Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Why Latin in the Liturgy?

"A good translator will be the first to agree that no translation is good; or, at any rate, good enough.  How are we to find eight short English words which actually stand for 'Sumit unus, sumunt mille; quantum isti, tantum ille'?  How is anybody really to render the sound of the 'Pange Lingua,' when the very first syllable has a clang like the clash of cymbals?"

-G.K. Chesterton (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas).

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Based on the premise that any text is a social construction, a product and at the same time, a producer of culture (and in the case of the divine service, a producer of faith), we observe that the liturgy when inserted in its translated form in a certain socio-historical context loses its original and inspiring meaning, specially achieved in the Latin text. The conversation about the language itself is also interesting, but for other time…
    Greetings from a daily catholic reader living actually in Oslo!
    Rodrigo

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  3. Because the Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia says so..All the reasons are listed with very good reasoning..Everyone should take a look and ask their Priest about it.

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