Friday 11/7/14

This week’s LifeTeen Question of the Week comes from Joe Parry. Joe asks:
 
How do we know when to stand/kneel/sit during Mass (other than when the priest instructs us to do so)? And why do we stand/kneel/sit when we do?
 
 
I’ve got to be honest with you, Joe; I’m not a liturgist. Luckily, there are all sorts of wonderful resources out there from the extremely high tech (websites), to the slightly less high tech (printed missals), to the very low tech but nonetheless very impressive (Father Chris).

   

The different postures we assume during the Mass are reflective of what’s going on in the liturgy itself. Let’s start with sitting.
 
 
Sitting  

Think back to when you were young. Very young. I’m talking too young to read. Now imagine it’s story time. Your mom, dad, babysitter, or 8 ^th grade teacher calls you over. You run over anxiously and have to be reminded, for the four thousandth time, not to run with a lollipop in your mouth because “If you trip you’ll choke to death.” You reach the story reader and…
 
You sit down.
 
Sitting down is posture of listening. We sit for parts of the Mass where our role is predominantly to listen. This includes the first reading, the Psalm, the second reading, the homily, the offertory, and, if you’re lucky enough to be at LifeTeen SMASH, my totally sweet announcements. (Unless you are one of the people who waits for me to get up to run out of the Church like your hair is on fire.)
 
   

Standing  

Now imagine you’re a little older. You have a successful business type job. You go to board meetings, because presumably (from what I hear) that is what people in the corporate world do. Your boss is at the head of the table speaking. Everyone is sitting. You might even say they’re in a “posture of listening.” Then, your boss finishes talking and stands up. If you watch the same TV shows that I do, you know that now is the time for everyone else to stand up.
 
You should always stand during an introduction. People stand when the president enters a room, and generally stand any time he stands, unless he is giving a speech, in which case they assume a posture of listening. There was a time when gentlemen stood when a lady entered the room. The young men reading this might want to bring that tradition back.
 
Standing is a sign of deep respect. It is more formal than sitting, and it reflects an elevation in the tone of the liturgy. We stand from the procession until the opening prayer because it signals the start of the Mass and the cross as well as the Word of God is being presented. We stand for the Alleluia and Gospel because the Gospel contains the words of Christ, the most sacred of all scripture. We stand for the Creed because we are declaring what we believe, sort of like a “stand and deliver” type moment. We stand for the prayers of the faithful because we are petitioning God. We stand for the “Fratres” (pray my brothers and sisters…) until after the Holy, Holy, Holy. We stand again for the Amen after the Eucharistic Prayer and remain standing until after the Lamb of God.
 
 
Kneeling  

Imagine you’re being knighted. Now imagine you’re meeting the Pope. I’ve already run out of examples. Kneeling is a sign of profound reverence, respect, and submission. You kneel before a king. You kneel before the Holy Father because he is the Vicar of Christ. Someday, we will all kneel before our God. We kneel for the holiest parts of the Mass.
 
We kneel during the Eucharistic prayer, while we are waiting to receive the Eucharist, and just after receiving the Eucharist. The old rule of thumb used to be that when Jesus is present in the Eucharist, you're either walking up to receive Him, walking back from receiving Him, or kneeling. The Eucharistic Prayer starts the process of transubstantiation (the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord) and so we kneel as God is called down to be in our midst physically. We remain kneeling until He is locked away in the tabernacle. We are literally kneeling before our God. That’s the same reason we genuflect in front of the Tabernacle.
 
So there you have it. That’s when we sit and stand and kneel. If you’re ever unsure, a good rule of thumb is to do what everyone else is doing. As the GIRM (General Instructions on the Roman Missal) states, “For the sake of uniformity in gestures and bodily postures during one and the same celebration, the faithful should follow the instructions which the Deacon, a lay minister, or the Priest gives, according to what is laid down in the Missal.”


 
If you have a question you’d like Mike to answer, submit it under the “Ask Mike” section of our website. To guarantee that your question is chosen, write it down, pin it to your shirt, and kneel outside his office at: