Hocus Pocus & the Importance of Worshipping in the Vernacular

In one stream of church history, this can help explain worshiping in a dead language like Latin—holy language that honors God but leaves the church bewildered. It’s believed that the incantation “hocus pocus,” spoken to convey magical transformational powers, is derived from “Hoc est enim corpus meum,” the Latin phrase meaning “This is my body,” uttered by Roman Catholic priests during the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper) in the Mass. The confused congregation heard these…