s sending of his Son? Seems a little bit inadequate, does it not?

The translation of the song of the angels in Luke 2:14 in the New American Bible is actually “…peace on earth to those on whom his favor rests”- instead of the Mass text translation of “et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis”  from the Novus Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible  from which the Third Edition of the Roman Missal is derived.

If God’s favor rests on his people, if we are those privileged to be the objects of God’s love, I would hope we would have more than the dictionary-definition response!  Based on the teaching of Jesus and the Church, I would define the attitude that makes up Christian “good will” as follows:  joyful, open and willing reception of the Good News, evidenced in a life of loving charity and eager service to others.

What do you think? How will you help adults, youth and children understand this?

Permission to Sing the New Translation Granted

Well, it's official. The USCCB has voted to allow parishes to begin using the sung parts of the Mass employing the new translation early - beginning in September, if the local bishop permits. Here is the statement.  Kudos to the bishops for realizing that Advent is rather a poor time of year to begin singing new settings.  Sentiment around the web (on Facebook and the blogs) has been mixed, but mostly positive. 

This change will mean that parishes can begin learning the new Gloria text in the fall, so that the first time they sing it will not be at Christmas liturgies.  Sure, the people who only come for Christmas and Easter will be confused, but that, frankly, is not our problem. (I am of the mind that "you snooze, you lose".)  At least the "regulars" in the pews and the musicians will have had exposure to it during September through November, so Christmas renditions of the Gloria should be properly strong and unconfused.

I have been in consultation with our parish music director - and after an experience last fall where we attended a choral reading session with both new Mass settings and re-worked familiar ones, we are in agreement that new, at least for now, is better.  Somehow, music and words get entrenched in our brains together, so that changing words to familiar tunes (and adding extra notes to accommodate the extra words) seems to make it much more difficult.  We, as trained musicians and pretty good sight readers normally, found it very hard to put new words to old music. Maybe later, when we learn the new words well, it will be easier to go back and resurrect old settings.

So, with the opportunity to introduce the new sung parts more gradually, and the spoken parts beginning in Advent, parishes should have an easier time of it. The bishops' decision is one of great common sense.

Singing the New Translation - Make New Friends, but Maybe Save the Old for Later

Last night, my parish music and liturgy director and I attended a session put on by GIA Music on their new Mass settings.  What I experienced  made me think differently about what this transition to the new translation might be like for the people in the pews when we begin to implement the changes.

As at most typical music sing-through sessions, those present (about 200 musicians) were asked to sight-read through  a variety of pieces - in this case, all were Mass parts. As we wait for the finalization of the new Mass texts, composers had been hard at work preparing new settings based on the provisional text promulgated for catechesis and to allow musicians to begin their work on new settings.

First, we sang through settings newly composed especially for the new translations. There were some decent possibilities, and a few "absolutely nots" among these, which was to be expected. In the case of our particular music ministry needs in a bilingual community, there seemed to be not enough bilingual possibilties combining the new English translation with the existing Spanish texts. Some settings seemed remarkably similar to one another; most were in triple meter and at least a few repeated the word "people" in order to balance out the musical line. Other settings had a moreunique character.

It was, however, when we turned to the re-worked existing Mass settings that things got strange. Some parts of these seemed a bit awkward, but at least one moment was totally disorienting and disconcerting... and it came at the point when I least expected it: during the newly re-worked Gloria in the Mass of Creation.

Now, in my original parish, we learned MOC around 1990 - and for the better part of the next 9 years I was in the parish, it was almost the only Mass setting we ever used. It was used in diocesan celebrations consistently, and when I moved on to the next parish, it was used often, though not exclusively. I may say I know the melody, soprano and alto parts to all the sections by heart, as well as the guitar chords. Pretty much you'd say it is "in my bones," I know it so very well.  So, last night, I thought as we turned to the page with the sturdy old warhorse setting. "OK, this one will be a piece of cake." Not!

While Marty Haugen's reworked refrain to the new text was not too different or difficult, as we turned to verse 1, the ensemble around the room suddenly fell apart, and chaos briefly became the order of the day. What I had not anticpated (nor, apparently had anyone else) was that this familiar setting, so much a partof Catholic life, would be nearly impossible - at a point where there was a great difference from the original. It was as if my brain was in some kind of "rut" that I could not shake myself out of to sight-read the relatively simple, but vastly different, passage. The experience shook me a bit, as it was powerful.  For a moment, the ground shifted under my feet.

During the earlier readings of the new or unfamiliar Mass settings, I, being a pretty fair sight-reader, had been holding my own... and frankly, the new, unfamiliar text was not particularly troublesome. When I reached verse 1 of the Haugen Gloria, however, the difference was painful.  For a split-second, my reaction to the new text was intensely negative. From the sound of what happened around the room, when pretty much every other musician seemed a bit flummoxed by the change, it was nearly universal.

So, when this gets to be "for real" and we have to change our Mass settings, I am wondering if at least at first, parishes ought to learn new Mass settings instead of trying to begin with the old ones in revised format. Maybe that would go easier with the people.  If a whole roomful of trained musicians stumbled, how can we not expect non-musicians, the ordinary people in the pews, to do even worse?  As a cantor, I know what happens when the people seem to feel a song is beyond them. They shut up and stop singing. Probably one of the worst things we can do in the early days of implementation of the new translation, is to create a moment of instant, perceivable negativity. If this happens, we will never get a second chance to make a good first impression!