And also within your spirit, you

I am a creature of habit. Here’s how I know:

For a year – a full year – I have been looking forward to change.  Not just any old change you understand, but specifically change to the language used in the (English) Catholic Mass.

For a year I have been in anticipation, reading about it, talking it over with friends.

Within a certain group of friends (you know who you are) we would giggle like school girls in delight for what was to come. This group would use words like Lo, and Anon with each other.  Of particular note, when pretending great piety, we were known to intone “And with your spirit” – words from the past being brought out of mothballs to replace the clunky post Vatican II “And also with you”.

As I said, I was excited.  I read a lot about what was coming. I was interested in the theological explanations for the changes – or rather, corrections – being made, and applauded them. I had seen pamphlets and graphs and timelines.  I’ve had conversations with priests and deacons and liturgy geeks in order to prepare myself. I bought a copy of the text myself (the St. Joseph Missal) so I could read along at Mass.  We have been well coached for weeks so we would know what to say and when.  In the pews are helpful cue cards with the new bits typed nice and bold.

I was ready!

I was proud to show how with it all I was.

And still, three weeks in, when the time comes, I can be counted on to say:

“And also with ... in your spirit”

Argh!