Since Pope Francis’ recent motu proprio liberated us from the bondage of Liturgiam authenticam (at least potentially), I have been thinking a lot about what I believe a good – or even a good enough – liturgical translation might be.

Some bits of this thinking are easy enough: it must be comprehensible emotionally as well as literally; it must be saying the same thing as not only the Latin “original” says but the same thing (more or less) as all the other translations say; it must be “audible” (as opposed to readable) and “sayable”; it must be beautiful – for me this is a sine qua non, because in the liturgical rites we present God to ourselves and to the world and, as well as being goodness and truth, God is also beauty.