contrabordon wrote:Present indicative… Present subjunctive…
True. Poor old subjunctive; I would that it were not largely lost from modern English! However, we don't know which mood is better used in English because it was omitted from the Latin and actually either fits.
Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines subjunctive as "that mood of a verb used to express condition, hypothesis, contingency, possibility, etc., rather than to state an actual fact". Are we in any doubt that the Lord is with us when we are gathered for the Liturgy? [Perhaps, being a good Catholic, he'll slip in late, at the back…
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
.] To say "May the Lord be with you" allows the possibility that he isn't; "The Lord is with you" is a greater statement of belief and one that might eventually persude people that God doesn't just magically turn up at the words of institution - or, worse, reside in the tabernacle!
Benevenio.