Church, Balance and the Subtlety of Language

After my chance meeting of Martin’s uncle at la paroisse de Saint-Ambroise a few weeks ago, I’ve been attending mass every Sunday. I’d been thinking back on my Kin 021 class from several years back and the concept of the Wellness Wheel. A quick websearch turns up a bunch of sites related to the Wheel, so if you’re interested in a more thorough discussion of the topic, I encourage you to check them out.

Anyway, I’ve accepted that I lack balance in my life. In fact, I may have mentioned that in a previous entry… well, maybe not explicitly, but I had at least resolved to make some efforts towards self-improvement. The Spiritual segment of the Wellness Wheel has been non-existent for me for the past 15-20 years, at least, so I thought that it was a good place to start. Also, since the services are conducted in French, it’s a good opportunity for me to look at the language in a different context.

I won’t pretend to be a highly skilled grammarian by any stretch of the imagination, but I did notice some things that I found interesting. In English, when one uses God (and by “God” I mean the Christian version) in a sentence, it usually starts with an uppercase letter. That’s not particularly unusual, since it’s being used as a proper name. However, the same goes for when God is replaced by a pronoun, regardless of its placement within the sentence (eg. “I am an instrument of His will.”). From what I recall, this is supposed to acknowledge the writer’s reverence for the Supreme Being.

French is a far more subtle language, so I was interested in seeing how religious content was handled. I’ve been a bit surprised at the way the prayers have been translated, particularly since Quebec has (historically) been a God-fearing province for hundreds of years. I had expected to see a lot more use of what is typically called the vous de politesse. For those not familiar with the language, I’ll try and explain this as best I can.

In French, there are 2 pronouns used for the English equivalent of “You.” There’s the form “tu” and the form “vous.” The “tu” form is used when addressing an individual with whom one has a certain degree of familiarity. The “vous” form is used when addressing a group of people, when addressing someone that one holds in high esteem, someone elderly, a business client or perhaps just someone who one doesn’t know very well. Its use is a mark of respect. It used to be used when addressing one’s parents, but it’s pretty uncommon to see it used that way now. They’ve even got a couple of verbs specifically used to inform someone that they can switch from the “vous” to the “tu” or vice versa (tutoyer and vouvoyer).

So as I was saying, I figured that any prayers or responses would be full of “vous” when referring to God, perhaps even written in uppercase letters to note a similar reverence to God as what one sees in the English equivalent. Not so. At least not in the translations used in this parish. From what Martin’s uncle told me, they’ve used a lot of translations from Latin over the years and this particular one is far less formal in its structure. I was thinking about that and, to a certain extent, it makes sense to me. Through the subtlety of the language construction, this French version tries to create a familiarity with God. He isn’t some unknown force, but rather someone with whom parishioners can have a very close, personal relationship. This concept of a personal relationship with God is also in keeping with the message being conveyed during the masses. Anyway, it’s this sort of nuance that continues to fuel my interest in the French language. I’m intrigued by how much can be expressed by something so simple as the choice between the use of “tu” or “vous.”

I’m not sure if anyone else is still awake after reading this entry, but whatever. I find the topic interesting. Til next time…