Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: When Concelebrants Exit
ROME, JULY 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Our July 10 column on ending a concelebrated Mass brought to light a couple of related topics.
A reader in Kuwait asked: "In India, it has become a common practice that instead of kissing the altar before and after Mass, priests touch the altar by their hands (fingers) and then touch their face with the fingers. Is this permitted?"
I must confess ignorance as to whether it is explicitly permitted, but I can help to find the answer.
The general norms for adaptation allow bishops' conferences to propose changes to some rites and gestures of the Mass if a particular gesture common in Western culture is judged unsuitable or liable to misinterpretation in a different cultural context. Likewise the bishops could propose a different gesture which conveys the same meaning as the one replaced.
If two-thirds of the bishops vote in favor of the change, and it is later approved by the Holy See, it becomes particular liturgical law for the country in question.
In that case the change or adaptation must be incorporated in some way into the missal. This could be either as an addition to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), an appendix with local norms, or in the rubrics.
If there is no mention of any such change in the missal or in any published decrees of the bishops' conference, then one may presume that it is a case of private initiative on the part of priests.
The priests are always free to propose to the bishops any worthwhile adaptation. But in the meantime they should return to approved norms.
A reader from Kalisz, Poland, asked: "Paragraph No. 275 of the GIRM says that 'a bow of the head is made when the three divine Persons are named together and at the name of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Saint in whose honor the Mass is being celebrated.' What about a case of a concelebrated Mass, when one of the concelebrants (or the main celebrant) recites his part and comes upon the name of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary or of the saint in whose honor the Mass is being celebrated -- do all the concelebrants (and the main celebrant) bow their head at that moment, even though they are not reciting that particular word? Or does this norm only apply to the priest who recites the particular word in a given moment?"
Only the priest who recites the text makes the bow at this moment. When a bow is foreseen in prayers said by all together, then all make the bow.
Our July 10 column on ending a concelebrated Mass brought to light a couple of related topics.
A reader in Kuwait asked: "In India, it has become a common practice that instead of kissing the altar before and after Mass, priests touch the altar by their hands (fingers) and then touch their face with the fingers. Is this permitted?"
I must confess ignorance as to whether it is explicitly permitted, but I can help to find the answer.
The general norms for adaptation allow bishops' conferences to propose changes to some rites and gestures of the Mass if a particular gesture common in Western culture is judged unsuitable or liable to misinterpretation in a different cultural context. Likewise the bishops could propose a different gesture which conveys the same meaning as the one replaced.
If two-thirds of the bishops vote in favor of the change, and it is later approved by the Holy See, it becomes particular liturgical law for the country in question.
In that case the change or adaptation must be incorporated in some way into the missal. This could be either as an addition to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), an appendix with local norms, or in the rubrics.
If there is no mention of any such change in the missal or in any published decrees of the bishops' conference, then one may presume that it is a case of private initiative on the part of priests.
The priests are always free to propose to the bishops any worthwhile adaptation. But in the meantime they should return to approved norms.
A reader from Kalisz, Poland, asked: "Paragraph No. 275 of the GIRM says that 'a bow of the head is made when the three divine Persons are named together and at the name of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Saint in whose honor the Mass is being celebrated.' What about a case of a concelebrated Mass, when one of the concelebrants (or the main celebrant) recites his part and comes upon the name of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary or of the saint in whose honor the Mass is being celebrated -- do all the concelebrants (and the main celebrant) bow their head at that moment, even though they are not reciting that particular word? Or does this norm only apply to the priest who recites the particular word in a given moment?"
Only the priest who recites the text makes the bow at this moment. When a bow is foreseen in prayers said by all together, then all make the bow.
posted by Chipi Buenafe at
11:33 AM
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