Oran's Posture - Priest Only!?

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I know several people who maintain the Orans posture while singing the Gloria.

In our parish many use the Orans posture in response to the priest. I did not know it
was incorrect.
 
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I never knew the name of this posture nor did I think of doing it at home either. I don’t know what it means (as in, when the priest does it what is happening or what is he meditating upon).
In the East it’s more a discussion about blessings:making the sign of the cross over things and people, and the other blessing only priests are supposed to be doing it by sometimes nuns do it too - your fingers making the ICXC sign, an “X” and a “C” with your fingers it means “Jesus Christ” - we’re not supposed to be doing it. I am not sure about blessing other people with the sign of the cross, I think we can only bless food and objects.
I think people exaggerate about the esoteric power of these signs, not that it’s not there, but that it will help you if you do it. If you mustn’t do it then it can’t help you in any way.:roll_eyes:
 
I was taught -
standing or kneeling, hands folded
sitting, hands on your lap

I was only 7 years old. Apparently, things get more complicated when we grow up.
 
7_Sorrows said:
I know several people who maintain the Orans posture while singing the Gloria.
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I used to see charismatic types who’d be doing it through most of the Mass when nobody else was.
Whatever floats their boat I guess. I feel silly holding my arms up like that. I’m not the dispenser of grace.
 
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I like to use it in parishes where nobody does, and then not use it in everyone does…it gives them something to right on their liturgical scorecard that some seem to keep!
 
Don_Ruggero said:
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What is being proscribed is anyone other than the priest who is the Presider saying the presidential prayers, along with actions and gestures such as using the Presider’s chair, taking the Presider’s place in the processions, doing an epicletic or indicative gesture at the consecration in the anaphora.
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Yes, gestures which belong to the priest alone, such as the orans gesture at the Our Father.

I realize that since you cannot see what is actually happening here, you might not have the same perspective.

This has become (in certain places) quite the show. It resembles gestures which belong entirely in a secular setting. It has turned that moment in the Mass, which is supposed to be about “the Father” into a rather ridiculous display that makes the moment resemble a high school pep rally. We’re now at an even later stage in this where, at the doxology, (again, some places) the congregation does something we call “the wave” where all those arms get raised higher-and-lower.

There is good reason why Vatican II teaches in Sacrosanctum concilium 22
3. Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest [sacerdos is the word], may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.
 
FrDavid96 said:
This has become (in certain places) quite the show
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It’s distracting as well. I have no problem with crying babies and things like that, but when people start doing all sorts of extraordinary motions during Mass it gets distracting.

I have gotten accustomed to the orans position being used by laity throughout different parts of the Mass, but every once in a while someone will do something different that catches my attention. In one such instance, for several weeks a couple bowed every time that Jesus’ name was mentioned at the Mass.
 
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I always do a quick head bow/nod at the mention of the name “Jesus”. Grade school training.
 
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StephieNorthCo said:
I always do a quick head bow/nod at the mention of the name “Jesus”. Grade school training.
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Yes, this was apparently the custom for many people slightly older than me. By the time I hit Catholic grade school, they had stopped teaching this. I have read posts on the Internet seeking to bring it back as a general practice.
 
StephieNorthCo said:
I always do a quick head bow/nod at the mention of the name “Jesus”. Grade school training.
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I’ve never seen anyone do that before. Anyway, it was more than a quick nod. It was a fairly deep bow, in unison. Also, they weren’t that much older than me. Not old enough to have been taught it in grade school. They just started doing it for a few weeks, then… they stopped…???:man_shrugging:t3:
 
People do it at my church. I do not, because I agree with the article. It’s not my place to act as the priest. So nowadays, I fold my hands in front of myself, I have to close my eyes during the Our Father, or stare at the crucifix on the altar so that I’m not judging all the people who have their hands raised.

I once had someone grab my hand and hold it through the prayer and I was furious…ruined mass for me that day, which wasn’t good either and is what started my folding my hands in front in a praying gesture.
 
I hear the angels kneel or such at the Name of Jesus said reverently!

But about the article, it says the orans is for the priest to offer our prayers up acting in persona Christi, but wouldn’t the faithful being orans be them offering it to him so he can then offer it up?
 
Deacon Jeff, would you agree that laity could look to the Deacon though to see what they should do?
 
I personally don’t do the Orans posture. Some do and some don’t in my parish. I get it on the offering up. My mindset is more along the lines of, the Priest has a function at Mass, I have a function at Mass. My job is to do my function well. I’ll let the Priest do his function well.
 
FrDavid96 said:
This has become (in certain places) quite the show. It resembles gestures which belong entirely in a secular setting. It has turned that moment in the Mass, which is supposed to be about “the Father” into a rather ridiculous display that makes the moment resemble a high school pep rally. We’re now at an even later stage in this where, at the doxology, (again, some places) the congregation does something we call “the wave” where all those arms get raised higher-and-lower.
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I’m sure you will correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always thought that the Orans posture popularity with the laity is due in large part to the Charismatic Renewal.
 
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The sisters taught us that we were to bow our heads every time we said the name of Jesus. Everyone did so.
After Vat. II people stopped bowing their heads. It took me years to stop doing it and I still do it in private.
 
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