Fighting over liturgy distorts purpose of Mass, papal liturgist says

[Phemie]

The following was promulgated by Cardinal Achille Silvestrini back in 1996, on Applying the Liturgical Prescriptions of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. Remember, the Byzantines are just as Catholic as we Latins, so there is no sophistry here in this description, just an explanation of why the priest and people face a common orientation:

Notice that St. John of Damascus does not mention that facing the East is simply a Byzantine or Syrian tradition… it is an Apostolic tradition. A tradition that is so much more than just reducing it to “a priest with his back to the people”. A lot of Catholics forget our brothers and sisters in the various Eastern Catholic Churches have always faced East, and the parishioners at these parishes seem to understand why. We can only hope more Latin Catholics come to correctly understand the deep significance behind this tradition as well, and leave their misconceptions and preconceptions of why this is done at the door. Hope this helped!

Well, not too many Catholic churches are oriented so that anyone faces east. Even in the old parish where I grew up the 100 year old church was oriented N/S as were most of the churches around. Why was this? Because Church authorities didn’t know about this Eastern orientation? Because they didn’t think it was important? Hard to know. Why, if it was important, they didn’t simply plan the church with a different orientation? In most cases this would have been easy but would have required explaining to the population why the church didn’t face the road.

 

[billy15]

Well, not too many Catholic churches are oriented so that anyone faces east. Even in the old parish where I grew up the 100 year old church was oriented N/S as were most of the churches around. Why was this? Because Church authorities didn’t know about this Eastern orientation? Because they didn’t think it was important? Hard to know. Why, if it was important, they didn’t simply plan the church with a different orientation? In most cases this would have been easy but would have required explaining to the population why the church didn’t face the road.

Well of course not all churches are oriented east, and this is why we speak of “liturgical east”, with all oriented towards the apse. As Cardinal Sarah said, what is important “that we return as soon as possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together in the same direction—Eastwards or at least towards the apse—to the Lord who comes, in those parts of the liturgical rites when we are addressing God… Indeed, I think it is a very important step in ensuring that in our celebrations the Lord is truly at the centre.”

The very root of the words “orientation” and “oriented” mean “East” in the original Latin etymology. That’s why when people used to speak of the Orient, it was synonymous with the Far East. Many churches were unable to be built with the main altar facing East. But the entire congregation would orient themselves in one direction, liturgical East, so as to follow the Apostolic tradition of praying together as one body towards the Lord who comes. As Pope Benedict XVI said in his book “Spirit of the Liturgy”, and puts us in the right mind frame for understanding this tradition of being oriented in a common direction:

The common turning towards the east was not a “celebration of the wall”; it did not mean that the priest “had his back to the people”: the priest himself was not regarded as so important. For just as the congregation in the synagogue looked together toward Jerusalem, so** in the Christian liturgy the congregation looked together “toward the Lord”.** As… J.A. Jungmann put it, it was much more a question of priest and people facing in the same direction, knowing that together they were in a procession toward the Lord. They did not close themselves into a circle; they did not gaze at one another; but as the pilgrim People of God they set off for the Oriens, for the Christ who comes to meet us.

…A common turning to the east during the Eucharistic Prayer remains essential. This is not a case of something accidental, but of what is essential… What matters is looking together at the Lord. It is not now a question of dialogue but of common worship, of setting off toward the One who is to come. What corresponds with the reality of what is happening is not the closed circle but the common movement forward, expressed in a common direction of prayer.