This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I attended a workshop for priests and diocesan leaders on "Receiving the Roman Missal" held nearby at Monmouth University. As you can imagine, lots of old friends from around the region showed up for the workshop, and I was very impressed by the great numbers of Trenton priests who showed up for the workshop.

The workshop was sponsored by the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (FDLC) and the Bishops' Committee on Divine Worship (BCDW) of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). This workshop is part of the national effort by the Cattholic Bishops to prepare the priests, laity, and others for a smooth reception of the new translation of the Roman Missal. As of this writing, we still do not have an official date for the Offical Implementation of the new Missal translation. The presenters at this workshop, being very good cheer-leaders, were giving us the message that we'll begin using the new book on the First Sunday of Advent, 2011. My friends from FDLC and I are not so optimistic....we think it may take another year to actually get a new book.

I have heard from friends in Rome and elsewhere that there are, even now, changes being made to the text of the translation that will be coming to us very soon. In point of fact, even the Bishops of the U.S. don't know what these changes will be. NOBODY knows what the text looks like at this point:....not the Bishops, not the publishers, and certainly not the liturgical advisors to the bishops.

This is certainly an interesting time for the American Church....keep singing, keep praying!