The National Anthem and the Liturgy

Here's half a post from Fr. Z's blog, What Does the Prayer Really Say?

[On Memorial Day], I noticed that when the young woman came up to sing the National Anthem, she turned the microphone around and sang it facing the veterans and the flag, both which were behind the podium that had been set up. This happened twice, once at the Veterans Memorial and once at the local town cemetery. I figured that the reason she did this was to show that it was not a performance of the National Anthem, but rather sung in remembrance and honor of our country and our fallen veterans.

What might this have to do with the liturgy? Read the rest of the post at WDTPRS.

More on facing east: latent desire?

The following is derived from a thread on the Catholic Answers Forum. The regular text is from soflochristmas, the italics text is from other commenters, and the bold text at the end is from me.

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My sister is the ONLY person in my family that has maintained a solid practice of her Catholic faith; probably because she's the only one with a family (two girls). She's at a very heterodox parish in Tampa but she at least attends Mass fairly regularly and my nieces are receiving the sacraments. ...

When I spoke with my sister on Sunday, she mentioned that she attended a "sunrise service on the beach". I was stunned because I was certain the Catholic Church on St. Anastasia island does NOT have such a service. She must have picked up on my "pause" and silence and she offered, "it wasn't a Catholic service...but....".

My heart sank. ... If my sister had a choice between receiving Christ in the Eucharist on the most holy day of the Christian calendar, or attending a "sunrise service on the beach", why would she choose one over the other? What is it about the "sunrise service on the beach" that would make her choose it over Christ in the Eucharist?

On another note why would one have a Easter service on a beach? What connection does the Resurrection of Christ at have to do with a beach in Florida? Were they there to glorify the Lord or just there to be in a really "neat" place?

Well, other than it's as far east as you can get (i.e., the first place the sun rises).

Look at that! People want to worship "in the east"! It's funny, but Catholics have been doing that for 2000 years. It's called worship ad orientem, facing the east. (Traditionally, the altar is at the eastern end of the church; this is still the standard, although it's not as common in the Latin Church as it is in the Eastern Churches.)

As Pope Benedict pointed out in a book he wrote back in the 80s, once upon a time church architecture was such that the light from the rising/risen sun would shine in through the eastern side of the church building during Mass in the morning. This allowed even the architecture and the sun to join in the worship of God. He called it a "cosmic liturgy".

How sad that we don't have that anymore in our Roman parishes and people have to walk out to the beach to try and satisfy that latent desire!

Liturgical Orientation: Why Face East?

This post, which will appear in chapter 2 of Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the Priest, is greatly inspired by two essays by Cardinal Ratzinger: “Eastward- or Westward-Facing Position? A Correction” (in Feast of Faith, pp. 139-145) and “The Altar and the Direction of Liturgical Prayer” (in The Spirit of the Liturgy, pp. 74-84).

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Perhaps the most commonly misunderstood element of liturgical worship in the Ordinary Form of Roman Rite – second only to the use of Latin – is the direction which the priest faces during the Mass.  If you are familiar with the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, you are well aware that for the majority of the Mass, the priest is not facing towards the people, but away from them.  This orientation has been described in numerous ways, some of which are inaccurate and misleading:  some say the priest has his back to the people (or worse, has turned his back on the people) or that he is facing the wall, others that he is facing the altar or the tabernacle.

