Kneeling During the Credo on Christmas Day

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Our parochial vicar did something I have never experienced before at this morning’s Mass. Before Mass I was thumbing through the ordo and asked if we were going to genuflect during the Incarnation in the credo. I expected him to shake his head “no” – others in the sacristy were already shaking their heads “no” – as if they knew. He just smiled.

Instead he “halted” the Mass after the mention of the Incarnation and we knelt for a good 30 seconds. It was perfectly quiet in the church. It was awesome. God bless you Fr. Braulio for bringing bits of reverence to our parish…

I get soooooo sick of those dumbed-down hurry/hurry/hurry Masses…
 
Remington said:
Our parochial vicar did something I have never experienced before at this morning’s Mass. Before Mass I was thumbing through the ordo and asked if we were going to genuflect during the Incarnation in the credo. I expected him to shake his head “no” – others in the sacristy were already shaking their heads “no” – as if they knew. He just smiled.

Instead he “halted” the Mass after the mention of the Incarnation and we knelt for a good 30 seconds. It was perfectly quiet in the church. It was awesome. God bless you Fr. Braulio for bringing bits of reverence to our parish…

I get soooooo sick of those dumbed-down hurry/hurry/hurry Masses…
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How did he halt the Mass? I sense a great liturgical teaching moment 🙂
 
At our abbey we always kneel at the words “et incarnatus est” until the end of “et homo factus est”, on Christmas.
 
The rubrics call for us to genuflect at this point in the credo at Christmas. There are some of us that genuflect every Mass at this point, although in the OF they call for a “sign of reverence” or a bow.

Naturally, I tend to kneel as I attend EF, OF and Dominican Masses every month. Its just easier for me to genuflect.
 
corsair said:
The rubrics call for us to genuflect at this point in the credo at Christmas. There are some of us that genuflect every Mass at this point, although in the OF they call for a “sign of reverence” or a bow.

Naturally, I tend to kneel as I attend EF, OF and Dominican Masses every month. Its just easier for me to genuflect.
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Outside of Christmas, we bow at this part of the Credo.
 
Deo gratias - you lucky person! In my own parish at the OF Mass, the genuflection was completely ignored, not even mentioned. We don’t even bow at that point, at any time in the year.
 
Mark1970 said:
Deo gratias - you lucky person! In my own parish at the OF Mass, the genuflection was completely ignored, not even mentioned. We don’t even bow at that point, at any time in the year.
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It usually is here as well and I’m sure it was and will be today by the pastor. Gotta hurry, hurry, hurry you know – just not certain why.
 
Spirithound said:
How did he halt the Mass? I sense a great liturgical teaching moment 🙂
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He mentioned that we would kneel beginning at “By the power of the Holy Spirit…” before he started the creed. As he was leading the creed he stopped and said “please kneel” (some did try to continue with the creed), we knelt for about 30 seconds and then he “re-started” the creed where he had left off. I have seen this done on the televised Notre Dame Masses.
 
Mark1970 said:
Deo gratias - you lucky person! In my own parish at the OF Mass, the genuflection was completely ignored, not even mentioned. We don’t even bow at that point, at any time in the year.
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no genuflection at my “home parish” either
 
Remington said:
Our parochial vicar did something I have never experienced before at this morning’s Mass. Before Mass I was thumbing through the ordo and asked if we were going to genuflect during the Incarnation in the credo. I expected him to shake his head “no” – others in the sacristy were already shaking their heads “no” – as if they knew. He just smiled.

Instead he “halted” the Mass after the mention of the Incarnation and we knelt for a good 30 seconds. It was perfectly quiet in the church. It was awesome. God bless you Fr. Braulio for bringing bits of reverence to our parish…

I get soooooo sick of those dumbed-down hurry/hurry/hurry Masses…
Click to expand...
This year was the first time in about 8 years that we’d used the Nicene Creed and this only because we have a visiting priest with us this Christmas. He’s older and very orthodox so he genuflects before entering the sanctuary at the beginning of Mass (the others only bow even though the Tabernacle is right in the center), genuflects at the appropriate times during Mass (the others only bow) and takes Communion before distributing to the EMHCs and the congregation (the others don’t, they distribute Communion and they and the EMHCs and altar servers receive together).

I was in the first pew so don’t know if anyone else genuflected but I did. He didn’t mention it and I wasn’t looking.
 
Our recent priest for seven years had us kneel for an amount of time. He always explained before hand that we would do so. Our new priest at Christmas Mass today bowed along with his two servers, but did not mention any instruction before the Creed. I was confused, not knowing what we would be doing. So there was no unity and probably some confusion, but we had the most beautiful incense and Christmas Mass we have ever had.
 
jeanannemarie said:
Our recent priest for seven years had us kneel for an amount of time. He always explained before hand that we would do so. Our new priest at Christmas Mass today bowed along with his two servers, but did not mention any instruction before the Creed. I was confused, not knowing what we would be doing. So there was no unity and probably some confusion, but we had the most beautiful incense and Christmas Mass we have ever had.
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Funny you mention incense.

Today at brunch, one member of the extended family, one who isn’t Catholic but has been attending Mass a lot in the last year, said that he was disappointed because he’d expected incense and a sprinkling rite.

I also experienced a pang of disappointment at the lack of incense but I should be used to it by now. It’s not even used at the Easter Vigil, its use having been relegated to funerals only – and that only if the family doesn’t ask that it not be used.
 
Remington said:
Our parochial vicar did something I have never experienced before at this morning’s Mass. Before Mass I was thumbing through the ordo and asked if we were going to genuflect during the Incarnation in the credo. .
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Our priest announced at the beginning of the Mass that we were to kneel at this part of the Mass. We bow, deeply at the waist the rest of the year.
 
Our former pastor does the same thing, kneel instead of bow (in the Missalette it says bow) during Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter.
 
We have a new wet behind the ears priest at my home parish and while I enjoy his masses for the most part he didn’t even mention that there was anything special during the creed. In the parish I grew up in and was an altar server at for years, our priest would at least ask us to bow for the incarnation in the creed.

At midnight mass I just genuflected on my own, probably the only person in church who did. Oh well.
 
Yes! We kneeled at the Mass I attended at the Cathedral.

It, and the silence that followed, was lovely.
 
I wasn’t so taken with the kneeling per se. I was blown away (in a good way) at how the kneeling BROKE the mechanical bam-bam-bam of the Masses around here. The canned “faster, faster, faster!!” Masses get darned old after a while.

Kneeling there (and I could have been bowing just as well) FORCED me to focus on the Incarnation of God." It was truly wonderful.
 
From the 12th Century till 1970 Catholics knelled for the words of Incarnation is the Creed, to express their faith that Christ is the Center of the Creation. In 1970 this was reduced to bowing except for Christmas and the feast of Annunciation
 
Remington said:
He mentioned that we would kneel beginning at “By the power of the Holy Spirit…” before he started the creed. As he was leading the creed he stopped and said “please kneel” (some did try to continue with the creed), we knelt for about 30 seconds and then he “re-started” the creed where he had left off. I have seen this done on the televised Notre Dame Masses.
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My Pastor did the same. It was wonderful!
 
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