An important resource for clergy and lay leaders, students and professors alike in understanding the rationale for the new liturgical texts.

The translation of sacred texts has been one of the most hotly debated issues in the Church since the inception of Christianity, and the same has been true in our own day as bishops and translators have worked for a number of years now on the forthcoming English translation of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal. This moment offers Catholics a fresh opportunity for liturgical catechesis and formation which was not possible in the years immediately after the Second Vatican Council.

Beginning with a short history of how the Roman Rite evolved over the centuries and the implementation of the Vatican II liturgical reforms, Keith Pecklers traces the shift in the principles and process of liturgical translation over the past forty years from the Latin typical editions into vernacular languages.

Building on that historical background, this volume then treats the new "General Instruction on the Roman Missal" and significant changes in the texts which English-speaking Catholics around the world will be using for the foreseeable future when they pray at Mass.