Question for my CAF friends: Which way does the priest face during Mass?

  • Thread starter Thread starter stillsmallvoice
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

stillsmallvoice

Guest
Hi all!

One of the chief rabbis (we have 2) of Maaleh Adumim (jr.co.il/ma/) came to our synagogue during the Sabbath morning prayers earlier today. He spoke about Numbers which appeared in today’s weekly Torah reading (jewfaq.org/readings.htm) of Numbers 4:21-7:89. This is the priestly blessing (jewishgates.com/file.asp?File_ID=811), In most parts of Israel, it is customary that the cohanim (Aaronic priests; see forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=435322&highlight=cohain#post435322) give the blessing every day (at morning prayers; except for one day of the year when it’s given at afternoon prayers); outside of Israel it’s given only on the major holydays. The cohanim always face the congregation. The chief rabbi said that this is symbolic of the traditional Jewish belief that the cherubim on the top of the Ark of the Covenant faced each other when God was pleased with us & faced away from each other when He wasn’t. (It’s also related to the fact the King Solomon faced the people when he blessed us; see I Kings 8:14 and II Chronicles 6:3).

So, my question is: Which way do priests face during Mass? Wasn’t there/Hasn’t there been some controversy about this historically? Do Orthodox/Anglican priests/ministers do things differently?

Thanks!

ssv 👋
 
40.png
stillsmallvoice:
Hi all!

One of the chief rabbis (we have 2) of Maaleh Adumim (jr.co.il/ma/) came to our synagogue during the Sabbath morning prayers earlier today. He spoke about Numbers which appeared in today’s weekly Torah reading (jewfaq.org/readings.htm) of Numbers 4:21-7:89. This is the priestly blessing (jewishgates.com/file.asp?File_ID=811), In most parts of Israel, it is customary that the cohanim (Aaronic priests; see forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=435322&highlight=cohain#post435322) give the blessing every day (at morning prayers; except for one day of the year when it’s given at afternoon prayers); outside of Israel it’s given only on the major holydays. The cohanim always face the congregation. The chief rabbi said that this is symbolic of the traditional Jewish belief that the cherubim on the top of the Ark of the Covenant faced each other when God was pleased with us & faced away from each other when He wasn’t. (It’s also related to the fact the King Solomon faced the people when he blessed us; see I Kings 8:14 and II Chronicles 6:3).

So, my question is: Which way do priests face during Mass? Wasn’t there/Hasn’t there been some controversy about this historically? Do Orthodox/Anglican priests/ministers do things differently?

Thanks!

ssv 👋
Click to expand...
Hello ssv. It depends. In The Eastern Catholic Churches, and the Eastern Orthodox Chuches, they always face East. The preist and the people face in the same direction.

In the Latin(Roman) Catholic Church they do both. In The US they usually face toward the people, but this is not a necessity. There are some preists who face east, which is the same direction the people face. In the Indult Latin Mass, the preist always faces the same way the people face.

I am not sure what is normal in other countries.
 
Traditionally, before the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the priest always faced away from the congregation during Mass. Usually, churches were built so that the altar was directed towards the east (towards Jerusalem), the the priest would pray facing the east. The altar was against the wall.
After the Council, it was permitted that the priest face the congregation during Mass. This is the norm now, but at traditional Latin Masses the priest still always faces the altar and tabernacle.
Personally I prefer this, since to me it represents that the priest is leading the congregation in prayer rather than performing for them.
Orthodox priests and Eastern Catholic priest still always celebrate the liturgy ad orientem (towards the East). Most Anglican ministers probably celebrate their services facing the congregation, though maybe some more traditional, high-church Anglicans might face the east.
 
There is a chapter of Benedict XVI’s book on the Liturgy somewhere on the internet which talks about the importance of directionality in the Mass.
 
While there has been a tradition about having the priest face east, expecially as Masses were celebrated with the Tridentine liturgy (with priests facing away from the people), it’s not a hard and fast rule. Judging by the construction of churches in my area (northeastern Pennsylvania) over the past 150 years, they were built in whatever direction they could depending on the land available. While many are facing east-west with the altar at the east end of the building, there are other churches facing east-west with the altar toward the west. A nearby Russian Orthodox church has its sanctuary to the east, while two Byzantine Ukrainian Catholic churches have sanctuaries to the west, another Byzantine Ukrainian and a Byzantine Ruthenian church to the south, and Roman Catholic rite churches in all directions. East may be preferred, but obviously it never was mandated.
 
