Perhaps the most common dialogue in the Liturgy of the Roman Rite consists of the greeting :
Dominus vobiscum
et cum spiritu tuo
Since 1970, this has been translated as:
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
As a part of the revised translation of the Roman Missal, now taking place, the translation of this dialogue has been revised, to read:
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
Perhaps the first change that everyone will notice is also the change which will come up most frequently in the Mass. The greeting, “And also with you,” will be changed to a more-true-to-the-Latin, “And with your spirit.” This improvement was necessary for a couple of reasons. First, the new translation brings the English text into harmony not only with the Latin, but with the translations that appear in other vernacular languages. Only the English translation appeared without the word “spiritu” translated into the vernacular. The new translation also brings the English Mass into conformity with a longstanding Christian liturgical tradition.
Although the new translation of the greeting will appear in English as the proper translation of the Mass text for the first time in 2011, it actually has a long history in Latin and Greek. The greeting dates back to at least the early third century of the Christian era as a liturgical expression. The greeting is so old and venerable that it is specifically noted by the recent Church document called Liturgiam authenticam, which is about the proper usage of vernacular languages in liturgical and biblical translations. Liturgiam authenticam notes the greeting as one of several “expressions that belong to the heritage of the whole or of a great part of the ancient Church, as well as others that have become part of the general human patrimony, [and that it is] to be respected by a translation that is as literal as possible”. (56)
When the presiding priest greets the parishioners with “The Lord be with you,” he is expressing his desire that they be united with God. When the parishioners respond with, “And with your spirit,” they express the same desire for their pastor. This is not merely a greeting, but a prayer for the spiritual health and divine protection of both people and pastor.
There is more, however. If we were to read through the Old Testament in Latin – the Vulgate – we would quickly discover that the word, Dominus, Lord, commonly refers to God the Father. With the coming of Christ, Dominus was used to refer to Jesus as well. The liturgical greeting, Dominus vobiscum, “The Lord be with you,” may have been adapted from Matthew 28:10, where Jesus said, Ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus, usque ad consummationem saeculi, “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” when he sent the Apostles to accomplish the Great Commission of carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth. (NAB)
The greeting also serves a secondary purpose in the liturgy. The interaction, the dialogue, between pastor and people encourages attentiveness to what follows. The greeting “serves to arouse the attention and to denote, each time, an important moment in the course of the liturgy.” (Jungmann, Vol. I, 362). A similar thing is done in the Divine Liturgy used by Eastern Christians – the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom – before the Gospel is read and at the Elevation when the Deacon says, “Let us be attentive!” Let’s keep that in mind when we attend Mass. The greeting is not only a greeting or a call to dialogue or even a prayer, but a call to attentiveness for the parts of the Eucharistic mystery unfolding before us.
On the Feast of the Sacred Heart of of Jesus
Tim Brennan PhD.
