A Few Notes on Liturgical Practices

As we continue our entry into the Advent season it is a good time to re-visit some issues of liturgical practice in the Tri-Parishes so that understanding may be reinforced and tranquility reign in our hearts and community.  The particular issues I’d like to address are the use of Latin, ad orientem worship, and kneeling for the reception of Holy Communion.  The importance of these topics and the need to address them more thoroughly demands that I use the space normally reserved for both of my columns in one this week.

First, it must be remembered that all of these are well entrenched elements of worship in the Roman Rite.  While all three seemed, in the popular mind, to be “abolished by Vatican II”, nothing could be further from the truth.  

Regarding Latin in the liturgy, the Vatican II constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, reminds us of the importance of Latin in the Roman Rite and the necessity of its preservation in the liturgy.  Theologically our catholicity is expressed in the language of the common parts of the Mass: the Kyrie, the Confiteor, the Creed, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei, as well as the Canon of the Mass.  In obedience to Vatican II we have had the practice in these parishes for 30 years now of using the Latin responses during Advent and Lent; and for the last eleven years we have also used these on Fridays such that the children of Sacred Heart School and those who attend daily Mass are then well cultivated in this aspect and practice of our Catholic faith.  In an era where international travel is not a rare experience for us, many have related their satisfaction that assisting at Mass in other parts of the world, they were able to follow the Mass in these other countries because the common parts of the Mass were known to them in Latin.

Ad Orientem worship as an issue has come to the fore over the last several years, encouraged especially by Cardinal Robert Sarah (the immediate past head of the Vatican Congregation for Sacred Worship).  Interestingly, the current General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM), which is the instruction for celebrating Mass, continues to ASSUME that the priest is celebrating the Mass in this manner.  There is a beautiful truth communicated with Mass offered in this manner: the priest at the head of the worshiping community, leading them in the worship of God and leading them TO God.  There is a greater sense of the sacrificial nature of the Mass as well as a lessening of the focus on the priest; both of which serve to set the focus on God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ over either the priest or the community which are not unimportant in the context of community worship but are certainly secondary to the action of Christ on the altar.

Finally, the practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling has made a come back over the last several years.  It must be noted that the practice of receiving in the hand while standing has become the norm, it is a practice allowed by the Vatican in this country, and many others, only by an indult – in other words, it was never intended to be normative, though it did become “normal”.  Over the 50 years since the practice was first allowed however, many have come to feel a greater reverence for what, for Whom, they are receiving when they are able to receive the Blessed Sacrament in the ancient manner.  On the one hand, many feel an unworthiness to touch the Blessed Sacrament with hands that are subject to the messiness of daily life and work; others have developed a greater appreciation for the sanctification of the priest’s hand which are consecrated with holy Chrism at the priest’s ordination precisely in recognition of the sacred work that is to be undertaken and the sacred species which these hands will touch.  Finally, there is the beautiful and ancient symbol that is reverently embraced of the father feeding his children, the shepherd feeding his flock.  It is for this reason that Communion rails / stations have made a comeback in many churches, including in our own diocese; and in those places where communion rails had been discarded, portable kneelers or prie deuxs have appeared to facilitate this form of reception.

It should be noted that in all of these areas I have always been very careful not do disallow (or denigrate!) what the Church clearly allows, even by indult.  I have respected the feelings and sensibilities of the diversity of people found in our parishes.  Latin is not used in our liturgies exclusively nor even primarily.  It is used seasonally and situationally in the spirit of the conciliar documents with a desire to bring us into ever greater conformity with the desires of the council fathers. 

In like manner, I never refuse Communion in the hand to those who desire it – except in the case of those carrying infants and small children (prudence dictates: two hands on the child and two hands on the Sacrament); nor do I judge anyone based on how they receive our Lord in Holy Communion.  While I have provided for those who desire to receive Communion while kneeling I don’t force the issue nor do I judge anyone on that basis. 

And finally, ad orientem worship is offered only in those situations where it has been well-responded to, or for catechetical purposes (school Masses on Fridays), or in the case of St. Mary’s on weekdays where I am just not willing to shift the altar around for one weekday Mass and in a church that has only a small handful of people in it (wouldn’t you rather look at that beautiful high altar than at a mostly empty church?).

While the liturgy, especially holy Mass is supposed to be that around which we are unified, there continues to be a legitimate diversity that must be respected.  If you have any questions about these issues, don't be afraid to ask!