No more kneeling during mass-Missal related?

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Savior2012

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The Catholic church I belong to either sits or stands during the entire mass, they no longer kneel. Does this have anything to do with the Roman Missal??

🤷
 
I wouldn’t think so, the new revisions I thought only delt with the language being used. Our parish still kneels and a group of us are trying to get the Alter Rail put back into the church so those of us that want to kneel to recieve may do so

hope that helps…
Pax,
Blake
 
Savior2012 said:
The Catholic church I belong to either sits or stands during the entire mass, they no longer kneel.
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Does this mean there are no kneelers. My sister’s church has none, so if you want to kneel, it’s on the floor. She lives in California, where are you?
 
Find another church.

It has nothing to do with the revisions.
 
If a church has kneelers, the congregation is expected to kneel at the appointed time.

If there are no kneelers (such as would be the case in a makeshift church - a gym with folding chairs, for example) then the congregation may stand at the parts where we would normally kneel. But a lot of people will kneel anyway during the Consecration. My Parish underwent a long renovation, and we had services in the parish hall - folding chairs. Everybody knelt on the floor.
 
DavidFilmer said:
If a church has kneelers, the congregation is expected to kneel at the appointed time.

If there are no kneelers (such as would be the case in a makeshift church - a gym with folding chairs, for example) then the congregation may stand at the parts where we would normally kneel. But a lot of people will kneel anyway during the Consecration. My Parish underwent a long renovation, and we had services in the parish hall - folding chairs. Everybody knelt on the floor.
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Thanks for information but it is incorrect. Our Church has kneelers, yet we no longer use them we either sit or stand throughout entire mass.
 
Savior2012 said:
Thanks for information but it is incorrect. Our Church has kneelers, yet we no longer use them we either sit or stand throughout entire mass.
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That doesn’t mean they aren’t supposed to be doing so.
With Vatican approval, the U.S. Bishops in both 1969 and 1995 decreed as a norm that people are to “kneel beginning after the singing or recitation of the Sanctus until after the Amen of the Eucharistic Prayer” (General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), no. 43). The only exceptions are when the congregation is “prevented on occasion by reasons of health, lack of space, the large number of people present, or some other good reason” (GIRM, no. 43).
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See this article
 
Savior2012 said:
This information is from 1995.

And yes back then we did kneel.
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It being from 1995 doesn’t make the requirement going away. I can find no formal decree from the See of Rome saying that the requirement has been removed. I also can’t see how anyone wouldn’t want to kneel before the Real Presence? That is the part that baffles me.
 
Savior2012 said:
This information is from 1995.

And yes back then we did kneel.
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The article might have been written in 1995, but the rule it cites (#43) is still in force.

You were supposed to be kneeling then, and you’re supposed to be kneeling now. The priest does not have the authority to abrogate this rule.
 
bmullins said:
It being from 1995 doesn’t make the requirement going away. I can find no formal decree from the See of Rome saying that the requirement has been removed. I also can’t see how anyone wouldn’t want to kneel before the Real Presence? That is the part that baffles me.
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I am just saying apparently the decress has been changed/amendment since that time

🙂
 
Savior2012 said:
I am just saying apparently the decress has been changed/amendment since that time

🙂
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Which is to assume that because your parish is doing it, that the rule obviously must have been changed. I would research it myself and ask your priest directly if there has been a dispensation for some reason for that particular parish. Some parish’s believe that if there are no kneelers, that it’s a sufficient reason. That doesn’t mean they aren’t supposed to be doing it, just that they believe they have “some other good reason” not to.
 
We went through this, so I can tell you what’s going on…

In certain parts of Europe, people kneel or don’t kneel at slightly different times than in the US and other countries. Both these ways of doing things are approved, but they are approved on a regional basis. We’re not supposed to be totally homogenous everywhere that’s in the Latin Rite.

Some US bishops and/or priests either went to Europe and were impressed by the other way of doing things, or went to workshops that said all kneeling was servile and frightened and wrong. There was a wave of such people taking out kneelers, telling people to stand all the time through Communion, etc., and it scandalized Catholics a lot in such parishes or dioceses. Eventually the Vatican told the US bishops to crack down on this and go back to the old way. This is why the GIRM came out, explicitly telling people to go back to the old way and quit all this anti-kneeling stuff.

Some priests and bishops ignored the GIRM crackdown. Others didn’t hear about it, went to Europe or workshops, got impressed, and began to repeat the cycle, piecemeal, of taking out kneelers and then getting told to quit this stuff.

You are just unlucky to be in one of these weird parishes. Sorry about that.

You have the absolute right to kneel, even if you go to those other parts of Europe. Kneeling on the floor is totally okay, but it’s also okay to bring a cushion, or to turn around your chair and kneel on that. (The European way, in a lot of pewless churches.)

If anybody tries to stop you kneeling, I recommend that you begin to do full prostrations. Well, threaten to do it, anyway. Especially if somebody says you shouldn’t kneel because Byzantine Catholics don’t kneel. It’s kneeling or proskynesis, baby! They will totally hate the prostration idea and quit bugging you.
 
Savior2012 said:
The Catholic church I belong to either sits or stands during the entire mass, they no longer kneel. Does this have anything to do with the Roman Missal??

🤷
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Whats the name of the church? I would like to look at their website.
 
Savior2012 said:
The Catholic church I belong to either sits or stands during the entire mass, they no longer kneel. Does this have anything to do with the Roman Missal??

🤷
Click to expand...
Yes my liturgical service has no obvious kneeling in mass. Because we are not holding mass in a church! We worship in a hall while our church is being built. We do not have pews but rather metal chairs that we set up and take down many times a day. Our services are usually full with over 1,000 in attendance, and the space is tight–kneeling would be a challenge with the space we have. But of course kneeling is allowed, but I find in RC mass the congregation tends to do things in “mass” without expressing any signs beyond those commonly expressed. The idea is not to draw attention from the experience.
 
Savior2012 said:
The Catholic church I belong to either sits or stands during the entire mass, they no longer kneel. Does this have anything to do with the Roman Missal??

🤷
Click to expand...
Savior2012 said:
I am just saying apparently the decress has been changed/amendment since that time

🙂
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As has been stated before, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal has not changed in this regard. All that changed with the new missal is the wording of the prayers specifically for Masses offered in English. The GIRM, however, is composed of instructions on what to do during Mass throughout the universal Church.

English Sacramentaries typically print the GIRM in the beginning of the book, and the new English Roman Missal is no different. I just checked the version of the new missal published by Magnificat and the instructions for kneeling are on page 31.
 
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