First, if the priest “has his back to the people,” then the same must be said of all the people in the church (except those sitting in the back), but I know of no one who takes offense to the fact that the people sitting in front of them aren’t looking at them!  Just because the priest is not facing the people does not mean he is being rude or is ignoring them.  Those who see the gesture as the priest “turning his back on the people” are simply deriving the wrong symbolism, one of moral injustice, from this posture.  Second, if the priest is “facing the wall,” then the same should be said of the whole congregation.  Yes, the congregation is also facing the priest and the altar, but they’re facing the wall beyond the priest and altar as well.  Third, many modern churches are built such that when the priest is “facing the altar” he is also facing the people, so this description is not very specific.  Fourth, the tabernacle is not necessarily on (or behind) the altar, so the priest is not necessarily facing it; and again, the tabernacle should not be the focus of the priest’s attention at Mass. (cf. Ratzinger, Feast of Faith, p. 139)

All these descriptions focus on the wrong center of attention.  What is the proper center of attention during the Mass?  The Mass is a prayer to God; the “direction of the Eucharist [is] from Christ in the Holy Spirit to the Father.” (Feast of Faith, p. 140; cf. Catechism 1073)  This means that liturgy should be directed spiritually ad Deum, that is, “towards God.”  Ancient Christian tradition has manifested this spiritual orientation^[1] by facing ad orientem, to the east (whereas Jewish worship faces Jerusalem).

Why the east?  As they say in real estate:  location, location, location!  The east is the direction of the rising sun, which is a biblical (not pagan) symbol of Christ; thus, the east is associated with His Incarnation, Resurrection, Ascension, and Second Coming.

The Incarnation

God is often identified with light in both the Old and New Testaments:  the psalmist calls God “a sun and shield” (Ps. 84:11) and St. John says that “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)  So too Christ is likened to light and the sun, especially in His Incarnation, the first coming.

St. Jerome, in his commentary on the book of the prophet Ezekiel, saw the east gate of the Temple in Ezekiel’s vision as a sign of the Virgin Mary’s womb.  Ezekiel saw that “the glory of the God of Israel came from the east” (Ezek. 43:2) and that “no one shall enter by it” except the Lord. (Ezek. 44:2)^[2]  This Scripture was interpreted as a prophecy of the Incarnation, so its association with the east is particularly important.

The prophet Isaiah foretold a time when a child would be born who be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6) and who would sit on the throne of David and have a never-ending kingdom.  Of that day Isaiah said “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.” (Isa. 9:2)  St. Matthew tells us that this was fulfilled by Jesus’ preaching throughout the regions of Zebulun and Napthali. (cf. Matt. 4:12-16; Isa. 9:1)

The prophet Malachi foretold that the “sun of righteousness” would rise. (Mal. 4:2)  The Advent hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” also invokes Christ as the Oriens, the “Day-Spring” or dawn.^[3]  The Canticle of Zechariah (the Benedictus, Luke 1:68-79), which the father of St. John the Baptist proclaimed upon the birth of his son, ends by describing God’s mercy being manifested as “the dawn [oriens] from on high” which would “shine on those who dwell in darkness,” alluding to the Incarnation.

Finally, St. John the Evangelist refers to Jesus as the “light” in the prologue of his gospel (cf. John 1:4-9), and Jesus spoke of Himself in the same way. (cf. John 8:12; 9:5; 12:46)

The Resurrection

At Christ’s crucifixion the sun was darkened (cf. Luke 23:45) and with the setting of the sun:  Golgotha is on the west side of Jerusalem, and Jesus was buried in the evening. (cf. Matt. 27:57)  On the contrary, His Resurrection is associated with the rising of the sun.  Cardinal Ratzinger explains that “the rising sun, the east – oriens – was naturally [a] symbol of the Resurrection” (Feast of Faith, p. 140)

Jesus rose from the dead at (or just before) sunrise. (cf. Luke 24:1; John 20:1)  His Apostles captured a glimpse of His resurrected glory at His transfiguration when “he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light.” (Matt. 17:2)  St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, quotes an early Christian baptismal hymn:  “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.” (Eph. 5:14)

The Ascension

St. Luke records in the Acts of the Apostles that Jesus ascended into Heaven from the Mount of Olives (cf. Acts 1:9-12), which was located to the east of Jerusalem.  The Roman liturgy associates Psalm 67:33-34 with the Solemnity of the Ascension; the Latin Vulgate reads “psallite Deo qui ascendit super caelum caeli ad orientem,” which the Douay-Rheims Bible renders as “Sing ye to God Who mounteth above the heaven of heavens, to the east.”

