After decades intoning the same words of worship, Tom McLaughlin said change is hard.
“I think it’s easier for the younger people,’’ he said after Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Newton yesterday morning. “I look at the card, and I still say the wrong word.’’
This weekend a new English translation of the Mass prayers was heard across the country. But while some praised the unfamiliar words as an invitation to study their meaning anew, many were tripping over the sometimes cumbersome new lexicon at Masses yesterday.
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McLaughlin, a 75-year-old Brighton resident, was good humored about the new script but hardly alone in his struggle to adapt.
For nearly 40 years, when the priest said “The Lord be with you,’’ parishioners responded, “And also with you.’’
Yesterday, the new response “And with your spirit,’’ was drowned out by a chorus of parishioners sticking to the old familiar strain, despite “cheat sheets,’’ cards stacked at the end of each pew showing changes to the liturgy in bold letters.
But McLaughlin’s daughter-in-law Sharon McLaughlin, 41, said she liked the new language because it will inspire people listen to what they are saying.
“When you’re so used to saying the same thing everyday, it becomes rote,’’ she said. “When you change it, you have to think about it a little more.’’
And that’s precisely the point, said Monsignor Dennis Sheehan, parochial vicar at Our Lady Help of Christians and assistant director of the Archdiocesan Office for Worship.
“You’re asking them to change more than the words they use; you’re asking them to change their feelings, their picture of God,’’ said Sheehan.
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley called the new translation “the most significant liturgical change in four decades,’’ in a pastoral letter dated Nov. 20 and published in The Pilot newspaper.
At the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Washington Street in the South End yesterday morning, dozens of parishioners, young and old, clutched cream-colored prayer cards inscribed with the new language.
“It doesn’t bother me,’’ said Brian Redden, 39, of Cincinnati, who was visiting Boston with his family. In his home parish, he said clergy had prepared worshippers for what was coming and the alterations were an effort to get closer to the original intent.
“But look, if you change anything, someone’s not going to be happy about it,’’ Redden said. “People don’t like change.’’
Although most parishioners voiced easygoing resignation yesterday, with some enthused about the newly focused attention on the words, elsewhere controversy is brewing.
The Rev. Michael Ryan, a Seattle priest, collected more than 22,000 signatures online protesting the revisions; some Boston-area Catholics signed the petition.
At Our Lady yesterday, Kate Barton, a 50-year-old Newton resident, said she likes the new language but thinks it will take a while to adapt.
“I wish they would explain a little more why,’’ she said of the changes.
Sheehan said churches have included information in parish bulletins and elsewhere, but the confusion is normal.
Although parishioners missed some of the new words yesterday during Mass, he said, they generally took the change in stride.
“As everything else, the new translation is a mixed reality,’’ said Sheehan. “Some of the changes are excellent. Some of the translation is absolutely first class. And the language in general has a rhythm and kind of poetic quality to it that the former translation didn’t have. Would I agree with every single change? Probably not, but I haven’t been through the entire missal.’’
He was referring to the Roman Missal, the book used to celebrate Mass, which was retranslated, Sheehan said.
Jon Ryan, 41, of the South End, was among the faithful at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross who said he needed more time to mentally process the new words, which felt “weird’’ to say.
“I think it made you pay attention to things you just said by rote,’’ said Ryan in an interview after the service.
But the new language does not alter the core meaning of the traditions, he said.
“You go in thinking it’s going to be a big deal,’’ he said.
About halfway through the sacraments, he said he realized that “the Mass is just the same.’’
The new English translation is a generational marker for his three daughters, though. His oldest, at 6, is beginning to participate on Sundays, he said.
Just as Ryan grew up knowing only the English version after the 1973 transition from Latin, Ryan said his children will be imbued with the new versions.
“I think it will take awhile for people to settle on it,’’ he said. “It will be interesting to see how long it takes to drop that [prayer] card.’’
Some have opinions on that.
With a knowing smile, the Rev. Kevin J. O’Leary suggested, before the end of the service at Holy Cross, that it could take years for congregants to stop stealing glances at their holy cheat sheets.
“You all did so very well,’’ O’Leary said. “And I think in 30 years, we’ll be perfect.’’
Lisa Kocian can be reached at lkocian@globe.com. Matt Byrne can be reached at mbyrne.globe@gmail.com.