Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Postures at Adoration and After Communion
ROME, NOV. 18, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
A reader offered a further query on our Nov. 4 comments on postures after Communion. He wrote: "The Ceremonial of Bishops gives a specific direction for everyone to sit, in its description of Stational Mass of the Diocesan Bishop, No. 166: 'When the bishop returns to the chair after the communion, he puts on the skullcap and, if need be, washes his hands. All are seated and a period of prayerful silence may follow, or a song of praise or a psalm may be sung' (Ceremonial of Bishops, Liturgical Press, 1989, p. 60).
"Everyone adopting the same posture is consistent with 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), No. 42: 'A common posture, to be observed by all participants, is a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community gathered for the Sacred Liturgy: it both expresses and fosters the intention and spiritual attitude of the participants.' I cannot recall ever seeing a priest kneeling after Communion.
"How should we interpret No. 43: '[T]hey may sit or kneel while the period of sacred silence after Communion is observed'? Does it contradict what is said about a common posture? Or does it mean the common posture can be sitting or kneeling, as the priest decides? I don't think the contradiction interpretation is justified."
I would say that there is no contradiction but adjustment to different situations.
No. 42 refers above all to those moments when a common posture is part of the rite itself and specifically prescribed in the liturgical books. Thus, under normal circumstances, it means everybody sitting during the readings, kneeling for the consecration or Eucharistic prayer, standing for the Our Father, etc.
By giving an option, No. 43 basically says that the rite does not require a common posture at this most personal and meditative of moments, and thus each member of the congregation may freely choose to either sit or kneel. This is probably a case of the legislator taking actual practice into account and is therefore more descriptive than prescriptive.
Also, GIRM No. 164 allows the priest to remain at the altar during the silence after Communion rather than going to the chair. In this case the people would be under no obligation to remain standing if he were to do so. This would be very rare at a bishop's solemn stational Mass as the prelate almost invariably goes directly to the chair after distributing Communion while another minister takes the ciboria to the altar.
Since the GIRM is the more recent document, and the legislator took the Ceremonial of Bishops into account in preparing it, I believe that the wider option offered by the GIRM is applicable in all cases.
A reader offered a further query on our Nov. 4 comments on postures after Communion. He wrote: "The Ceremonial of Bishops gives a specific direction for everyone to sit, in its description of Stational Mass of the Diocesan Bishop, No. 166: 'When the bishop returns to the chair after the communion, he puts on the skullcap and, if need be, washes his hands. All are seated and a period of prayerful silence may follow, or a song of praise or a psalm may be sung' (Ceremonial of Bishops, Liturgical Press, 1989, p. 60).
"Everyone adopting the same posture is consistent with 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), No. 42: 'A common posture, to be observed by all participants, is a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community gathered for the Sacred Liturgy: it both expresses and fosters the intention and spiritual attitude of the participants.' I cannot recall ever seeing a priest kneeling after Communion.
"How should we interpret No. 43: '[T]hey may sit or kneel while the period of sacred silence after Communion is observed'? Does it contradict what is said about a common posture? Or does it mean the common posture can be sitting or kneeling, as the priest decides? I don't think the contradiction interpretation is justified."
I would say that there is no contradiction but adjustment to different situations.
No. 42 refers above all to those moments when a common posture is part of the rite itself and specifically prescribed in the liturgical books. Thus, under normal circumstances, it means everybody sitting during the readings, kneeling for the consecration or Eucharistic prayer, standing for the Our Father, etc.
By giving an option, No. 43 basically says that the rite does not require a common posture at this most personal and meditative of moments, and thus each member of the congregation may freely choose to either sit or kneel. This is probably a case of the legislator taking actual practice into account and is therefore more descriptive than prescriptive.
Also, GIRM No. 164 allows the priest to remain at the altar during the silence after Communion rather than going to the chair. In this case the people would be under no obligation to remain standing if he were to do so. This would be very rare at a bishop's solemn stational Mass as the prelate almost invariably goes directly to the chair after distributing Communion while another minister takes the ciboria to the altar.
Since the GIRM is the more recent document, and the legislator took the Ceremonial of Bishops into account in preparing it, I believe that the wider option offered by the GIRM is applicable in all cases.
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9:44 AM
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