Standing or Sitting?

  • Thread starter Thread starter paramedicgirl
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

paramedicgirl

Guest
At the preparation of the gifts, when we recite: May the Lord accept the sacrifice of your hands for the praise and glory of His name… do you stand or remain seated?

I thought I heard that Pope John Paul ll wanted everyone to stand at the beginning of the recitation of that prayer. In our church, everyone remains seated until the end of that prayer. Until recently. One woman now stands at the very beginning of it, and about half the people follow suit. The other half remain seated until the prayer ends. I wish our priest would address the proper posture.
 
I think this was from the G.I.R.M. if I remember correctly. Some parishes stand before the prayer right after the priest washes his hands, some stand as they begin the words May the, some wait till after the prayer is completed. It was stated in the G.I.R.M. that the congregation should stand after the priest washes his hands I believe.

But like all the other things stated some will take time to initiate.
 
The bishop asked the priests in our diocese to institute four changes about a year ago, I think. One of these changes was to stand after the washing of hands.

(The other changes were to replace the hand-holding during the Our Father with hands in the Oran’s position, and to head bow during the Nicene Creed “…by power of the Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary and became man…”, and to head bow before receiving the Eucharist.)

So, to answer your question, we are standing when we say “May the Lord accept…”
 
At the parish I go to, we stand at the start of the prayer.

PF
 
40.png
WanderAimlessly:
At the parish I go to, we stand at the start of the prayer.

PF
Click to expand...
Ditto. A few start to stand a couple seconds before the start of the prayer, then everyone follows.
 
I suspect that if you look in the missalette, you will find your answer.

Part of the difficulty is that we are now required to stand before we say the response “May the Lord accept…” where before we sat until we had finished that prayer response, and the habit is fairly ingrained.

The Change was from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (known shorthand as the GIRM), and not a specifi request from John Paul 2.
 
We’ve been standing for a year or two. It was strange at first, but now seems normal.
 
Our Bishop held a meeting on this several years ago, and I was among those from our Parish invited to attend with our Pastor. We were told to stand after the washing of the hands, before giving our reply. However, I was appalled to see that while we were happy to accept the request to make these changes in accord with the changes in the GIRM, we were in the minority. The majority of those from other parishes (mostly Priests and religious, contrary to our parish which included Laity) were vocal in their dissent of the requested changes (which also included no longer holding hands during the Our Father - something we hadn’t been doing).

I’m beginning to relax a bit, but for a short while, I was judging the orthodoxy of the Parish by whether or not they were standing at the correct place in the Mass, according to this request. I now accept that there can be reasons other than dissent for a parish to not be standing at the correct time, but I wish more did it according to the GIRM.

CARose
 
40.png
otm:
I suspect that if you look in the missalette, you will find your answer.

Part of the difficulty is that we are now required to stand before we say the response “May the Lord accept…” where before we sat until we had finished that prayer response, and the habit is fairly ingrained.

The Change was from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (known shorthand as the GIRM), and not a specifi request from John Paul 2.
Click to expand...
The Sunday Missal we use is Living with Christ, by Novalis, and it does not state whether we should sit or stand. It appears that the woman who initiates the standing (where only half the congregation follows) is trying to get people to do the proper thing, although I have never heard our priest direct us to stand at the beginning of the prayer. I have heard, though, that we are supposed to stand there. It’s kind of odd when there are people beside each other, some sitting, some standing.
 
40.png
paramedicgirl:
The Sunday Missal we use is Living with Christ, by Novalis, and it does not state whether we should sit or stand. It appears that the woman who initiates the standing (where only half the congregation follows) is trying to get people to do the proper thing, although I have never heard our priest direct us to stand at the beginning of the prayer. I have heard, though, that we are supposed to stand there. It’s kind of odd when there are people beside each other, some sitting, some standing.
Click to expand...
Could you talk to your pastor and let him know that it’s come to your attention that the norm has changed and ask if he knows anything about it? See if perhaps he’d be willing to instruct the parish.

CARose
 
My parish started to stand when the priest washes his hands just before Lent last year.
 
In the USA the situation is clear cut. The Vatican has approved a translation of the 2002 GIRM, which changed the time to standing just before saying “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands …”.

My understanding is that in countries like Canada and Australia there is not yet an approved translation of the 2002 GIRM. My experience in Australia is that bishops and priests have done little to educate people about the changes in the 2002 Roman Missal.

Despite this, my opinion is that the correct thing to do is follow the Code of Canon Law’s canon 846: “The liturgical books approved by the competent authority are to be faithfully observed in the celebration of the sacraments;”.

