Thursday, May 01, 2008

there are only FOUR places...

there are only 4 places during Mass where the priest is supposed to "turn and face the people."
Does anyone know exactly which places they are?

5 comments:

Mara Joy said...

ok, never mind, I answered my own question (I just read through the Sacramentary...)
-The Opening Greeting "The Lord be with you"
-"Pray brethren,..."
-"This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world..."
-Concluding Rite Greeting "The Lord be with you"

however, it is interesting to note that in most of those cases it is not stated where the priest is to turn back around again!

totustuusmaria said...

That's one of the unintended consequences of eliminating a bunch of the invocations ("The Lord be With You") at Ad Orientem Masses the priest turns around less.

Anonymous said...

okay, here is a tough one:

What differentiates the priest praying with his hands folded, or with his hands open/extended?

Cantor said...

Dear Mara,

You wrote:
it is interesting to note that in most of those cases it is not stated where the priest is to turn back around again

Note that three of those four cases are right before collects; my hunch is that “oremus”, since it signals a transition of the priest from dialoguing with the assembly to proclaiming the prayer on their behalf, implies that turning back around.

The other case, “This is the Lamb of God”, happens right before the priest communicates, which ISTM again implies that he turn around, though this time for the purely pragmatic reason of being at the altar.

Anonymous said...

since it signals a transition of the priest from dialoguing with the assembly to proclaiming the prayer on their behalf

This is key. The posture used to signify whether the priest was praying for or with the people. Open hands, oremus, actually indicates the priest is praying for the people, or on their behalf.

Confusion entered (lot of that in the last 40) during the "revised" Our Father. Notice that the new attitude is that we all pray together, often holding hands (sometimes in charismatic trance, hehehe). However, the Church did not change the posture of the celebrant...hands still open, praying on our behalf.

Which is it? Hmmmm. I just try to remember the words which precede it......."..we dare to say....Our Father..."