A reader writes:
I listen to you all the time on the radio Q&A. This is my own fabulous opinion, meaning you don’t have to pay it any attention:
I think you’ll sound better if instead of saying "mmm-hmm" while callers set up their question, you say "yes," or "continue," or some other words. Mmm-hmm is what I say when I don’t really want to be listening to what someone is saying (especially my kids)….I don’t know if listeners take it that way or not.
BTW, I have a question which I can’t phone in since I hear you taped, maybe you could answer it on the air:
In the pre V2 days the Mass was divided into the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the Faithful; today it’s the Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Any ideas why this changed, and what is the point of the new terminology?
First, in regard to the question: I don’t have a firm answer from an official document explaining why the change was done. A check of the cumulative index of the BCL Newsletter and some leafing around in the 1969 issues didn’t turn anything up (though further digging might); neither did a check of Documents on the Liturgy (a standard collection), but my sense is that the terminological change was due to two things:
First, the custom of the ancient church of dismissing the catechumens at the end of the liturgy of the word had fallen out of use (at least in the Latin rite). Consequently, retaining the terminology was more confusing than not. By calling the rite "the liturgy of the word," it mede it more clear what the true purpose of the rite was.
Second, there was a desire to more greatly stress the unity of the Mass and the relevance to of the word to the Eucharist.
That’s my sense, anyway. If someone else has more specific information (and can quote a source), I hope they’ll add it in the comments box.
Now, regarding the mmmm-hmmm issue: After you’ve worked in radio for a while, you get an inbuilt instinct that dead air must be avoided at all costs, and so I use "mmmm-hmmmm" to fill dead air sometimes. I try to say it supportively, to indicate that I’m listening attentively to what the person says (and, in some cases, to hurry the caller up if he’s rambling), but I don’t know how it comes across to listeners, especially when it goes through the filtering process that causes some of my inflection to drop out.
"Yes" or "continue" would sound impatient to my ears, but I could be wrong.
Whadda y’all think?