The Our Father and Hail Mary
I have a question regarding the Our Father and the Hail Mary. Since childhood I learned the prayers using the “thee’s”, “thy’s” and “thou’s”. I learned “Our Father who art in heaven, hollowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, etc” and “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed are thou among women, etc.” However, I have seen many people and even some pamphlets that change the Our Father to, “Our Father, in heaven, your name be holy, your kingdom come, etc.” Also, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, etc.” I read in a magazine that this is not allowed since it had come to discussion during a Bishop’s Conference some years back and they voted NOT to change the “art”, “thee”, “thou” etc. to the familiar usage. Is this correct? If so, is there a document that I can show others that the way they recite these prayers using the familiar “you”, “your”, etc is incorrect. If we change the words to these prayers, are we being disobedient to the Bishop? Thank you for your reply and God Bless
QUESTION from Charles on April 9, 2004
ANSWER by Mr. Jacob L. Slavek on April 14, 2004
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Dear Charles, Use the "thee"s and "thou"s. It's a higher form of language and so more appropriate for prayer. For Mass, the "thee, thou and thy" language must be used for the Lord's prayer since that is what's in the Missal, that is the final authority unless Rome would say something afterward, which they haven't. The only time the "Hail Mary" is said in it's entirety I believe is at the end of Compline (night prayer), and in my breviary it is translated "you" and your". I really can't believe it was the intention of the Church to restrict the higher language, honestly I don't know. Now if you are praying these prayers outside of the Liturgy, you may use whatever text you like since personal prayer and devotional prayer are not regulated by the Church as liturgical prayer is. Whether or not the bishops discussed and voted on it for the Liturgy I don't know, but if the magazine is reputable then they did. I'm just glad that if they did, they voted AGAINST the change. Mr. Slavek |