At Christmas Kneel in Creed at Incarnation Profession

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"275. A bow signifies reverence and honor shown to the persons themselves or to the signs that represent them. There are two kinds of bow: a bow of the head and a bow of the body.

a) A bow of the head is made when the three Divine Persons are named together and at the names of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the Saint in whose honor Mass is being celebrated.

b) A bow of the body, that is to say, a profound bow, is made to the altar; during the prayers Munda cor meum (Cleanse my heart) and In spiritu humilitatis (With humble spirit); in the Creed at the words et incarnatus est (and by the Holy Spirit . . . and became man); in the Roman Canon at the Supplices te rogamus (In humble prayer we ask you, almighty God). The same kind of bow is made by the Deacon when he asks for a blessing before the proclamation of the Gospel. In addition, the Priest bows slightly as he pronounces the words of the Lord at the Consecration."

I found this in the GIRM about bowing, though it doesn’t mention the Processional/Recessional cross. I was surprised the first time I read the GIRM to find this part. I only had a problem trying to figure out if it was instructions aimed at the priest or at everyone present. I figured since we’re instructed as a congregation to make a profound bow during the “and by the Holy Spirit…” part, then the bowing of the head was also directed at me and I should do it.

My missal does say to kneel during “and by the Holy Spirit…” part for Christmas. Last year the people behind me started laughing hysterically when they made it to their knees only to come back up again.
 
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This evening at Vigil Mass the priest announced that there would be a brief “reverence” after “was made man.” I guess that meant a moment of silence, not genuflecting. Oh well, I just did like always.
Tomorrow morning is the Pro Populi Mass at the TLM parish. No question about genuflecting there. 😊
 
At my mass, the priest announced it and still no one did it - I would have, but was holding a baby.

I’m usually the only one around who bows at the normal time, and this is new for me over the past few months.

Like someone said earlier, “they don’t know.” It’s printed in the missalette but if no one around you does it, then maybe it’s hard to be the odd one out…I know I felt out of place
 
Tonight at midnight mass, our pastor didn’t announce it and our parochial vicar gave him a nasty look 😂 Both priests and the deacon knelt, but I don’t think anyone in the congregation did other than me.
 
My parish priest didn’t announce it tonight, but everyone in the altar area went down to kneel and so did some of the congregation; including me. For the most part people bowed. Upon coming up one of the parochial vicars just kinda made a scrunched face for a brief moment when looked over in the general vicinity of the pastor. There was more commotion about the priest and a couple ushers going off chasing after someone who hadn’t consumed a host than whether people kneeled or not.
 
The Annunciation when God became flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and during Christmas (night and day) when God was born and seen in the world for the first time. Invisible and visible so to speak. This is what makes Christianity different to all other religions. God becomes a human like one of us but without sin.
 
The cantor stopped playing the organ and we had a “loooooooong pause” and all who could went down on their knees.
 
Thrstypirate said:
It’s printed in the missalette but if no one around you does it, then maybe it’s hard to be the odd one out…I know I felt out of place
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After I learned that during the Lord’s Prayer, we are supposed to have our hands held in prayer, versus holding each other’s hands (since our prayers are directed towards the altar and the priest, with his hands out, is collecting them and offering them up to Heaven), I started doing this and have instructed my family to do the same. At first, it felt weird since everyone else was holding hands and we weren’t, but after a couple of times, I shrugged it off, since it seemed no one else really noticed or cared and I knew that what we were doing was appropriate. (This is not to say the holding hands is wrong, as I’m not here to start any discussions on that).

One other thing I felt out of place was that, and I’ll probably use the wrong terms here (not so good at all the Latin stuff and Mass terms), is that after Communion is over, but the consecrated Host was still in the “container?” and being carried to the adoration location (see… bad at the terms here), the congregation is supposed to continue to kneel until the person carrying the host (in the case of my parish, it is not the priest, and a Eucharistic minister carries it back behind the altar) is either out of sight or has put the host in the “adoration location”, and not when the priest sits down. Hope I explained that well enough. See, it’s not about the priest’s posture, but kneeling and honoring our Lord while He is present. Maybe this isn’t correct or prescribed, but when I read this on this site, it made a lot of sense and I figured, what could be the harm. So I still kneel while everyone else sits down. It’s still a little weird. Maybe I don’t need to do it?
 
I think you mean the ciborium, the “container” where the consecrated hosts are kept. The ciborium is then placed in the tabernacle.
 
At my parish maybe half the people typically bow. I’ve never seen anyone kneel when it is called for when saying the creed.
Thrstypirate said:
It’s printed in the missalette but if no one around you does it, then maybe it’s hard to be the odd one out…I know I felt out of place
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It is tough to to feel odd, but I have to say as a convert I find Catholic Churches have far more people doing their own thing than the typical mainline Protestant church. Between thrusting their hands forward at ‘and with your spirit’, holding hands during the Pater Noster, or praying with palms outward I find a lot of people don’t seem to care what other people are doing.
 
I think you are doing the right thing for you. Not hurting anybody. I also just have my hands together for the Lord’s prayer–or any other prayer. It’s how I was taught about a hundred years ago, and I don’t see any reason to change now.
 
greenrangerx said:
Tonight at midnight mass, our pastor didn’t announce it and our parochial vicar gave him a nasty look 😂 Both priests and the deacon knelt, but I don’t think anyone in the congregation did other than me.
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When I serve at the (formerly ruthenian) byzantine liturgy, I prepare the incense after the words of institution, so that it’s available immediately after the epiclesis.

The first time I served at a Melkite liturgy (which was held at my regular parish) I did the same–and found myself doing a full prostration holding a smoking censer! 😱😲🤔 OK, lesson learned 🤣😜

I don’t attend many western Masses over the course of the year, but Christmas is frequently one of them—but I don’t recall seeing this practice before (last year we were at our own).

hawk
 
The kneeling during the profession of Christ’s incarnation in the creed only happens twice a year in the OF of the Latin Rite: the solemnities of Christmas and the Annunciation. I had never seen or heard about it all while I grew up. I didn’t know about it until I got a missal and there were reminders on those days written in. Then it was confirmed that it was an action for all of us and not just an instruction for the priest (since my missal also has the parts for the priest in it) when my pastor (new to me since I had moved parishes) gave a reminder to everyone right before the creed.

I have been interested to see if that was something that was added/reinstated with the new English translation, but I haven’t had the motivation to actually go seek the answer. I got my missal after the new translation, so it is a possibility in my mind which would explain why I never heard about it before that point.
 
Before the changes to the English translation of the Mass at the beginning of Advent AD 2011, the rubrics for the Feasts of Annunciation and Christmas were exactly the same.

It stated :

“In the Profession of Faith, all genuflect at the words, and became man.”

I verified this by looking at an old 1974 Sunday missal.

Now there is a slight difference in the rubrics as noted in the pictures referenced at the website in original post.

“This feast (Annunciation) was always a holy day of obligation in the Universal Church. As such it was abrogated first for France and the French dependencies, 9 April, 1802 …”
Catholic Encyclopedia

Notice that this occurred after the French Revolution.

When a country sends innocent nuns out on a raft and then deliberately sinks it in order to drown them, you have to expect bad results.

In old calendars this feast has been called Festum Incarnationis , and also Conceptio Christi , among other titles. (See Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907, for more history on this feast)

I think we should rename the Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to

“Annunciation and Conception”

Maybe then, we would not have so many Catholics voting Pro Abortion.

May God bless us all on the Feast of the Holy Family,
John
 
Thank you for looking that up. My parents still have an old missal so I was going to look at it to see what it said the next time I visited.
 
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