40.png
jimmy:
There is a chapter of Benedict XVI’s book on the Liturgy somewhere on the internet which talks about the importance of directionality in the Mass.
Click to expand...
In the Catholic Church, the Western Church, that is, facing east has been lost to a different tradition: The priest faces the people creating a “circle of prayer
.” In the old Tridentine Mass the priest would face east in the direction of where Christ manifested Himself here on earth.

Here is the chapter of Pope Benedict XVI’s book that addresses this issue.

adoremus.org/0500-Ratzinger.html
 
40.png
stillsmallvoice:
So, my question is: Which way do priests face during Mass? Wasn’t there/Hasn’t there been some controversy about this historically? Do Orthodox/Anglican priests/ministers do things differently?:
Click to expand...
The priest, and the people, face the altar during the Mass. This is referred to as “ad altare dei”. In the very early days, just after the Church emerged from St. Polycarp’s crypt, St. Lydia’s living room, and so on, the priest would face the altar in whichever direction was east — true east, where the sun rises — and the people faced east also, even where this meant that they would face away from the altar. East because the Scriptures say that Christ will return in the east. Hence, “ad orientem.”

There is a bit of controversy about this, since two other orientations have been proposed and practiced at some times and places, instead of facing either the altar where the One Only Sacrifice is made present now or facing the East from which the Lord will come in time’s fullness. These are usually called “ad apsidum”, which means facing the back wall (a kind of pretend-east) and “versus populum”, which means facing the opposite direction from the people, or looking at each other. But it seems to me that these last two are looking in a totally wrong direction, in their two different ways away from the Lord to something else — at the very time that we are to be totally committed to the praise and thanksgiving and worship of God to the exclusion of all else, including obsession over the location of the congregation and including the wonders of the back wall.

Orthodox priests also face the altar during Liturgy, and usually that is also true-east since they are much more diligent than us Western Christians to build their churches so the wall at the back of church behind the icon screen is the east wall. And the congregation faces towards the altar and east also.

karen marie
 
I go to the Latin Mass, and our priest does not face the congregation at all only during his talk.
 
You mentioned the Cherubim on the ark and compared it to the people. In the liturgy, at least that of the eastern Catholics, the people represent the cherubim in heaven. It is the heavenly liturgy that we attend. Here is the Cherubic Hymn. The thrice Hoyl Hymn is the Santus, Sanctus, Sanctus.

****Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim, who mystically represent the Cherubim, whilst bringing the thrice holy thrice holy hymn to the lifegiving, lifegiving Trinity, to the life giving, the lifegiving Trinity, put away, put away from us all worldly care, put away all worldly care. ****

THAT we may now receive the King , the King of all, that we receive the King of all, the King who is surrounded by the angelic host, Alleluia.
 
40.png
SentimentalGent:
While there has been a tradition about having the priest face east, expecially as Masses were celebrated with the Tridentine liturgy (with priests facing away from the people), it’s not a hard and fast rule. Judging by the construction of churches in my area (northeastern Pennsylvania) over the past 150 years, they were built in whatever direction they could depending on the land available. While many are facing east-west with the altar at the east end of the building, there are other churches facing east-west with the altar toward the west. A nearby Russian Orthodox church has its sanctuary to the east, while two Byzantine Ukrainian Catholic churches have sanctuaries to the west, another Byzantine Ukrainian and a Byzantine Ruthenian church to the south, and Roman Catholic rite churches in all directions. East may be preferred, but obviously it never was mandated.
Click to expand...
And don’t leave out St Peter’s Basillica, where the high altar is at the western end of the nave.

tee
 
"Most Anglican ministers probably celebrate their services facing the congregation, though maybe some more traditional, high-church Anglicans might face the east..

Yes, certainly true among the more orthodox Anglicans.

GKC

Anglicanus Catholicus
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top