The Second Coming (Parousia)

Cardinal Ratzinger points out that the rising sun, the oriens, was not only a natural symbol of the Resurrection, but also of “a presentation of the hope of the parousia.” (Feast of Faith, p. 140)  Indeed, “every Mass is an approach to the return of Christ.” (Feast of Faith, pp. 140-141)

The angels at the Ascension told the Apostles that “Jesus … will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)  Jesus Himself prophesied His return from the east:  “as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man.” (Matt. 24:27)  When Jesus returns, His appearance will probably be like that seen by St. John as recorded in the book of Revelation:  “his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” (Rev. 1:16)  In the heavenly Temple, Jesus is the lamp. (cf. Rev. 21:23; 22:5)

The East and the Cross

We also read in the book of Revelation that St. John “saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God” (Rev. 7:2)  The seal of God is believed to be the sign of the Son of Man, which is the cross. (cf. Ezek. 9:4; Rev. 7:2-3)^[4]

The early Christians marked the eastern wall of their meeting-houses with a cross first as a sign of hope for Christ’s return and only later as a reminder of His Passion. (cf. Feast of Faith, p. 141)  This tradition was the origin of the rubric, still present in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, which required there to be a crucifix on the altar, so that Mass would be celebrated not only facing east, but also facing the cross.  In the Ordinary Form of the Mass, a crucifix is still required, but it can be near the altar if not on it. (cf. GIRM 117)

The east, the oriens, signifies the whole Christian concept of time:  the Lord is “the rising sun of history.” (The Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 84)  So while it is not proper to say that the Eucharist is celebrated facing the tabernacle or even facing the altar, it can be said that the Eucharist is celebrated “facing the image of the cross, which embodied in itself the whole theology the oriens.” (Feast of Faith, p. 141)

Liturgical Significance

So what value is there in celebrating the Eucharist facing the east?

First, we can express our spiritual worship through our bodies.  When the priest says “Lift up your hearts” before the Eucharistic Prayer, and the congregation responds “We lift them up to the Lord,” there is an internal orientation towards the Lord being spoken of.  This internal reality should also be expressed by external signs if possible.  Celebrating the Eucharist facing the east is an external manifestation of being directed to the Lord, of our hope for His return, for the new dawn and the endless day of Heaven.

Second, this posture should not be misconstrued as the priest having his back to the people, but as the priest and the people facing the same direction together.  At the end of his sermons, St. Augustine would often say “conversi ad Dominum” (“let us turn toward the Lord”), which had both a spiritual (conversion) and a literal (orientation) meaning in the liturgy, as priest and people would face the east together for the Eucharistic portion of the liturgy.  In this way, we resume the shared posture of the entrance procession by which we express our pilgrim state on earth, on a journey to the Lord. (cf. The Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 80)

Third, churches were traditionally built facing the east, that is, with the altar at the eastern end, so that the Eucharist could be celebrated in that direction.  Cardinal Ratzinger refers to this as being mindful of the “cosmic dimension” or “orientation” of the liturgy (Feast of Faith, p. 140) by which the whole of creation can be included in worship of God.  This architecture “stand[s] in the cosmos, inviting the sun to be a sign of the praise of God and a sign of the mystery of Christ.” (Feast of Faith, p. 143)  Cardinal Ratzinger suggests that if our buildings were oriented this way, it would facilitate the recovery of a spirituality which embraces creation in a traditional manner.

Fourth, while it is reasonable for the Liturgy of the Word to be celebrated face-to-face as an exchange between the one proclaiming the Word and those hearing it, this orientation is not as suited to the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  The communal character of the liturgy is a positive and necessary one, but it should not be emphasized to the point that the Eucharist is regarded merely a communal meal.  The Eucharist is offered first to God as a sacrifice, from Whom it is received as spiritual food.

