I recently received this email which has some bearing on this topic, and which I share with you:
From Mumbai, India:
Welcoming the New Revised Roman Missal (T.E. [The Examiner, Mumbai ed.] November 26), Cardinal Oswald Gracias [of Mumbai] tells that it is thrilling that many of the revised texts now go back to 1000 years and beyond, to what was said by St. Francis of Assisi and other saints.
The Normative Roman Missal of Paul VI, issued first in Latin in 1969, remains untouched and the revised texts cited by Cardinal Gracias are only from the Ordinary of the Mass, which were common to the predecessor Latin Missals as well, as re-translated “formally” into English.
But a novelty in the Paul VI Missal of 1969, which remains untouched in both the Latin and revised English versions, is the “offertory” or Preparation of the Gifts. Careful research carried out by Craig Heimbichner, a convert and recognized expert on Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ and the occult, who is reachable at Catholic Family News, USA, has written: “A modern myth is that this "Jєωιѕн table blessing" has its roots in worship from the time of Ezra. Searching the Bible should reveal that this story is absent from the pages of Holy Writ. Where, then, does it originate? The Jєωιѕн Encyclopedia (published 1901-1906, consisting of twelve volumes) tells us, in its article on Benedictions, that this story of the origin of "blessings" in Judaism is a "rabbinical tradition" in the тαℓмυd itself, ---in Berakoth 33a,” and he continues later: “And it is from this false religion, premised on the rejection of Jesus, that the replacement of the Offertory was culled.”
Whether the saints cited by Cardinal Oswald Gracias would have used such a missal is indeed questionable.
John Menezes
7 Esperanca, S. Bhagatsingh Road, Mumbai 400 001; Tel: 2202 5249.
Topic: The New English Liturgy- A Cleaner Translation of a Protestantized Rite (Read 3881 times)