Why we kneel, bow and pray as one at Mass

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

	Common Mass postures In the Diocese of Green Bay, in accordance with the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, worship at Mass consists of the following postures (for all who are able): • From the beginning of Mass until First Reading: STAND • From the First Reading until Gospel Alleluia (acclamation): SIT • From the Gospel Acclamation (Alleluia) to end of Gospel: STAND • During Homily: SIT • From the Creed through the General Intercessions: STAND • During the Preparation of Gifts until completion of "Pray brothers and sisters ...": SIT • Beginning at "May the Lord . . . until end of the Sanctus (Holy, holy, holy) ...": STAND • After the Sanctus until after the Great Amen: KNEEL • From after the Great Amen through the "Lamb of God": STAND • From the end of "Lamb of God" until Communion: STAND or KNEEL • When receiving Communion: STAND • During silence after Communion: SIT or KNEEL • From the Prayer after Communion until the end of Mass: STAND
	Related articles ... Six-part series on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal: • Part six (Nov. 21 issue) --   Go in peace to love and serve the Lord • Part five (Nov. 14 issue) --   'Do This in Remembrance of Me' • Part four (Nov. 7 issue) --   The Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving • Part three (Oct. 31 issue) --   The Altar, the Cross and the Book • Part two (Oct. 24 issue) --   Why make any revisions in the Mass? • Part one (Oct. 17 issue) --   How to enrich our experience of Mass Other related articles: November 21, 2003 issue: • Bishop Banks' Corner --     Changes help express wonder, awe November 14, 2003 issue: • Foundations of Faith --     Ministers help us receive Holy Communion often October 17, 2003 issue: • Compass Editorial --     Focusing on Instruction August 22, 2003 issue: • Bishop Banks' Corner --     The church's source of energy August 8, 2003 issue: • Bishop Banks' Corner --     Current Mass links us to Apostles

Angels with arms crossed and downcast eyes, shepherds kneeling, Joseph standing watch, and kings bowing.

Next week is Thanksgiving, the official start of the secular Christmas season. Nativity sets, along with other seasonal decorations, already adorn lawns and stores. And Nativity sets can help us understand the focus on the postures new church directives are asking us to be aware of with the start of Advent.

On the first Sunday of Advent, Nov. 30, our diocese will incorporate the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal (the GIRM). Some of the more visible aspects of the GIRM deal with posture during Mass: kneeling, bowing, standing and sitting.

The desire is to foster greater unity of worship - everyone doing, or at least trying to do, the same things at the same time.

Why?

"A common posture, to be observed by all participants," the GIRM explains, "is a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community gathered for the sacred liturgy."

Just as the figures of a Nativity set show that they are a community, so does our posture show our unity.

As Sr. Ann Rehrauer, former Green Bay diocesan chancellor and a liturgy specialist, said at fall workshops on the GIRM, that "common posture and common gesture are an expression, and an aid, to common heart."

When we bow or kneel or stand in unison, we unite our hearts, and our total selves, in worship. That is what liturgy is all about: the people of God in communion with each other, offering glory to God, through Christ.

As Vatican II emphasized in its very first document, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, "in the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, the full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else..." (14).

Nativity sets remind us of that desire for full and active unity of participation. All the characters have their own roles - angels, shepherds, Joseph, Mary - and yet their postures are all united and directed toward one source: the Lord. They do not worship in isolation, but unite together in goal and purpose. Their bodily postures proclaim this.

"When our bodies participate in our prayer," said the U.S. bishops' Committee on the Liturgy earlier this year, "we pray with our whole person, as the embodied spirits God (that) created us to be, and this engagement of our entire being in prayer helps us to pray with greater attention."

Prayer is not simply a matter of the mind, or even of mind and voice. Just as we are beings of mind, soul and body, so our worship is a matter of our entire person - mind, body and soul. It is similar to that old saying about an animated person: "If you tied her hands down, she wouldn't be able to talk." Just as gestures are part of communication, so posture is part of prayer and worship. They cannot become separated or isolated.

Common posture in worship reminds us that our liturgy, as Dominican theologian Fr. Frank Quinn said, is about "we language." We, as one body of Christ, gather. Therefore, in order to use "we language," to more fully celebrate the Mass together, we must know that language. That is why the church has listed directives for common posture at Mass.

(The church realizes that while some cannot physically participate in common postures, they can do so by desire and with focused awareness of that "we language.")

The directives in the GIRM are not new, but are clarifications. Back in 1978, the Vatican's Congregation on Divine Worship reminded us that "the Church's liturgy is the supreme action of a community and not a time for individuals to isolate themselves in acts of private devotion."

There is no isolation in a Nativity set. All are focused on one thing and one thing alone: the Lord, the source of all life and grace.

• As angels soared in the skies to announce Christ's birth, so we stand to sing in union as Mass begins and, as the Book of Gospels is opened, to honor the Lord who comes to us.

• As shepherds knelt in humble adoration, so we kneel together in awe before the sacrifice made manifest on the altar.

• As kings bowed, so we bow in reverence, during the creed and Eucharistic prayer, and before receiving Communion, as we behold the wonder of the Incarnation, of God made one with our flesh.

Just as we know what posture the figures of Nativity sets should assume to focus attention properly, so the new GIRM guides us in postures that focus our attention - and our entire beings - in worship.

As the Committee on the Liturgy said, "The Church makes it clear that our unity of posture and gesture is an expression of our participation in the one Body formed by the baptized with Christ, our head."

Separate figures in a Nativity set turn toward one little body, becoming one in focus. At Mass, our postures help make visible our mystical union in Christ.