Fifth, there is sometimes confusion about the various ways in which Christ is present in the liturgy.  He is present in the priest in a particular way, and He is also present in the congregation, for where two or three are gathered in His name, He is present in their midst. (cf. Matt. 10:10)  But the congregation does not pray to Christ-in-the-priest, nor does the priest pray to Christ-in-the-people.  God is present in nature, but we do not worship a rock or a river as God; likewise, we do not worship one another as Christ.  The manner of God’s presence is not the same in all things.  The Church is not a community closed in on itself, but is open to “what lies ahead and above,” to God. (The Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 80)  The Eucharist is not a “dialogue” between the priest and the congregation but between the Church and the Lord.

Historical Continuity

The Church, in both the east and west, has traditionally prayed facing the east.  If you attend a Byzantine Divine Liturgy, you will see that the priest prays the majority of the anaphora (i.e. the Eucharistic Prayer) facing the east, and probably behind an iconostasis, a screen with doors decorated with icons of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and other saints and angels.  The priest will from time to time turn to speak to face the congregation to speak to them; this happens in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass as well.

Eastward posture is the traditional posture of the Latin Church as well, although changes started occurring in the middle of the 20^th century, even before the Second Vatican Council.  The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy said nothing about “turning altars around.”  Still, the practice of priests celebrating Mass “facing the people” (versus populum) – standing on “the other side” of the altar – became more and more prevalent so quickly that it became the perceived norm, to the point where Mass celebrated ad orientem seemed to be incompatible with the Ordinary Form.  However, as Pope Benedict XVI has shown by his example, the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite can be celebrated ad orientem; in fact, the Roman Missal anticipates that the priest will be celebrating Mass in this manner because on several occasions its rubrics instruct him to turn toward the people or toward the altar, instructions which are redundant if those two directions are the same.^[5]

An unfortunate “Latinization” of the Eastern Rites, by which they adopted traditions and characteristics particular to the Latin Rite (often at the expense of their own), has occurred at times during the Church’s history.  In 1996, the Vatican Congregation for Eastern Churches put out a document on Eastern liturgical worship, Pater Incomprehensibilis (PI).  The document praises the “the inalienable value of the particular heritage of the Eastern Churches” (PI 7) and stresses the need for preserving the Eastern liturgical traditions.  One such tradition, prayer facing east, was being endangered by “a new and recent Latin influence” (PI 107) which spread in the years following the Second Vatican Council.  After quoting St. John of Damascus at length (who provided numerous proofs from Scripture of God’s hallowing of the east^[6]) and addressing that the priest is “guiding the people in pilgrimage toward the Kingdom” rather than has his “back turned to the people,” the document calls for the retention and safeguarding of prayer facing east as “truly coherent with the Eastern liturgical spirituality” and having “profound value.” (Ibid.)

The Cross as East

Pope Benedict XVI, both before his election to the papacy and after, has suggested an alternative approach to facing east:  “the cross can serve as the interior ‘east’ of faith.” (The Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 83)

Because the Liturgy of the Eucharist is not about a dialogue between the priest and the congregation, but between the whole church and God, the cross can serve as a focus point when the priest and the congregation face each other:  since the cross can be placed on the altar, rather than just near it, it serves to distinguish the Liturgy of the Word from the Liturgy of the Eucharist. (cf. Feast of Faith, p. 145)  This is the arrangement found on the altar at most papal Masses.

An objection to this is that the cross can be regarded as a “barrier” or “obstruction” to the act taking place on the altar.  Cardinal Ratzinger asks in reply, “Is the cross disruptive during Mass?  Is the priest more important than the Lord?” (The Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 84)  His response to this objection is that “the cross on the altar is not obstructing the view” and is “an open ‘iconostasis.’” (Feast of Faith, p. 145)

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[1] The word “orientation” comes from the Latin oriens, meaning “the east; sunrise,” which in turn comes from the verb orior, meaning “to rise.”

