(A friend of mine, Father Ray who serves the Church in Nova Scotia, told this story of how a well-meaning French-speaking priest had difficulty with the English Mass.)
Canada has two official languages, English and French. French is the everyday language of many Canadians, especially in Quebec and areas of Eastern Canada including Nova Scotia. Here’s a story I heard from Father Ray who ministers in an English-speaking Church in Nova Scotia. I might not get all the details correctly but this is the story as I remember it.
Early in his priesthood, Father Ray was planning to go on vacation but was having difficulty finding someone to take his place to celebrate Holy Mass on Sunday. He finally located a priest who was free at the time and was willing to help.
The priest arrived a few days ahead of time so that he could familiarize himself with the parish. It turns out that the priest was from a French-speaking community and had limited use of formal English. Father Ray brought out the book that sits on the altar (the “missal”} which contains the proper wording for the ritual of the Mass. For example, when the celebrant begins the Mass, the priest greets the congregation with these words: “The Lord be with you! The people’s response is: “And with your spirit!” It’s right there in the text.
Since the priest was only accustomed to celebrate the Mass in French, Father Ray went over the English Mass with him. Although the priest had a heavy accent, he seemed to catch on to the English wording of the Mass.
When Father Ray returned from his vacation, he was told by a parishioner how his substitute ended his Mass in English on the previous Sunday.
Although his English was thickly accented, the parishioners were able to follow along until the very end of the Mass. After Holy Communion the visiting French-speaking priest returned to the altar for the final blessing and dismissal, but he couldn’t find the right page in the missal. After much flipping of ribbons and pages, he was still lost.
However, he remembered to greet the people in the same way as he did at the start of the Mass:
“The Lord be with you!
The people responded: “And with your spirit!” So far, so good….
He then struggled with the words of the final blessing:
May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! All responded: “Amen.”
But, he still couldn’t find the proper English words of dismissal to conclude the Mass. Then he remembered something! He recalled some English words he’d heard someone use to tell another person to leave. He lifted his eyes to the community and recalled the only English words of dismissal he could remember:
He folded his hands on his chest, looked at the congregation… smiled…and said: “Get out!”