Up-turned palms when praying the Our Father

[otjm]

I don’t recall seeing this when I was younger, is this a relatively new thing?

It appears to have started, along with holding hands during the Our Father, with the Charismatic Renewal movement, which puts it back to the late 1960’s.

The concept is not exactly new. Psalm 141:2: Let my prayer be incense vbefore you;my uplifted hands an evening sacrifice" (NAB); “My prayers rise like incense, my hands like the evening offering” (New Jerusalem); "Let my prayer arise before you like incense, teh raising of my hands like an evening oblation (LOTH).

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I wasn’t aware of people being “allowed” or " not allowed".

A lot of the “allowed” and “not allowed” is in people’s heads.
Unless you’re doing something extreme or disruptive at Mass, no one is going to bother you about how you hold your hands when you pray.

Often people will just do what they see everybody else doing because they don’t want to stand out from others in the crowd. Also, if you received any sort of Catholic training as a child, usually you’ll tend to continue doing it the way you were taught.

 

[InThePew]

I don’t do it myself, but even though the Church doesn’t favor it, if local custom allows it, and if the local bishop doesn’t object, then I don’t object either. Not the hill I’d die on, not by a long shot.
…
I have to think that the evil one is delighted to see us quibbling over what kind of bodily posture we use while praying. The mere fact that we pray is more important than any posture.

This. So much this - thank you for your common sense approach to what is truly a non-issue.

 

[Maximian]

As a young teenage Protestant in the 1970s I encountered it in charismatic prayer groups. I was told (but I never checked) that it was a Jewish custom to pray with the palms upturned to heaven.

I think only more recently has the posture started to be identified by Catholics with the priest’s posture during the Paternoster. Protestants also do it making no such identification.

 

[TK421]

The orans position isn’t exclusively associated with an ordained minister so it’s fine to assume that position during prayer (any prayer). If people do it, it is during the Our Father but hypothetically they could do it during whatever prayer they felt like.

 

[Cruciferi]

That’s because it is. Technically, the Priest does not have the authority to demand something like this. Nor would it be appropriate for the congregation to bully someone into this practice.

Honestly, this reminds me of my old Parish. The Priest made the kids stand around the altar during the Our Father every Sunday. I found the whole thing ridiculous.

 

[27lw]

It reminds me of some megachurch / televangelism grooviness going on.
But maybe that’s just me.

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[Tolle_Lege]

Ah, the orans-positioned prayer hands. A silent competition that occurs during many an Ordinary Form Mass. Who will be first to do it? Whose hands look holiest?

But, the “piece de resistance” of the most ardent orans devotees is the doxology, whence upon “the Kingdom, the Power, the Glory . . .” is spoken, a holy hand contest takes place - who can raise their hands highest? Some orans hands are raised. Some held hands are raised. I have seen small children lifted off the ground as surrounding family members grip their hands and reach to the heavens. If lucky, you may come to witness an entire pew of 10-20 across with not only hands held, but raised in tandem and at the same height, with the folks at the outer edges of the formation simultaneously maintaining their free hands in a raised orans position. Keep a look out for this one - it’s rare.

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[pnewton]

I like the distinction Cardinal Arinze made. Do not try to regiment people at Mass, but there can be no addition to the rubrics. Meaning, let people do what they do, but once a priest tells them to do this or that, it crosses the line. Allow it, but never proscribe it.

 

[DaveBj]

Okay, on one hand we have it in black and white that the laity are not to mimic the gestures of the priest. On the other hand, if one looks at the priest’s hand position and the hand positions of the members of the congregation, there may be some similarities, but not a whole lot of actual mimicry going on. On yet another hand, what are the nay-sayers doing with the instruction of St. Paul: " I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands . . ."? (FTR, my hands stay clasped in front of me, but I have no bad thoughts about people whose hands wander around, as long as they stay out of my personal space.)

Finally, and to inject some levity into the discussion, here is Christian comedian Tim Hawkins explaining the various “orans” positions, with some bonus footage on hand sanitizer:

 

[JanR]

I do both - holding my hands together and the orans posture. I wasn’t aware of people being “allowed” or " not allowed". My first ever church attendance was in a Protestant’s ( it was while trying to “study and observe” Christians when I belonged to an absolutely different faith). . There, I saw people holding their hands high (some crying). I have adopted both the postures, since then. Am I offending the Catholic faith by doing so?

If it’s a heartfelt gesture of openness and devotion to God, it shouldn’t offend anyone in the Catholic Church, or in any other church. It might offend atheists, but that’s their problem.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

neophyte:

I recall seeing a document to the effect that it’s discouraged. My understanding is that the orans position is reserved to the celebrant. But I certainly could be mistaken.

There are such documents. However, in some of the dioceses I visit, 90 percent of the people in the pews do it. It does not appear to be discouraged, or the bishop would surely issue some sort of a guidance based on almost everyone using the position.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone have a source for these documents?

