Strange thing happened at mass this weekend?

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Gregory24

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I attended a different parish this weekend. And right after the agnus dei, everyone remained stainding while waiting to get in line for holy communion. And I mean everyone but my wife and I. I am talking about the part were the eucharistic ministers are receiving communion and we are waiting. In which usually people are praying and there is the communion song sung. I am confused? I have never seen this before?
 
Refer to paragraph 43 in the new GIRM. Here is the relevant sentence, although you should read the context when you have the time:
  • Code: 
    The faithful kneel after the Agnus Dei unless the Diocesan     *
  • Code: 
    Bishop determines otherwise.*
In other words, the local Bishop has the authority to modify the posture for the faithful after the Agnus Dei. However, it is suspicious that other parishes in your area do not follow the same custom. It is not the priest’s prerogative to make this change. Unless the Bishop made an exception for the posture of that particular parish, I would think it should be brought to the priest’s attention.
 
For what it’s worth, I would view that as strange as well.
 
Yeah it’s a parish in the same city, so I should call the priest
 
my home parish does kneeling but the chruch across town stands. i prefer kneeling, but i am suspicious that Archbishop brunett has told us to stand and that my home parish might be ignoring him (or given our priest perhaps he obtained a dispensation)
 
Kneeling after the Lamb of God

The 2002 General Instruction on the Roman Missal provides in paragraph 43 for the various postures of the people during the Mass. This universal liturgical law states that “the people should stand … from the prayer over the gifts to the end of the Mass, except at the places indicated later in this paragraph.” The indicated places are the Consecration, “when they kneel,” and during the period of reflection after Communion, when they may “kneel, stand or sit” (Congregation for Divine Worship, Notitiae 10, p.407).

This same paragraph allows each national bishops’ conference “to adapt the actions and postures … to the customs of the people.” The American bishops have done this, codifying the Tridentine practice, which has existed as an American custom under the 1970 Missal, of kneeling down after the Agnus Dei. In the American adaptation of the General Instruction to the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal (2002), it therefore states,
43 … The faithful kneel after the Agnus Dei unless the Diocesan Bishop determines otherwise.

Thus, the norm for the United States continues the practice of kneeling down after the Agnus Dei, unless a bishop establishes, for his entire diocese, the practice of remaining standing. There is no faculty for individual parishes to do this, establishing a patchwork of practices within a single diocese.

For those who wish to kneel, where the norm is standing, the right to do so has been secured by the Holy See. Please see Kneeling in the Mass.

Answered by Colin B. Donovan, STL

ewtn.com/expert/expertfa…/conference.htm
 
Oh yeah well the Gospel Reading of the Passion from Matthew (NAB Version) Matt 26:64 Jesus said,

" From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the* Power*’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.’"

and then I learned in MAtt 27:38,

"Two revolutionaries %between% were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left."

and then in Matt 27:44,

" The revolutionarieswho were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same way.

Very interesting choices of words!!! And no this wasn’t my Parish or Diocese “Editors Cut” the Gospel, it was in the Lectionary and in the missals for the congregation.
 
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Gregory24:
I attended a different parish this weekend. And right after the agnus dei, everyone remained stainding while waiting to get in line for holy communion. And I mean everyone but my wife and I. I am talking about the part were the eucharistic ministers are receiving communion and we are waiting. In which usually people are praying and there is the communion song sung. I am confused? I have never seen this before?
Click to expand...
This is a change with the new GIRM issued in 2003 but not implemented everywhere yet. The Bishop of your diocese determins what posture will be taken after the Lamb of God. Upon returning from Holy Communion you may sit or kneel, that is up to you.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
…Upon returning from Holy Communion you may sit or kneel, that is up to you.
Click to expand...
Unless one lives in my diocese where we have been (incorrectly) instructed to stand until the EMEs go to the Echaristic chapel (in the back). No one kneels except for visitors and me. The liturgist doing the “catechesis” disparagingly refered to this as “me and Jesus time”
 
Blood Rain:
Unless one lives in my diocese where we have been (incorrectly) instructed to stand until the EMEs go to the Echaristic chapel (in the back). No one kneels except for visitors and me. The liturgist doing the “catechesis” disparagingly refered to this as “me and Jesus time”
Click to expand...
I find it interesting that your liturgist made that comment. I am an RCIA candidate who will make my public Profession of Faith and be confirmed on Saturday, having already made a private Profession of Faith and received first Holy Communion on February 13.

The arrival of Lent had brought me to somewhat of a spiritual “crisis” in my journey to the Church and I had felt God calling me very strongly to repentance in many areas of my life. I also sensed, deep inside, that nothing was really going to change until I was able to receive the graces that are only available through the Sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist. I made an appointment with my pastor on Ash Wednesday and had a long discussion with him about where I was at and where I felt God wanted me to be. I pleaded with him to be allowed to receive Communion early so I wouldn’t have to go through the entire Lenten season “stuck” in the place I was. After hearing me out he suddenly sat back, looked me in the eye and said “Rhonda, there is no way I, as a pastor, could deny the Eucharist to someone who has asked for it so sincerely and with so much faith. It is a gift Jesus gave to us and you have the right to receive it.” So I went to confession the following Saturday and received my first Communion the next day on the first Sunday of Lent. My hunger to receive Jesus was and is so strong that I have been attending daily Mass since then and have only missed two or three days.

I tell you all that to explain why the comment of your liturgist interested me. Before I received my first Communion my pastor had taught me how to make an “Act of Spiritual Communion” when the others went forward to receive. In our diocese our bishop has also decided that we are to remain standing until everyone has received and the Host has been returned to the Tabernacle. Even so, during every “Act of Spiritual Communion” that I had made, I had knelt as I prayed. I couldn’t really say why. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Also during those times I had prayed to be united not only to Jesus but to all my brothers and sisters gathered in that place. And I had felt, deep in my heart, that Jesus had answered those prayers and that I was bound to them in some mysterious way, even though I couldn’t yet receive Communion with them.

The interesting thing is all that changed, without my really even making a conscious decision to change it, after I finally received my first Communion. I stood as I waited to go forward and I stood after receiving until our priest sat down. I no longer knelt at all during Communion until I knelt after Mass was concluded and I went to the chapel to continue to pray.

When I think about why I do that now, I realize that it all comes down to obedience. Our bishop wants us all to remain standing and feels it is important for us all to be united in our posture as we are united with Jesus and each other. I’m forced to wonder whether actually receiving Communion somehow brought me more in union with him as the shepherd Christ has placed over our diocese and made me more willing to be obedient to him.

And isn’t that what Communion is all about? Isn’t it a very visible sign of our unity in Christ and the faith? Yes, we are all receiving Jesus as individuals and He is coming in a very intimate way to each of us but we are doing it **as a community. **Isn’t it true that in each Eucharistic prayer we pray that our unity wll be strengthened through receiving His Body and Blood?

I do have my private “me and Jesus time” after Mass in the chapel when I do kneel but I don’t feel remaining standing after Communion detracts from the experience. Perhaps I would feel differently if I wasn’t a new Catholic and if this was a change from what I had known my entire life. I know that even after my admittedly brief experience with the Mass, I would already feel very strange if I were now told I had to stand for the Consecration.

That’s why I can understand why this might feel wrong to you. Even so, I feel I am only a small cog in a big wheel and that it is not up to me to make these decisions or to question those who do have the authority to make them.
In His love,
Rhonda
 
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