Tuesday, November 20, 2007

BISHOPS' CONFERENCE: WORDS HAIL MARY NOT CHANGED

"Nobody has ever changed to change the first words of the Ave Maria".

This was stated in a note published in the newspaper of Italian bishops, "Avvenire".

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee", recites the new translation of the verse of Luca 1.28 in the new liturgical Lectionary of the Bishops' Conference, but this (despite the headlines in many journals and some articles claiming the contrary) doesn't mean they want to change the traditional prayer.

"The prayer" the text explains "is not as it is written in the gospels, but it is taken from some passages in gospels, introducing Luke. Praying, we fill continue to say, also in future: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee".

What changes is the translation in the bible and in the liturgical literature.

Up to now the 'chaire' in the original Greek text was translated as "I greet you", but this translation doesn't fully express the sense of the text, in which all exegetics recognise the reference to prophetic texts, in particular of Sofonia and Zaccaria, where people talk of the joy that must flood Jerusalem at the announcement of the salvation the Lord is about the provide.

The improvement of the new translation is clear, thanks to the explicit lexical return to the backgrounds that allow one to better understand the episode of the announcement".
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