I say this not to be contentious, just wondering if it binds the faithful universally under pain of sin, or is it more of a “hey, don’t do that, it kind of looks like you’re wanting to be the priest, or like you’re trying to concelebrate, or something”.

I once went to the SSPX chapel with a young man who would pray each and every word of the Mass — even the consecration, IIRC — in a barely audible voice along with the priest. Needless to say this wasn’t encouraged, I wouldn’t have known myself, if I hadn’t observed him doing it. Suffice it to say he was kind of a “piece of work” — he tended to march to the beat of a different drummer. Good guy, just pretty unique.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone have a source for these documents?

You can start with Catholic Answers:

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/what-the-orans-posture-means-0

Although there is no provision for the congregation to assume the Orans posture themselves, neither is it forbidden. That said, there is repeated admonition in the liturgical documents of the Church that gestures ought not to be introduced into the liturgy without appropriate authorization from the Church and that the respective roles of clergy and laity ought not to be obscured. Examples of this admonition may be found in the Second Vatican Council’s Sacrosanctum Concilium (2-3), the Vatican document Redemptionis Sacramentum (45), and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (43).

It may well be fitting, then, that only the priest assumes the Orans posture, so as not to obscure the necessary distinction between the role of the priest and the role of the laity. The congregation prays the liturgy in its own way as baptized members of the body of Christ. Its members do not mimic the priest, who represents Christ to the congregation and the congregation to God. There can be a danger of clericalism when the lay role in the liturgy is undervalued, and the priestly role is seen as a better or truer expression of the Faith.

Moreover, when the priest adopts this posture during the liturgy, he, like the Orans figures in the catacombs, makes himself receptive to God’s grace as a representative of the congregation. In this act of supplication, the priest opens himself to God on behalf of the people and then offers to the assembly that which he has received from the Father.

The editor of the Lincoln Diocese’s official newsletter also is not a fan and cites a number of Church sources in his article:

https://www.lincolndiocese.org/op-ed/in-laymans-terms/10599-how-should-we-pray-the-our-father

There are lots more by canon lawyers online if you google. This is a hot button issue for some folks.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

There are lots more by canon lawyers online if you google. This is a hot button issue for some folks.

Thanks for the good information. It is about the furthest thing from a “hot-button issue”, for me, as anything could possibly be. If we could get rid of EMHCs, CITH, and could restore kneeling for communion, the entire congregation could do the “orans” thing to their heart’s content, and it wouldn’t faze me one bit. I have heard that some Africans clap at the consecration. It’s a cultural thing.

Myself, sometimes during the Mass, especially after having received communion, I close my eyes and tilt my head slightly back, as though I’m resting under a sunlamp, or soaking in the sun on the beach. It’s just kind of a “zen-like” thing that comes naturally to me, I really don’t know why I do it, but I do it anyway. In 45 years, no one’s ever said a word to me about it. I used to go to Mass with a woman, now departed (requiescat in pace) who would stand and “daven” while she prayed, like Jews do. I wouldn’t have wanted to see her bothered about it either.

Again, the mere fact we are praying…

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I can’t say as I care much myself if people decide to fold their hands, do the orans, or wave their arms over their head like the charismatics now do, but there are people such as liturgists, canon lawyers, and even some ordinary people who are concerned.

Michelle Arnold’s article raises an interesting point that some media outlet apparently thought that catacomb depictions of a woman praying in orans position meant that the early Church had female priests. Obviously this is the sort of thing that needs to be addressed, even if I don’t care if all the women in the church do the orans.

 

[WillC]

Does it matter…?

 

[felsguy]

When my pastor makes the Sign of the Cross at the beginning of Mass, so do I. When he traces a cross on his forehead, lips, and heart prior to reading the Gospel, so do I. When he bows his head when pronouncing the name of Jesus, so do I? I hadn’t considered that it was wrong to imitate him thus or that it was upsetting to others around me. Should I stop making these gestures?

 

[TK421]

But a person clasping their hands together or having their palms pressed together and angled towards the ceiling are also bodily gestures which aren’t explicitly in the rubrics, so why is the orans position (palms facing up) set apart from those other two positions? There is no specification on what to do with the hands during prayer, whether they should be at one’s side, or resting on the pew, or palms pressed together and angled upwards, or hands clasped, or palms up, or hands folded over the heart, etc. A person clasping their hands together is doing something which isn’t in the rubric the same as somebody with their palms up. If there is no instruction from the bishop, how can a person objectively say that one is okay but the other not, since neither is in the rubric?

I agree it would be more unusual if somebody did with their hands something that had no precedent behind it, but palms up is a very, very old use of body language.

 

[Xarto]

I was taught to hold hands during the Our Father.

I’ve never heard of that, wouldn’t be a fan of it. Some people in Ireland pray with their hands up but very small minority.

 

[DaveBj]

(1) By whom, and in what authoritative document?

. . . .