After 17 years, the Catholic Church in Colombia has a new edition of the Roman Missal, which will be used in the Eucharist from the first Sunday of Advent.
The Colombian Episcopal Conference indicated that it is an edition adapted to the country and that it has the approval of the Vatican. The text will be available from October.
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Mons. José Saúl Grisales Grisales, president of the Episcopal Commission of Liturgy, clarified that “It is not a new missal, but a new edition of the Missal for Colombiaapproved by the Dicasterio for the divine cult and discipline of the sacraments “in 2025 with the endorsement of Pope Francis.
This is the fourth edition of a Roman Missal for the Catholic Church in Colombia. The first edition It was approved by the Vatican in 1972.
For his part, Fr. Jairo de Jesús Ramírez, director of the Department of Liturgy, adds that this new edition will help the faithful in Colombia to celebrate with greater fidelity, beauty and unity the Eucharist.
The Episcopate explained that among the reasons for elaborating a new edition are the need to update “the biblical texts according to the liturgical translation approved in 2015”, improve “the understanding and proclamation of the sentences, considered in the previous edition as complex”, and include “new translations, such as sacramental words”.
On the latter, from the first Sunday of Advent, the sacramental formula will be used “take, all of him. Take, drink all of him.” At the time of peace, the priest will say “Lord Jesus Christ, who told your apostles: peace left you, my peace I give them.”
“The novelties that we will notice will see them in the translation of eucological texts, in the collects collect, on the offerings, for postcommunion, in the prefaces and in the Eucharistic prayers,” said Mons. Grisales.
Two important data highlighted by the CEC are that the new edition helps the “unification of the liturgical use to avoid the circulation of foreign missals that break the ecclesial communion”, and incorporates “the rite of the reception of the holy oils in the parishes.”
The elaboration process began in 2016 and was directed by the then Bishop of Garzón, Mons. Fabio Duque Jaramillo. During these years, the text “passed several reviews by the Vatican.”
Because of the death of Mons. Duke in 2022, the work was assumed by Mons. Jaime Cristóbal Abril, Bishop of Arauca, who “promoted expert commissions to adjust the texts.”
Other novelties of the fourth edition of the Missal
The episcopate indicated that the new edition of the Missal for the Church in Colombia also incorporates the festivities of canonized saints in recent years, such as Santa Laura Montoya, Santa Faustina Kowalska and San Juan Pablo II.
In addition, it contains adjustments in the liturgical calendar and adds the name “of San José in the Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV, following a decree of Pope Francis” of 2013.
Likewise, the new edition has 18 illustrations “that integrate ethnic and natural elements of the country (grains, flowers, water, physiognomy of the various ethnic groups of the national territory), inspired by traditional icons of the East and West, but adapted to the local culture”.
Fr. Jairo de Jesús Ramírez explained that, for several of the images, the illustrator took as sources “icons of the eastern tradition, for example, the icon of Our Lady of the Sign, of the Russian tradition, for the time of Advent; the icon of the Trinity of Andrei Rublev, for the votive masses; the icon of the anástasis or descent to the infieries of the Church of San Salvador de San Salvador de San Salvador. of Istanbul (Türkiye); other graphics were inspired by evangelical stories. ”
“The use of an iconography that reflects the aesthetic, ethnic and cultural sensitivity of the Colombian people does not contradict tradition, but prolongs it in creative fidelity. It is not about replacing the truth of faith, but of representing it from the faces and symbols that are significant for our people,” he said.
The Colombian episcopate said that this fourth edition will help the faithful to “deepen the Eucharistic mystery, remembering that ‘every time the memorial of the sacrifice of Christ is celebrated, the work of our redemption is carried out.”
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication of the National University of San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Press, I have been sent to cover the trips of Pope Francis to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the Synod of Sinodality in the Vatican in 2023.