The Season of Lent - Time to Reform

Regaining Equilibrium in Lent and Liturgy

Fr Peter Edwards   |   15th March 2009 (3rd Sunday of Lent)

Lent is the time par excellence to redress the balance of our lives, to restore the equilibrium to the pendulum which too readily swings to the extremes.

Our personal Lent Rule aims to help us to do this individually, and our annual Parish Family Lenten observance supports us too - this year helping each other to pray, by rediscovering silence in Church before and after Mass.

At the start of Lent 2008, a similar inset to our Sunday Bulletin explained a slight shift in the position of the Sedilia (celebrant's chair) so that, when leading prayer addressed to God, the priest is not in the untenable position of turning his back to God - in the Tabernacle, the Crucifix and the Altar.

A further development is introduced this Lent (see page 4 of the Lent/Easter 2009 Parish Magazine), following Pope Benedict's initiative and example (based on his long-standing teaching) and the unbroken practice of the Church (apart from the last 40 years) that the priest and people together face East during the Eucharisitc Prayer. This follows logically from the Lent 2008 paper which demostrated that:

A careful reading of even the most recent edition of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal assumes that the priest is not positioned at Mass to be constantly facing the people (even at the chair) since it directs him to "turn to face the people" on only five specific occasions:

1. At the opening greeting  (GIRM 124.ii)
2. At the "Pray brethren..."  (GIRM 146)
3. At the Sign of Peace  (GIRM 154.i)
4. When inviting the people for Communion  (GIRM 158)
5. At the greeting before the final blesing  (GIRM in the Order of Mass 142)

It should be noted that these do not include the Sursum corda (Lift up your hearts) which is part of the Eucharistic Prayer.

The five above points, at which the priest is specifically directed to turn to "face the people", and, indeed, others for him to "turn towards the altar", presume that these two be two difference directions, and clearly indicate that the General Instruction of the Missal does not expect, or consider it necessary, that the priest be constantly facing the people, either at the chair or the altar.

All the major religions face a particular direction for their prayer to God - Jews turn towards Jerusalem, Muslims look to Mecca, Christians have always faced east from whence "the Rising Son will come". Pope Benedict teaches us that:

Despite all the variations in practice that have taken place far into the second millennium, one thing has remained clear for the whole of Christendom: praying towards the East is a tradition that goes back to the beginning

and adds It is an apostolic tradition and it is essential.

In the Bible God consistently chooses the East for His self-revelation, e.g.:

• He planted a garden in Eden, in the East  (Gen 2:8)
• Ezekiel's Temple faced East: I saw the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the East  (Ezek. 43:2)
• The water flowed east (Ezek. 47:8) from the right side of the Temple, prefiguring the blood and water flowing from the right side of Christ on the Cross, just as the water rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1) brought to life and fruitfulness in St John's vision of the heavenly Jerusalem

Christians renamed Passover, calling it Easter (Acts 12:4) as they prayed towards the East and looked in that direction from the coming of the Risen Lord, reverting from the Jewish custom of praying toward Jerusalem in favour of the more ancient, scriptural Eastward-facing prayer.

Consequently (with only topographical exceptions), Christian churches are always built with the altar at the East. Baptismal promises are traditionally made facing East, looking to the rising sun of Easter dawn heralding the Rising of the Son of God in the East (having faced west, to darkness, to deny Satan). For all these reasons and more, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council (while allowing that Mass may be celebrated facing the people) never envisaged, much less mandated (as many mistakenly believe), that the Eucharist should normally be offered in any direction other than East, nor is it anywhere required, as the Secretary for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Sacraments has recently reminded us.

Recent Popes are concerned that the pendulum has swung too far, causing the secondary concept of "meal" to replace the primary one of sacrifice, and that the priest has displaced the Lord as the focus of attention. Pope Benedict stresses: Looking at the priest has no importance. What matters is looking together at the Lord. At the 11.30am Sunday Mass and 7am weekday Masses we follow the Holy Father's teaching, example and encouragement.