A Change to the Roman Missal - as of First Sunday of Advent 2020 onwards

Changes to the "Collects" (opening prayers) in the Roman Missal

(From The Bishops Commission for Liturgy | 28 September 2020)

On 13 May 2020, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, wrote to Episcopal Conferences in relation to a change to the Trinitarian conclusion to the collects (opening prayers) in the Roman Missal (2010).

Until recently, a typical conclusion to the collect read as:

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Cardinal Sarah’s letter indicated that the inclusion of the word “one” before God is problematic in relation to the Latin text: “Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum”. The inclusion of the word “one” before God, Cardinal Sarah wrote:

… can serve to undermine the statement of the Son’s unique identity within the Trinity which the Latin formulas so strongly convey and, on the other hand, it can also be interpreted as saying that Jesus Christ is “one God”. Either or both of these interpretations is injurious to the faith of the Church.

It is clear from the Latin texts that the doxology emphasises the divinity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son, who intercedes on our behalf, as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, to the Father and which prayer is made in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Son’s role of priestly mediation is made clear. To transfer the Trinitarian relational element in unitate as meaning unus Deus is incorrect.

The omission of the word “one” before God will mean that the three possible conclusions to the collects [as outlined in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2012), n. 54] will read as follows:

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Or

Who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Or

Who live and reign with God the Father

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Following advice from the Bishops Commission for Liturgy, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference approved the change to the Trinitarian conclusions to the collect prayers in the Roman Missal. The change will take effect from the First Sunday of Advent, 29 November 2020.

Bishops Commission for Liturgy | 28 September 2020