When you walk into someone’s house, it’s generally considered polite to tell them “Hi!”…well, in America, at least…if you’re in England, you’d probably say something more like, “Cheerio, Gov’na, shall we have tea while snacking on fish & chips and watching rugby?” Ok, that was probably offensive on countless levels, but the point is, upon entering a house, your first action should be some sort of greeting to the person who lives there as well as any other guests that may be there. Similarly, when the priest celebrating Mass enters the Church, he first processes toward the Sanctuary with the other ministers as we mentioned in the last post. Now we continue…
After processing to the Sanctuary, the ministers bow to the Altar as a sign of respect (mentioned in “You Never Even Call Me by My Name – Part IV-a), then the priest(s) and deacon(s) walk around the Altar and kiss it, as a further sign of respect for Christ’s sacrifice. So this raises a good question, which, naturally, is our next tangent:
What’s the point of all the bowing & kissing and stuff? Not to mention all the standing, sitting, and kneeling we do, a.k.a. “Catholic Aerobics.” The movements we make at Mass fall into one of two categories: Posture or Gesture.
Posture, in the context of the Mass, refers to the ways we position our bodies at different times to show differing degrees of reverence to what is happening at the time. At Mass, the three main postures are sitting, standing, and kneeling. Their degrees of respect are pretty easy to figure out. Sitting, which requires the least amount of effort on our part, has the least respect attached to it. Standing requires slightly more effort, and therefore is linked to slightly more important events in the Mass. Kneeling has the most humbling quality of these three postures and is reserved for the most important parts of the Mass. There is also a fourth posture, that of prostration, or lying face-down on the ground. This is an even more humbling posture than kneeling, and is rarely seen. It is used in the Rite of Ordination, in solemn professions to a religious order, and on Good Friday.
Gestures are the movements we make during the Mass. Gestures we use at Mass include bowing of the head, bowing at the waist, genuflecting, making the sign of the cross, and others. They all have their place and purpose, and we’ll get to those in time. For now, we’ll just mention the bowing at the waist, which is more respectful than the simple bow of the head, and is used to show reverence to the altar.
After showing respect to the altar and, in turn, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, if there is incense used at Mass, the priest incenses the altar and the crucifix in the sanctuary. After this is done, the priest goes to his chair (called the presider’s chair) and stands in front of it until the opening hymn (the song that has been going on since the priest(s) and ministers began processing in towards the Sanctuary) has concluded. Then the priest leads the faithful gathered at Mass in the Sign of the Cross (see “I Saw the Sign” for the importance of making this sign) to begin the celebration.
After making the Sign of the Cross, the priest then greets and welcomes the people. See, back to our introduction, when the priests and ministers reach the Sanctuary, they “greet” God, whose house we’re in at Mass, then he greets all the other guests gathered at the house.
So that’s the Introductory Rites. In our next post, we’ll dive right into the Penitential Rite, which will lead us on our next tangent about sin. Fun stuff right there! See you next time!
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