[2] That this gate “shall remain shut” was seen by many (e.g. Tertullian, Methodius, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, John of Damascus) as a prophecy of Mary’s perpetual virginity, that she bore no other children besides Jesus.

[3] This hymn comes from a series of prayers said during the Liturgy of the Hours on the days concluding Advent, the season in which the Church celebrates the first coming of Christ and anticipates His second coming.

[4] This link is described in Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, pp. 28-29.

[5] When a church’s architecture does not place the sanctuary and altar in the eastern end of the building, one could treat that part of the church where the altar is located as a “liturgical east.”

[6] Among these are:  God is light (cf. 1 John 1:5), Christ is the “sun of righteousness” (Mal. 4:2), Christ as “the East” (Zec. 3:8 in the Septuagint), the location of Eden “in the east” (Gen. 2:8), the east-facing gate of the Temple (cf. Ezek. 44:1), Christ ascending toward the east (cf. Acts 1:11), and His statement about His return “from the east.” (Matt. 24:27)

Liturgy: Facing the East for Worship

This is from the 1996 Instruction from the Congregation for the Eastern (Catholic) Churches concerning the liturgical prescriptions of their canon law, Pater Incomprehensibilis.

107. Prayer facing the east
Ever since ancient times, it has been customary in the prayer of the Eastern Churches to prostrate oneself to the ground, turning toward the east; the buildings themselves were constructed such that the altar would face the east. Saint John of Damascus explains the meaning of this tradition: "It is not for simplicity nor by chance that we pray turned toward the regions of the east (...). Since God is intelligible light (1 Jn. 1:5), and in the Scripture, Christ is called the Sun of justice (Mal. 3:20) and the East (Zech. 3:8 of the LXX), it is necessary to dedicate the east to him in order to render him worship. The Scripture says: 'Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed' (Gen. 2:8). (...) In search of the ancient homeland and tending toward it, we worship God. Even the tent of Moses had its curtain veil and propitiatory facing the east. And the tribe of Judah, in as much as it was the most notable, encamped on the east side (cf. Nm. 2:3). In the temple of Solomon, the Lord's gate was facing the east (cf. Ez. 44:1). Finally, the Lord placed on the cross looked toward the west, and so we prostrate ourselves in his direction, facing him. When he ascended to heaven, he was raised toward the east, and thus his disciples adored him, and thus he will return, in the same way as they saw him go to heaven (cf. Acts 1:11), as the Lord himself said: 'For just as lightning comes from the east and is seen as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be' (Mt. 24:27). Waiting for him, we prostrate ourselves toward the east. It is an unwritten tradition, deriving from the Apostles." (John of Damascus, Expositio accurata fidei orthodoxae IV, 12: PG 94, 1133-1136)

This rich and fascinating interpretation also explains the reason for which the celebrant who presides in the liturgical celebration prays facing the east, just as the people who participate. It is not a question, as is often claimed, of presiding the celebration with the back turned to the people, but rather of guiding the people in pilgrimage toward the Kingdom, invoked in prayer until the return of the Lord.

Such practice, threatened in numerous Eastern Catholic Churches by a new and recent Latin influence, is thus of profound value and should be safeguarded as truly coherent with the Eastern liturgical spirituality.

The recent Latin influence would be that of the past few decades, when the Latin Church "spontaneously" abandoned the centuries old tradition of worshiping facing the east. Reclaiming worship ad orientem is part of the new liturgical movement, be sure of that. Pope Benedict's is setting a good example, and other bishops are following suit, including the Bishop Slattery of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Why does the priest turn to face us during ad orientem Mass?

