Do you ever genuflect in church?

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jimXroberts said:
Some 70 years of genuflecting (which I can do without putting a hand on my knee or floor and without grabbing a pew) has left me with remarkably supple limbs for my age. Few of our younger altar servers have sufficient strength to rise from a kneeling position with their hands joined.
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This is pretty cool.

As a Sunday Mass-attending non-Catholic with a Catholic spouse, I don’t genuflect. However, you are causing me to re-think this. Being able to get my carcass up off the floor just might come in handy someday.
 
Hello said:
As a child I was taught to genuflect when entering a pew.
Now it seems no one genuflects
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I have noticed that also. I was taught to genuflect when entering a pew and when passing the tabernacle.

I thought at first it was just those who have difficulty because of health issues that weren’t genuflecting but I am noticing that children are not genuflecting so much anymore, just bowing.

Wasn’t sure if something had changed in the rubrics and I had thought about asking this question here too. Glad you did.
 
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I wonder if it is because either the children themselves or the parents have noticed that people just bow and assume that is the right thing to do and therefore are copying others - perhaps not realising that these “others” are bowing due to hip/knee issues and so can’t genuflect.
 
Always.

To be honest, a good number of those at my parish who genuflect when entering the pew genuflect to the pew.
 
I used to, when my body allowed it. Now, I bow.

95% of the people who enter the Churches in this neck of the woods genuflect before they enter the pew. They are so accustomed to it that they even genuflect on Good Friday when the Tabernacle is empty.
 
I’ve done that too! Old habits die hard. 🙂 I’ve also accidentally said the old words in the Creed – and then I wonder who around me has heard me…
 
I still keep the Missalette open because it is easy for me to lapse back to the old words.
 
I genuflect now, but there was a good time period when my body couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t kneel either. With therapy I’m now able to genuflect and kneel without pain, but I still have to lean on something (even if it’s my knee) to get back up. When I couldn’t genuflect I would made a bow, and when everyone would kneel I’d scoot forward so the people behind me had arm space.

Let your first inclination towards others be charity. Sometimes those people who look fine aren’t being lazy or disrespectful, it’s just that you can’t see what’s going on in their life.
 
DeniseNY said:
I’m Byzantine, so no. But if I go to a Latin Rite parish I do.
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same here.

(although it tends to be "brace myself on the pew with two hands, and hold my body weight with my arms as my knee goes down without any weight on it . . . :crazy_face:)

My knees felt so much better after a few weeks in a byzantine parish . . . and on the other hand, three RC masses in three days (funeral, daily, Sunday) left me feeling it . . .
DeniseNY said:
Or a visitor who is Eastern Catholic and doesn’t know that in the Latin Rite, parishioners genuflect.
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These are the same ones that you then see wandering around the front of the church with a candle in hand, trying to find the icon . . . 🤣:roll_eyes::crazy_face: [for non-Eastern folks, the way you enter a byzantine church is typically to take a candle with you, reverence the icon on the tetrapod (usually) between the front pews and the Holy Place, and light your candle(s) and add them to the others in the sand holders in front of the Holy Place. We don’t (well, shouldn’t) have Holy Water at the door, and don’t genuflect at the pew]

Even if actively thinking about it, and chanting "don’t genuflect, don’t genuflect, don’t . . " in your mind as you approach the pew, ingrained habit tends to turn this into “don’t genuflect, don’t [*genuflects*] genuflect, don’t . . .” . . . 😱🤔🤣

There is a great tale, possibly true, that the Russian Orthodox patriarch had to meet with the Soviet politburo on or just after Easter. As it goes, when he greeted them with “Christ is Risen”, about half reflexively replied, “Indeed, He is Risen” ! 🤣😵😜
 
dochawk said:
Even if actively thinking about it, and chanting "don’t genuflect, don’t genuflect, don’t . . " in your mind as you approach the pew, ingrained habit tends to turn this into “don’t genuflect, don’t [*genuflects*] genuflect, don’t . . .” . . . 😱🤔🤣
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I’d say maybe 20 percent of my parish does. But 90 percent of that 20 percent does so to the altar, not the tabernacle to the left. The new priest is genuflecting to the tabernacle. I hope it catches on.
 
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RoseScented said:
I genuflect now, but there was a good time period when my body couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t kneel either. With therapy I’m now able to genuflect and kneel without pain, but I still have to lean on something (even if it’s my knee) to get back up. When I couldn’t genuflect I would made a bow, and when everyone would kneel I’d scoot forward so the people behind me had arm space.
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I have a similar problem. I can genuflect holding on to a pew but I can’t kneel yet, though hopefully with therapy also I will be able to kneel again soon.
I think you are supposed to genuflect all the way to the floor also, can’t do that.
RoseScented said:
Sometimes those people who look fine aren’t being lazy or disrespectful, it’s just that you can’t see what’s going on in their life.
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Exactly.
 
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Ooooo…I have a confession to make. I’ve rarely, if ever, genuflected. It’s just something I’ve never done. I don’t know why. At this point of my life, (I’m 52) it would feel awkward. Maybe I should start doing it anyway. My kids do.

It’s the same as doing the little cross-your-forehead thing at the Gospel. I never did that, either, until a few years ago. My mom never did, and I sort of followed along with her.
 
In my church, about half genuflect. In the 1970’s, the tabernacle was installed in the side aisle, so people genuflect towards the right side of the church. Over the summer, the new priest moved it behind the main altar. Somewhat amusingly, people still genuflect towards the side!
 
I genuflect when entering and leaving the pew. I am the DYM in my parish and this is one of the things we teach/emphasize to the youth, the reverence of the sanctuary, the tabernacle, and the Mass.
 
It’s natural to follow your parents example. I didn’t even know how to pray really until I started attending Mass. When I was being initiated (RCIA) a sweet little old lady helping teach my class taught us what the sign of the cross meant. I learned then (in connection with the sacred doctrines about the cross and incarnation) it was fine to kiss the two fingers out of love and reverance for our Lord’s Passion. Only later did I learn that is something the Meditteraneans do.
 
During the Mass the ministers do fewer genuflections than they did before the third edition of the Roman Missal. It has in n. 274 of the General Instruction:

“If, however, the tabernacle with the Most Blessed Sacrament is situated in the sanctuary, the Priest, the Deacon, and the other ministers genuflect when they approach the altar and when they depart from it, but not during the celebration of Mass itself.”

Ceremonial of Bishops had:

“70 Neither a genuflection nor a deep bow is made by those who are carrying articles used in a celebration, for example, the cross, candlesticks, the Book of the Gospels.

Reverence toward the blessed sacrament

71 No one who enters a church should fail to adore the blessed sacrament, either by visiting the blessed sacrament chapel or at lest by genuflecting.

Similarly, those who pass before the blessed sacrament genuflect, except when they are walking in procession.”

[Excerpt from the English translation of the Roman Missal © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. Excerpt from the English translation of Ceremonial of Bishops © 1989, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.]
 
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