Catholic Apologetics #74
(Read Reverence for the Most Blessed Sacrament)
There are four postures for prayers: prostration, kneeling, standing, and sitting. While God will of course hear our prayers no matter our posture, the Church rightfully prescribes in Her rubrics for the public liturgy the postures for Her sacred ministers. Therefore, the priest’s actions are regulated at Mass, and this is also why the rubrics during the Divine Office prescribe certain postures.
Prostrations
Prostrations – the full placement of our entire body on the ground – is the most humbling of prayer positions. Prostrations, sometimes involving the extending of one’s arms in the form of a cross, still occur in the life of the Church. For instance, Carthusian monks prostrate themselves during the Consecration at Mass. Dominicans likewise prostrate themselves before the altar at Mass during the “Ecce Agnus Dei” in what is known as the Venia[1]. Monks also prostrate themselves during the Roman Martyrology reading for Our Lord’s Nativity. This reading is nowadays often read at the beginning of Christmas Midnight Mass[2] even though it is properly part of the Divine Office in the hour of Prime.
Prostrations are also done before the imposition of Holy Orders, religious professions, or the consecration of a virgin. In fact, in more ancient times, the priest would begin Mass by prostrating himself before the altar. This is still retained only in the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday where the sacred ministers prostrate themselves before the altar.
Religious can also pray this way in their private devotions. For example, from her memoirs, we learn that Sister Lucia was praying thus on June 13, 1929 when she received a mystical revelation of the Blessed Trinity.
“I had requested and obtained permission from my superiors and my confessor to make a holy hour from 11:00 p.m. to midnight, from Thursday to Friday of each week. Finding myself alone one night, I knelt down near the Communion rail, in the middle of the chapel, to recite the prayers of the Angel, lying prostrate… Feeling tired, I got up and continued to recite them with my arms in the form of a cross. The only light was that of the [sanctuary] lamp.”
We can, of course, make prostrations at home for our own private prayers.
Kneeling before Our Eucharistic Lord
Kneeling is the standard posture of worship and adoration, with prostrations typically prescribed for more solemn occasions. While we do not ordinarily prostrate ourselves before the altar at Mass, we do regularly kneel in adoration before Our Lord.
In times past, it was common to fall to your knees if you saw Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament being carried down the street in procession or a priest bringing someone Holy Viaticum. One would know the Blessed Sacrament was near because an altar boy would be ringing a bell by the side of the priest. It did not matter if it was raining or snowing or muddy. God Himself was walking past and the only proper posture was one of adoration – kneeling or prostration.
Eucharistic processions were even more reverent. Altar boys would continually incense the path before Our Lord. In order to show the incense was to honor God they would face the Blessed Sacrament and thus have to carefully walk backwards as they incensed. Four men would carry a liturgical canopy which covered the Blessed Sacrament, reminiscent of the Old Testament tent of the tabernacle. Young children, perhaps First Communicants, might even strew the ground before Our Lord with rose petals or palms. The sides of the streets would be thronged with Catholic faithful kneeling. This was a beautiful sight to behold and was a powerful witness to the world that Catholics believed in the Real Presence.
Yet nowadays when we see Eucharistic processions occur, people just stand around and stare. They may even laugh or continue their discussions. Even an average Catholic may feel like they should merely make the Sign of the Cross and not draw attention to themselves by kneeling. Yet, to such Catholics, Our Lord’s words surely apply: “For he that shall be ashamed of Me, and of My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation: the Son of man also will be ashamed of him, when He shall come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton remarked, “God is everything, in the very air I breathe, yes everywhere, but in His Sacrament of the Altar He is as present actually and really as my soul within my body; in His Sacrifice daily offered as really as once offered on the Cross.” If we believe likewise, how could we not kneel or genuflect[3] whenever we pass the tabernacle or see Our Lord in a monstrance or witness the great miracle of transubstantiation when it occurs on our very altars.
Kneeling for the Priest’s Blessing
Catholics are also accustomed to kneeling any time a priest gives them his blessing. For example, it might be at the conclusion of a parish meeting, at the start of a lecture, or during the prayers before a meal in the social hall. For a home visit, all the family would gather and kneel for the priest’s blessing before he departed. In the past, Catholics were even accustomed to seeking out the priest before making a long journey and asking for his blessing, which they would receive kneeling.
For such a blessing, the priest would normally make the Sign of the Cross over the faithful as he prayed the formula: “Et benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, descendat super vos et maneat semper. Amen.”
If the priest’s blessing is so important in private devotional matters, then it must clearly have far greater importance in the Church’s public prayer, Her liturgy.
Kneeling for the Final Blessing
Among the many casualties in devotion over the past fifty years has been the practice of kneeling during the final blessing at Mass. While the faithful at the Tridentine Mass are accustomed to kneel for the priest’s final blessing, the vast majority of Catholics attending the Novus Ordo simply stand for this blessing.[4]
What should be our sentiments during this final blessing? The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass Dogmatically, Liturgically and Ascetically Explained by Father Nikolaus Gihr, published in 1908, provides a step-by-step understanding of the spirituality of the Holy Mass. On the final blessing, he writes: “But as the full efficacy of the Sacramentals, to which this blessing appertains, depends also in part on the worthiness of the dispenser and of the receiver, during this holy act of blessing, therefore, both priest and people should be animated and filled with faith, confidence, humility, devotion.”
What better posture can we assume to show such sentiments than kneeling?
Father Gihr continues: “[The priest] indeed, implores of God the dispensation of the blessing; but his prayer of sacerdotal blessing is more than a devout wish of happiness – it is at all times efficacious and has the guarantee of being answered. The priest pronounces the words and God bestows the blessing, for God blesses by his mouth and by his hand.”
Indeed, the same hands that have just touched the Son of God and the same lips which have just drunk the Blood of the Savior pronounce on us an efficacious blessing which God answers. Indeed, one of the sixteen graces for those who attend Holy Mass is that you receive the priest’s blessing which Our Lord ratifies in Heaven.
Conclusion
Indeed, it has always been proper Catholic practice to kneel for a priest’s blessing, whether it be within Mass or outside of Mass, because it is God’s blessing which you receive through the priest.
If Jesus Christ appeared before you and blessed you, would you stand or sit? Would you not kneel or fall to the ground in a prostration? Then why do we not treat Our Lord in the Eucharist or the final blessing at Mass with the deserved reverence? If a non-Catholic saw us, would they say that we practice what we believe?
[1] http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2008/07/dominican-venia-and-kissing-scapular.html
[2] The Roman Martyrology reading for Our Lord’s Nativity may be read here: https://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2011/12/vigil-of-nativity-of-our-lord-jesus.html
[3] For detailed information on single or double genuflection, see https://fatima.org/news-views/catholic-apologetics-29/
[4] It should be noted that the only two statements in Vatican II documents that concerned postures (i.e., Numbers 30-31 of Sacrosanctum Concilium) did not ask for any kneeling to be removed: “To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence.” Yet modernists forced the removal of many pious and devout prayers and postures. Kneeling during the final blessing was one of the casualties.
[5] The book can be read freely online at https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Holy_Sacrifice_of_the_Mass/uSJPuNzdo14C?hl
[6] A traditional list of the graces available for those who attend Holy Mass: https://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2006/02/assisting-at-mass.html