In the area that I live in, it isn't uncommon to hear the priest attempt to "neuter" the texts of the Mass by removing explicit references to the Father as a patriarch. For example, many of the prayers such as the Collectus (opening prayer) generally begin by invoking God the Father, and this is explicitly referenced in the GIRM in Chapter II, part III. Depending on where the Son is invoked, the GIRM actually gives three different types of endings that these prayers can take.
Now, to recap, as Christians, we believe that God is three persons in one God. This is a dogma and a mystery. We actually pray this every Sunday in the Nicene Creed, or even when we say grace before meals by invoking the Sign of the Cross. As a mystery, we may never fully understand what this means, or how it is possible. But even in the Gospel from the Fifth Sunday of Easter, we see that the Apostle Philip had trouble with this concept too, asking the Son to show him the Father. So don't feel too badly if you don't understand it either.
This all comes back to my gripe about neutering the prayers, especially the collects that are usually prayed to the Father, through the Son, in union with the Holy Spirit. Oftentimes, these are neutered into "Almighty God" or I even recently heard "Creator God", then the prayer, and then "through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever." Do you see what's wrong here?
If the Son and the Holy Spirit are God, then all three persons are the Creator, not simply the Father. Yet if the Father alone is the Creator, then what does that make the Son and the Holy Spirit? Does that mean that the Son and the Holy Spirit did not create man? You see how that's a loaded question? If the Son only redeems and He didn't create, then does that even still make Him God? And if He's not God, then what is He? Arianism attempted to give varying definitions of the Son, sometimes even considering Him a separate entity. So, if He didn't create us, if He's a separate entity, or if He's simply not involved until the New Testament, why should He bother redeeming us? If the answer is simply "because His Father told Him so," then I don't buy it. I'm not going to give my life for something that I don't have any reason to be interested in other than that my Dad told me to.
All of this goes easily back to the idea of Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, which means essentially that we pray what we believe. Jesus gave His life because He created us and cared to redeem His creations. He is the Word, or Logos, and I can't think of a single time in the Old Testament that God didn't communicate to man without words. So, if we believe in all of this, we have to pray it. The prayers of the Mass say it without any confusion, but if we alter those words and change the prayer, then what does that say about our belief?
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