The 2002 Roman Missal has been promulgated in Latin and should be followed, regardless of whether there is a locally approved translation.

So in Australia I stand to say “May the Lord accept the sacrifice …”.
 
We’ve been told our cue to stand is the “Pray, brethren …” from the priest, which puts us all on our feet by the time of the response.
 
40.png
Melissa:
We’ve been told our cue to stand is the “Pray, brethren …” from the priest, which puts us all on our feet by the time of the response.
Click to expand...
In one of our parishes, where the pastor has not been following the GIRM, we do not stand immediatley after the hand washing. In our other parish, where the pastor is faithful to the GIRM, we do.
No surprise to us.

Micki
 
40.png
paramedicgirl:
At the preparation of the gifts, when we recite: May the Lord accept the sacrifice of your hands for the praise and glory of His name… do you stand or remain seated?

I thought I heard that Pope John Paul ll wanted everyone to stand at the beginning of the recitation of that prayer. In our church, everyone remains seated until the end of that prayer. Until recently. One woman now stands at the very beginning of it, and about half the people follow suit. The other half remain seated until the prayer ends. I wish our priest would address the proper posture.
Click to expand...
The revised General Instruction to the Roman Missal, no. 43, says
The faithful should stand from the beginning of the Entrance chant, or while the priest approaches the altar, until the end of the Collect; for the Alleluia chant before the Gospel; while the Gospel itself is proclaimed; during the Profession of Faith and the Prayer of the Faithful; from the invitation, Orate, fraters (Pray, brethren), before the prayer over the offerings until the end of Mass, except at the places indicated below.
Click to expand...
The new rubric is quite confusing in that it does not specify “before” or “after” the *Orate, fratres, *but “from”. The original Latin doesn’t provide much help in discerning the intent of the authors, either. Historically, the congregation doesn’t change postures during a dialogue between priest and people, as is implied in the new GIRM.

Sooooo, we have some parishes that stand after the hand washing, some who stand after the priest begins “Pray, brethren…”, and some who stand after the people begin the response “May the Lord…”.

Since there is doubt as to the exact time, some bishops have gone ahead and made their own clarifications to the situation. Hopefully, a “dubium ad responsum” will be issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship in an upcoming issue of *Notitiae *that will clarify the situation for everyone.
 
40.png
muledog:
The revised General Instruction to the Roman Missal, no. 43, says

The new rubric is quite confusing in that it does not specify “before” or “after” the *Orate, fratres, *but “from”. The original Latin doesn’t provide much help in discerning the intent of the authors, either. Historically, the congregation doesn’t change postures during a dialogue between priest and people, as is implied in the new GIRM.

Sooooo, we have some parishes that stand after the hand washing, some who stand after the priest begins “Pray, brethren…”, and some who stand after the people begin the response “May the Lord…”.

Since there is doubt as to the exact time, some bishops have gone ahead and made their own clarifications to the situation. Hopefully, a “dubium ad responsum” will be issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship in an upcoming issue of *Notitiae *that will clarify the situation for everyone.
Click to expand...
That’s really helpful information! No wonder there is confusion over when exactly to stand. I guess I’ll ask my priest what he wants us to do, and hopefully he will clarify, since we are half standing and half sitting for the last few weeks. I’m sure he has noticed it.
 
At the seminary that I was at we had a few guys that helpd write things for the liturgy for Rome. The process that we were instructed to adopt was that we stand after the priest completes the Orate Fratres. Thus it shoudl look like this:

Prist - Pray brethren that this sacrifice may be acceptable …

-stand-

People - May the Lord accept this sacrifice from your hand …

However, just because your parish has not yet adopted this norm yet it does not mean that the priest is not acting in obedience. The Bishops have been given discression in how the rubrics are being implimented and some bishops have opted to take a little longer than others to impliment every norm in the GIRM.
 
40.png
mosher:
At the seminary that I was at we had a few guys that helpd write things for the liturgy for Rome. The process that we were instructed to adopt was that we stand after the priest completes the Orate Fratres. Thus it shoudl look like this:

Prist - Pray brethren that this sacrifice may be acceptable …

-stand-

People - May the Lord accept this sacrifice from your hand …
Click to expand...
That would appear correct, according to a strict interpretation of the GIRM. What is curious, though, is that I have neer seen a rubric that changes a posture in the middle of a dialogue between priest and people. Our pastor said it is very confusing, and is a liturgical innovation, historically speaking.

I have never seen a theological explanation for this.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top