Your are mistaken.
The Roman Missal does not allow for the faithful to raise their hands in the “orans” position (or hold hands) during Mass. Such posture is reserved for the priest.
Article 6:§ 2. … In Eucharistic celebrations deacons and non-ordained members of the faithful may not pronounce prayers — e.g. especially the Eucharistic prayer, with its concluding doxology — or any other parts of the liturgy reserved to the celebrant priest. Neither may deacons or non-ordained members of the faithful use gestures or actions which are proper to the same priest celebrant.”
The orans position is proscribed for the priest and as such is proper only to them in the Mass.
That passage is not in the Roman Missal. I’m not sure where you came across it, but it’s from the 1997
Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest. Set in its proper context, the passage you’re quoting isn’t referring to what you think.
That paragraph actually says:
§ 2. To promote the proper identity (of various roles) in this area,** those abuses which are contrary to the provisions of canon 907 are to be eradicated**. In eucharistic celebrations deacons and non-ordained members of the faithful may not pronounce prayers — e.g. especially the eucharistic prayer, with its concluding doxology — or any other parts of the liturgy reserved to the celebrant priest. Neither may deacons or non-ordained members of the faithful use gestures or actions which are proper to the same priest celebrant. It is a grave abuse for any member of the non-ordained faithful to “quasi preside” at the Mass while leaving only that minimal participation to the priest which is necessary to secure validity.
To begin with, that is not a very good translation. The authentic text, at
89 Acta Apostolicae Sedis 852, 869 (1997), of the sentence you’re concerned with says:
. . . [A]movendi sunt varii generis abusus contrarii praescripto can. 907, cuius vi in celebratione eucharistica diaconis et christifidelibus non ordinatis non licet proferre orationes et quamlibet aliam partem praecipuam sacerdotis celebrantis—speciatim quidem precem eucharisticam cum doxologia conclusiva—vel explere actiones et actus qui eiusdem celebrantis sunt proprii.
As I expect you’ll see, a more accurate translation would say:
The various kinds of abuses are to be eliminated which are contrary to the prescript of Canon 907, by the force of which is it not permitted to deacons and unordained members of the faithful to offer the prayers and any other part belonging to the priest celebrant—especially the Eucharistic prayer with concluding doxology—or carry out the actions and gestures which are proper to the same celebrant.
In a bit, we’ll find out why a faithful translation (especially translating
explere as “carry out” rather than “use”) is important. But I suppose the first thing we’d notice about this paragraph, is that its nature is as an exhortation to obey the requirements of Canon 907. So we ought to take a look at that Canon and its setting in the Code. The text says:
Can. 907 In the eucharistic celebration deacons and lay persons are not permitted to offer prayers, especially the eucharistic prayer, or to perform
fungi, a synonym of
explere in this sense] actions which are proper to the celebrating priest.
And when we look at the
section of the Code in which Canon 907 is found, we see immediately that it governs “the minister of the Eucharist,” setting out a wide variety of things he can and cannot do. Not one jot of this section, however, governs the laity. Indeed, nothing whatsoever in any part of the Code of Canon Law governs the laity’s conduct at Mass, excepting rules for who and when to receive the Eucharist. Standing, sitting, kneeling, on the tongue, in the hand, hats, miniskirts, which responses to make, what should be sung – absolutely none of it is in the Code of Canon Law.
It is clear, then, that Canon 907 does not, and was not intended to, govern how a layman comports himself in the pews during Mass. Rather, it governs what the celebrant can grant or delegate to the deacon or a lay person: as the Instruction says, what is forbidden is the abuse in which the priest hands over important parts of the celebration so that some else can “quasi preside.” So it is readily obvious that we have to reject any interpretation under which it is claimed that somehow, in the midst a section dealing with the “minister of the Eucharist” and within the framework of a Code that in no way tells the laity what to do at Mass, Canon 907 slipped in to govern the laity’s prayer stance during the Our Father – and not just as a matter of rubrics and good form, but on pain of violation of
canon law!
In this light, you will see the importance of a correct translation of the Instruction’s word
explere. The normative Latin text of the Instruction is not saying that, in some vague sense detached from any concrete context, it is inappropriate to “use” actions and gestures proper to the priest, but rather that deacons and laity should not be the ones
carrying out, fulfilling, discharging, executing, those parts of the celebration that are assigned to the priest. That is why this paragraph is tied to Canon 907: the intended meaning is, the priest may not have other people execute his actions and gestures for him.
Finally, we can briefly trace two of your other errors, on which we won’t dwell. (1) The
orans position is not an
actus, an active gesture; it is a posture. How exactly could a person be said to
explere the
orans posture? (2) Something is not “proper” to the priest merely because the priest is told to do it and nobody else is. The Latin word
proprius means “belonging to one, personal, particular, one’s own.” We might say that it is
proprius to the priest to be the one standing in front of the congregation leading everybody with his hands in the
orans position, but there is no indication anywhere in the Missal (or elsewhere) that the
orans position itself “belongs” to him in an exclusive way. To the contrary, it is a matter of immemorial custom that this is a posture of prayer, not some sort of priestly stance.
I hope this is a clear explanation.
Let’s say that’s my dime’s worth!
Same with making the sign of the cross after receiving Communion.