The Lord Listens to Us – No Matter What Language We Speak

I haven´t lived in an English-speaking country for over 40 years. This means I am not used to hearing the mass in English except when I follow it on the Internet* when I cannot go to my local church.

I have heard mass in various languages – French, German, Spanish, Italian, Catalan – but am most familiar with Portuguese, the language of Brazil where I live.

The reason I am more familiar with Portuguese is because I drifted away from the Church for several decades although I always considered myself a Catholic. When I returned about 12 years ago the only option I had was Portuguese. (Despite the fact Brazil has the largest Catholic population in the world and Greater São Paulo is a cosmopolitan city with almost 20 million inhabitants, there are no regular masses in English!)

In any case, during my period in the spiritual wilderness many changes had been made to the mass in English so I was not as familiar with it as I had been in my younger days. Even now I find I still say the older versions of the “Penitential Act” and the “Kyrie”. I can even still remember bits from the Latin service.

Now when I attend mass I automatically make some of the responses in English and some in Portuguese. I often read the lesson and psalm, obviously in Portuguese, but I always check out an English version beforehand to make sure I have truly understood it. (You would be surprised at the number of times I have seen discrepancies.)

I never impose English on my Brazilian fellow worshippers but during Advent of last year I persuaded a prayer group to allow me to say the “Hail Mary” after the Portuguese version “Nossa Senhora”. I explained that the English version was basically a literal translation of the Portuguese so there were no surprises.

I did this because one of the participants implied that prayers in English were not as “genuine” as in Portuguese. I think he had associated English with Protestantism as most of the English speakers who emigrated to Brazil were Protestants. I told him that neither Portuguese nor English nor any other language were somehow more “genuine” than others. I was glad I made this suggestion because the next time we met other participants asked to say the “Hail Mary” in Italian, Spanish and Croat. This shows that, just as we are all God´s children, we are all conveying the same message using different words. What we have in common as Catholics is a universal love such as every mother has for her child. Language is irrelevant in forming a bond between a mother and her baby and that´s how it should be for us.

In ending, I want to express regret that I have never heard the mass in the original language of my own country – Gaelic. However, the next time I visit Scotland I intend attending a Gaelic mass.

* I recommend Loretto Abbey, Toronto and St Thomas, West Springfield, Massachusetts, which have good daily services.