12 December 2009
A Lutheran Confirmation Service in Latvia
Thanks to Philip for linking this in the comments. I think it needs its own spot. Check it out. The Eucharistic liturgy begins around 62.00. I'd love to know what the pastor prayed following the Sanctus and before the Verba. I am assuming the people joined in praying the Our Father after the Verba? Anyone know Latvian???
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My Latvian is weak, to put it mildly, but it ran something like this -- I will put what is little more than conjecture on my part in parentheses:
(We ask you in faith) Heavenly Father, as we celebrate Christ's death, bless those from this congregation who eat of this bread and drink of this cup, that they may receive Christ's Body and Blood and thereby be partakers of his death and resurrection and obtain remission of their sins.
I think I missed a word or two, and at the beginning all I could really grasp before "heavenly Father" was the "we."
They were not wearing chasubles so we know that it was not a full Lutheran Divine Service.
; )
One of the things (which I remarked about at my blog at messiahlacrescent.org )that I find amazing is the beauty of the familiar that transcends language. I'd really like to see how many Lutheran services in different languages can be found online. When people start to see... hey, if I were there, I'd pretty much know what was going on... then they start to grasp the fullness of what it is to really be part of the Church (and not an isolated entity unto itself).
To your point, Pr. Lorfeld: granted that the Roman Catholic church should not have restricted liturgy to Latin in many locations where the vernacular ought to have been used, and did so for a very long time, the use of Latin does make a lot more sense once you see a Mass celebrated with a congregation of people who speak many different languages (e.g. those World Youth Day celebrations).
Would we insist on an English-language liturgy if there was a Divine Service held with an equal number of communicant American, Kenyan, Latvian, German, Swedish, Malagasy, and Japanese Lutherans? Would we divvy up the service so each language got its "15 minutes of fame" in the liturgy? ...use earbuds with live-feed translators or PowerPoint screens? Or would we try to come to some common ground? It's actually not that unrealistic of a scenario...
To that point Phil (a convergence of many languages), I'm sympathetic to the approach that Taize takes: just take the time to incorporate the handful of languages together. A case could be made that English is the new lingua franca, and so selecting English for international gatherings might also be appropriate, but I believe the multi language approach is more respectful.
I'm really not that sympathetic to selecting Latin. It is the vernacular of no one. The point of the proclamation of God's Word is that it is to be heard and understood. Granted when I have traveled to places where the vernacular is a language I do not speak, I humbly recognize I am but a guest. The times where a translator was provided (in recognition of my group's visit), I have been even more thankful. But Latin? Not so much.
I think I'd recognize this no matter where or how I heard it, regardless of the the language.
For me at least, it some ways it transcends language, even though I'd obviously prefer to worship in English give the choice! When I attended a German Lutheran service in Germany, I could follow along even though I don't really speak German.
I can speak the Lord's Prayer right along with that Latvian congregation, even though I don't speak Latvian.
Amen, EC! Amen.
Thanks for the translation, Dr. Tighe.
Phil: Taize also uses Latin because it puts everyone at the same disadvantage.
Matt: Repent, dude. Latin is the language of heaven!!! ;)
Taize always seemed a bit misguided. I was diappointed to see Taize in LSB.
Still, the Sanctus from Byrd's Mass for Four Voices still haunts me (it keeps going up, like incense!!). I continue to try to get a quartet together to sing it.
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