C. Why should the priest turn round to the people when he is engaged in so solemn an act of communion with Almighty God?

P. To assure them continually of his good will toward them, to remind them that they are parties with himself in the great act he is performing, and to keep up their attention; even as our blessed Lord Himself broke off three several times from His prayer in the garden in order to sustain the fainting hearts of His Apostles: and hence the Church would have us remember that our life on earth is divided between the duties of devotion and charity, for on those "two great commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." But you will find that when the priest has once entered upon the more solemn parts of the Mass, he no longer salutes the people by turning toward them.

(Source: The Glories of the Catholic Church The Catholic Christian Instructed in Defence of His Faith by Richard Challoner, et. al.)

Liturgy: The Extraordinary Form of the Mass in the Metuchen Diocese

This comes via Fr. Z's blog, What Does the Prayer Really Say?

[I]n the Diocese of Metuchen, NJ we have a shrine chapel where TLM has gone from once a month to every day! The former St. Bernard parish church in Raritan, NJ was no longer used because the parish moved to a bigger piece of property and a larger church. The diocese turned the church into the Shrine Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament for daily all-day adoration and Confessions. It has served in the capacity for over a decade now.

Every day mass is celebrated in the morning in the Novus Ordo (in English and Latin ad orientem) and then the Blessed Sacrament is exposed. There are Confessions heard every day. Each evening there is Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at 6:45pm followed by TLM at 7:00pm. On Sundays TLM is celebrated at 11:00am and there is Benediction in the afternoon. The bishop has also given his permission for those who request it to have other Sacraments (like Baptism) celebrated at the Shrine in the extraordinary form and to have funerals there if they desire to have a funeral in the extraordinary form. It is not a parish church but it is a sort of "quasi-parish".

I will need to find the time to attend Mass there (in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms).

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Papal Nuncio Archbishop Thomas Gullickson on Reform of the Liturgical Reform

I'll just paste the first two paragraphs of his brief (11-paragraph) essay on Summorum Pontificum, worship ad orientem, and the "reform of the reform":

Pick up the Ball and Run!
Taking a Stance on the increasing Sentiment in favor of a Reform of the Liturgical Reform

Recently I happened across what I presume was a sports shoe commercial for television but of a very surreal sort built around a rugby theme. In the video the ball comes crashing through the front window of a restaurant and the next thing you know the men from the restaurant in business suits are joining in the game on the streets of the busy city outside. The video resembles as much urban warfare as it does a sport. I know rugby has become a genuine “thing” for boys and young men, replacing for our day and time the quest for the “red badge of courage” once to be gained in a forgotten type of warfare that was far from all-out for the civilian population but oftentimes mortal for the flower of a nation’s youth. In watching the video, the thought came to me that much of what goes on in the area of vernacular liturgy, its planning and celebration is not without parallels to the sport of rugby and its ethos. The incongruity of this thought is as shocking to me as watching the video “rugby” chase over cars, down alleys and onward through a bustling business district of town. The ethos of Divine Worship should be another.

Since the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum the calls for a genuine reform of that liturgical reform which we have netted over the past forty years have become more insistent but likewise more eloquent and credible as proponents clarify their positions and line up behind the Holy Father. The contrast to the at times rugby-like status quo presented by the Pope’s gentle hand and his balanced words, notably during his recent visit to France, has led me to draw my little parallel between what has been touted as a reform according to the mind of the Second Vatican Council but which many times over the years and even yet today rather seems to resemble rugby rules for picking up the ball and running with it, that is, if you dare. The liturgical renewal which many of us have experienced in many parts of the Western World is unfortunately tinged with an inclination on the part of the priest celebrants to protagonism and no small amount of bravado being shown by others (let’s point our fingers at some of the pop choirs, musicians and dancers, leaving aside people with feminist and other agendas who also occasionally attempt to highjack what we were taught was the work of all God’s people).

I strongly suggest you read the rest of the essay. Also check out Fr. Z's excellent commentary.

Liturgy: Conversi ad Dominum

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass today ad orientem -- that is, facing the tabernacle, facing the Lord -- in public. Continuity in liturgical tradition is making a comeback.