St Pius Primary School Enmore recently held a leadership day with their senior students which exposed them to the new translation of the Missal.
The day, entitled ‘Praying with the Mass’, was different to other Leadership Days as students were able to give leadership to the new Missal by planning how they will deliver the new missal to the rest of the school’s students.
In groups, the students planned and developed teaching tools and strategies which they will use to guide the school’s younger students through the changes to the Mass.
Acting Religious Education Coordinator Geraldine Vallelonga says, "Our Stage 3 Leadership program aims to develop the leadership skills of our students in a real sense. Our goal for this day was to provide a leadership opportunity within the Parish/School community. After consultation with Father Martin, we saw the upcoming Sacrament of Confirmation as a great catalyst for introducing the Missal to our community."
St Pius Parish Priest Fr Martin Monaghan says, "in the parish we have implemented the New Roman Missal. As part of our ongoing strategic plan of building up parish and school relations, we are assisting our students in understanding the meaning of Eucharist, in order to be effective leaders in our Catholic community."
Stage 3 student Vaiata Halaholo explains why the changes are being introduced, saying, “when the Mass was originally translated from Latin it wasn’t translated correctly.”
Changes to the Nicene Creed were addressed by one group, with two students already demonstrating a deep level of understanding.
Student Joshua Cuevas explains the term Consubstantial in layman’s terms: “Consubstantial means with one being with the Father, but on a deeper level. It means we are all human, but Jesus is not just human but made from the same substance as God.”
Meanwhile, Jacob Gavin notes the change to the Nicene Creed from ‘we believe’ to ‘I believe’ are occurring because, “we are renewing our baptismal vows.”
Tosca Galluzzo, Primary Religious Education Advisor with the Catholic Education Office Sydney, says, “I saw how students responded in a deep and meaningful way, they weren't scared-off by these new words. The new translation allowed them to discover and appreciate the mass more deeply - and they were ready to teach the other students all about it.”