As many of you know, this coming Advent we will be given a new Roman Missal that will replace the current Sacramentary we now use for our Liturgies. If you haven’t heard about these changes yet you can find out more here: www.usccb.org/romanmissal. One of the changes that will occur with this new Missal is that several parts we sing at Liturgy will be changing. The parts that will be changing are the Gloria, the Memorial Acclamations and the Holy, Holy.

These changes to the Mass settings were slated to go into effect on the same Sunday all the other changes to the Mass were to take place on the First Sunday in Advent of 2011. Much concern has been expressed, however, over starting too many new responses all at once. After all, the first time we would actually sing the Gloria would be on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the second time on Christmas when many people fill our Churches who don’t normally attend Mass. Special requests have been made by Priests and Bishops alike to begin to implement some of the changes before the November 27th implementation date. Up until now, those requests were not approved.

This past week on June 17, 2011, the president of the USCCB authorized the gradual implementation of the new Mass settings and left the final decision up to the Bishop of each Diocese. This however does not mean we can implement any other changes in September, just the sung Mass settings. This is good news as it will allow us all to teach these new settings as we normally would and not have to worry about teaching new responses at the same time. Hopefully this will give our assemblies a better grasp on learning new melodies to sing fully, consciously and actively.

If you haven’t found a new Mass setting yet, here are some links to some that you may like that we feel work with young people.

Mass of St. Ann by Ed Bolduc:
www.singthenewmass.com

Mass of Renewal by Curtis Stephan:
www.ocp.org

Mass of St. Jerome by Craig & Kristen Colson:
www.newmassmusic.com

Please remember that the decision of whether or not you can begin to implement the changes in the United States lies with your Diocesan Bishop, so please be sure to check with your Diocesan Office of Worship or Bishop’s office before beginning to use these settings at Mass in September. May the Holy Spirit continue to guide the Church through this process of implementation and may many be drawn deeper into the prayer of the Mass through this new Liturgical Language.

Here is a link to the USCCB announcement:
http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2011/11-126.shtml