Need info for class about changing words in mass

[DiscerningDave]

I have a class I am taking and we brought up the notion of people changing the words in responses. (FYI: I did search this on here with no definitive answers found)

Particularly, saying this: May the Lord accept this sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of God’s name for our good and the good of all God’s Church. (instead of saying, “His”)

Ok, now what I am looking for is not opinions or what you think.
I need solid references and sources. And I need it for tomorrow morning.
Is this allowed by the Church or not? Is there any document that says definitively that this cannot be done?
Thanks in advance

 

[Phemie]

I have a class I am taking and we brought up the notion of people changing the words in responses. (FYI: I did search this on here with no definitive answers found)

Particularly, saying this: May the Lord accept this sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of God’s name for our good and the good of all God’s Church. (instead of saying, “His”)

Ok, now what I am looking for is not opinions or what you think.
I need solid references and sources. And I need it for tomorrow morning.
Is this allowed by the Church or not? Is there any document that says definitively that this cannot be done?
Thanks in advance

Your best bet is the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy which says:

1. 1. Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See and, as laws may determine, on the bishop.

1. In virtue of power conceded by the law, the regulation of the liturgy within certain defined limits belongs also to various kinds of competent territorial bodies of bishops legitimately established.

1. Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.

As for the specific example you cited, this is what the Congregation for Divine Worship had to say about it in their comment about a previously submitted ICEL translation of the Roman Missal:

C. After the Orate, fratres, the people’s response Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis . . . has been distorted, apparently for purposes of “inclusive language”: “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of God’s name, for our good, and the good of all the Church.” The insertion of the possessive God’s gives the impression that the Lord who accepts the sacrifice is different from God whose name is glorified by it. The Church is no longer his Church, and is no longer called holy * a flaw in the previous translation that one might have hoped would be corrected.

 

[bluerose]

According to Fr. Peter Stravinskas, former editor of The Catholic Answer magazine (published by Our Sunday Visitor), he gave this answer to a reader who was asking if it was permissible for lectors to change the words (or even a word, like saying “people” instead of “men”) in the Lectionary. (The following was from The Catholic Answer Book 4, published in 2003, by OSV.)

Fr. Stravinskas said, "The Second Vatican Council was adamant that no one, not even a priest, it says, can change a word of the Sacred Liturgy (see Sancrosanctum Concilium, Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, no. 22). The Lectionary is indeed a liturgical text, from which one may not deviate (unless, of course, one replaces weekday readings for a saint’s feast, or the like).

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I have a class I am taking and we brought up the notion of people changing the words in responses. (FYI: I did search this on here with no definitive answers found)

Particularly, saying this: May the Lord accept this sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of God’s name for our good and the good of all God’s Church. (instead of saying, “His”)

Ok, now what I am looking for is not opinions or what you think.
I need solid references and sources. And I need it for tomorrow morning.
Is this allowed by the Church or not? Is there any document that says definitively that this cannot be done?
Thanks in advance

No, no one is permitted to change any of the words in the Mass. Yes, there is a document the Roman Mss and the two documents that instruct on it’s use, the GIRM and RS.

 

[John_Lilburne]

From the 2004 Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum:
“[59.] The reprobated practice by which Priests, Deacons or the faithful here and there alter or vary at will the texts of the Sacred Liturgy that they are charged to pronounce, must cease. For in doing thus, they render the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy unstable, and not infrequently distort the authentic meaning of the Liturgy.”

 

[Harsalter]

According to Fr. Peter Stravinskas, former editor of The Catholic Answer magazine (published by Our Sunday Visitor), he gave this answer to a reader who was asking if it was permissible for lectors to change the words (or even a word, like saying “people” instead of “men”) in the Lectionary.

And I have heard lectors say, “relatives” in place of either “brothers” or “brethren”. That was corrected in my parish immediately! My priest jumped all over that.