Latin Mass Responses: The Full Text, With Literal English

The people's parts of a Latin Mass are short, fixed and few. Here is each one as the Missal prints it, with a literal English line and the grammar that makes it work. Most of that grammar is cases.

"1962" is the 1962 Missal, the Traditional Latin Mass. "Current" is the Roman Missal of Paul VI said in Latin, the Novus Ordo, now in its third edition (2002, reissued 2008). Books of the 1962 Missal print j (justum for iustum); the words are the same.

Dominus vobiscum: et cum spiritu tuo

• Priest: Dominus vobiscum. - The Lord with you.
• People: Et cum spiritu tuo. - And with your spirit.

Neither line has a verb, so the Latin never says whether this is a statement (the Lord is with you) or a wish (may the Lord be with you).

Cum takes the ablative. Spiritus is fourth declension, whose ablative singular ends in -u, and tuo agrees with it:

Vobiscum is cum again, stuck on the end of vobis: with you (all). Latin does the same with every personal pronoun, as in mecum, with me.

The words come from Paul, who ends a letter with them (2 Timothy 4:22, Vulgate):

Dominus Iesus Christus cum spiritu tuo.

The Lord Jesus Christ with your spirit.

Dominus vobiscum is said only by a bishop, priest or deacon. More on the fourth declension: the fourth and fifth declensions.

Deo gratias and Amen

• Deo gratias. - Thanks to God.

Two words, two cases, and English hides both behind one word. Deo is dative, the one who receives; gratias is accusative plural, the thing given. Supply a verb such as agimus and it is Deo gratias agimus, we give thanks to God.

It answers three lines:

In the 1962 Missal Benedicamus Domino, let us bless the Lord, replaces Ite, missa est when another rite follows, and gets the same answer.

Amen is not Latin at all. It is Hebrew, from a root meaning firm or sure, and the liturgy kept it untranslated. It does not decline, so it never changes: it answers every prayer that ends Per omnia saecula saeculorum, for ever and ever.

Sursum corda: the preface dialogue

Corda is the trap. To an English eye -a looks feminine singular, but cor, cordis is a third-declension neuter, and neuter plurals end in -a in the nominative and accusative:

Ad takes the accusative (Dominum). Agamus is the present subjunctive of ago, the "let us" form: let us give thanks. Dignum et iustum are neuter because the subject is an unstated "it": it is fitting and just. See the subjunctive for agamus.

Habemus ad Dominum has no object: the official English, "We lift them up to the Lord", supplies one.

The Confiteor: mea culpa

In the current Missal the Confiteor is one option for the penitential act at the start of Mass, said by everyone:

It goes on: Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper Virginem, omnes Angelos et Sanctos, et vos, fratres, orare pro me ad Dominum Deum nostrum, therefore I ask blessed Mary ever Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, brothers, to pray for me to the Lord our God.

• Datives after Confiteor: Deo is the person told.
• Ablatives of means: cogitatione, verbo, opere, by thought, word and deed.
• Culpa is an ablative of cause: through my fault. Maxima is the superlative of magnus, so the third one grows.

The 1962 Confiteor

In the 1962 Missal the Confiteor is said twice: first by the priest, then by the server (or the people, at a dialogue Mass). Their form names more saints and lacks et omissione:

Confiteor Deo omnipotenti, beatae Mariae semper Virgini, beato Michaeli Archangelo, beato Ioanni Baptistae, sanctis Apostolis Petro et Paulo, omnibus Sanctis, et tibi, pater: quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo et opere: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

I confess to God almighty, to blessed Mary ever Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the Saints, and to you, father: that I have sinned greatly in thought, word and deed: through my fault, through my fault, through my greatest fault.

Every name is dative, English "to":

Before the server's Confiteor, he answers the priest's with the Misereatur:

• Misereatur tui omnipotens Deus, et, dimissis peccatis tuis, perducat te ad vitam aeternam. - May almighty God have mercy on you and, your sins forgiven, bring you to eternal life.

Misereatur and perducat are subjunctives, "may he"; tui is genitive, as misereor takes one; dimissis peccatis tuis is an ablative absolute, your sins having been forgiven.

Domine, non sum dignus

Said before communion: once in the current Missal; three times in the 1962 Missal, with a strike on the breast each time.

It is the centurion's line in Matthew 8:8, with puer meus, my servant, changed to anima mea, my soul.

• Dignus plus an ablative. Worthy of a thing takes a plain ablative: dignus laude, worthy of praise.
• Worthy that something happen takes a subjunctive clause: ut intres, from intro. Classical prose prefers dignus qui; dignus ut is later Latin, as in the Vulgate.
• Sub with the accusative. Sub tectum is movement in under the roof; sub tecto would be simply under it.
• Dic verbo. Verbo is an ablative of means: say it by a word.

Agnus Dei

Qui tollis is the surprise: qui is a relative pronoun, but tollis is second person, "you take". The Lamb is being spoken to, so the clause takes the person of the one addressed. English has to add "you who".

Miserere is the imperative of the deponent misereor. Classical Latin gives it a genitive (miserere mei, have mercy on me, Psalm 50:3); the Agnus Dei uses the dative nobis.

At a requiem in the 1962 Missal the endings change: dona eis requiem twice, then dona eis requiem sempiternam: grant them rest, grant them eternal rest.

Kyrie eleison: Greek, not Latin

• Kyrie, eleison. Christe, eleison. Kyrie, eleison. - Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

It is Greek. Kyrie is the vocative of kyrios, lord, and eleison is an aorist imperative, have mercy. Latin can say the same (Domine, miserere), and Rome kept the Greek anyway, probably borrowed from Eastern litanies around the end of the fifth century.

So it is not pronounced by Latin rules: eleison is four syllables, e-le-i-son, and Kyrie three, Ky-ri-e.

Who says the responses

How much the congregation says depends on the kind of Mass:

At a 1962 low Mass the responses belong to the server, who answers for everyone. The dialogue Mass, which spread from the 1920s and was formally encouraged by Rome in 1958, gave them back to the people. Listen to what the room does at one Mass; join in at the next.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Learn the summary table at the top, the priest's column covered.
2. Say the responses in the church Latin pronunciation, not the classical.
3. Then read the Gloria and the Sanctus, the sung parts of the same Mass.