The Aug. 14 Catholic Times edition listed a series of afternoon and evening regional workshops where teachers and catechists will receive training. But many schools have already set about making their own plans to help students learn.

At St. Agnes School in Springfield, Principal Sister Joan Sorge, OP, said she started last spring to prepare her faculty. "I gave each teacher a copy of What's New about the Mass from Liturgical Training Publications. We are purchasing copies of it for all our students. For the little ones, we are using My Own Mass booklet, which comes from Loyola Press. It presents things at their level.

"We have a prayer booklet of common prayers for families and for students, and have added the changes to it," Sister Joan said. Both the prayers as they were and the prayers as they are going to be are printed in it, with the changes highlighted.

Father Bob Jallas, St. Agnes pastor, is going to do a special in-service for the faculty, and will be going into classrooms to talk about the changes.

"There are enough changes that students need to understand 'the why' of the changes," said Sister Joan, who points out that a lot of the changes are in the wording for the priests. "Father would like them to understand the 'why' and the philosophy behind the new wording. I know many principals in this area are using What's New about the Mass."

At St. Ambrose School in Godfrey, Principal Cathy McGarrahan, said she and her teachers are looking forward to the regional workshop as a learning session to help them to be able to teach their students. "Teachers really need to get themselves on board with what will be offered on the 29th of August," McGarrahan said. "We are going to be using the catechetical materials put out by Liturgical Training Publications that are age appropriate for students. Those booklets are so helpful as we study the Mass. They really explain things, and we will be able to look at what the previous translation was and what is new."

At Quincy Notre Dame High School, Principal Ray Heilmann says they are using a Life Teen program to teach their students about the changes. "All our religion classes will be using a Life Teen textbook called Word for Word, which has a subtitle Introducing the new Roman Missal.

"As it comes closer to November, when the changes will take place, Msgr. Leo Enlow is coming here a month before to celebrate an all-school Mass as an instructional Mass — teaching the new Roman Missal within the content of the liturgy. We also plan to have Mass in smaller groups, a freshman Mass, a sophomore Mass, and so forth.

"We want students to learn the reason why changes are being made," Heilmann said. "This is the reason why, and this is why the change makes the liturgical celebration better."