Ad Orientem: The Ancient Posture We’ve Forgotten (Fr Dan: Ep 6)

Most Catholics have never experienced the ancient posture of the Mass—ad orientem—where priest and people face the Lord together, and many don’t even know why it mattered for nearly 2,000 years. In this episode of Ad Orientem: The Ancient Posture We’ve Forgotten, we look at what the Church and Vatican II actually teach about Mass orientation, “full and active participation,” and how this posture can help restore belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Transcript

For centuries, Catholics, priests, and people faced the same direction at mass ad orientem. Today, most have never experienced it. And many don't even know why it matters. But if we've lost this posture of prayer during the mass, what else might we have lost without even noticing?

Welcome back to episode 6 of our weekly series on the liturgy. Today again, we're asking three big questions. Have we confused seeing the priest with truly participating and missed what Vatican 2 actually taught? How does the priest's anonymity deepen the mass for him and for us? And could recovering this posture be a key to restoring belief in the real presence? First, you'll see a homily delivered by Father Dan and then we sit down here for a further discussion. So again, make sure you stay tuned to the end.

The first time I celebrated holy mass, what we call ad orientem,

was a few years after I was ordained. And if I'm honest with you, I I found it a little awkward because we're not taught it in the seminaries, even though it's in the rubrics of the mass. I I didn't know the exact timing of things, when to turn around, the the direction to turn, clockwise, counterclockwise, a full turn, a a half a turn, and so on and so forth. But the more I've celebrated mass this way, the more I've prayed this way, the more the awkwardness has just melted away. And I've come to realize what a great gift it is passed on to us through Holy Mother Church. Last week we introduced the concept of ad orientem in our homily. And last week in particular, we examined what the teach church teaches in regards to it. This week, I'd like to focus on the theology, the reasons why the church has held on to it for so many years. I I know you all remember the details of my homily last week, but here's a quick review for you. ad orientem is a Latin phrase which means to the east. It's a liturgical posture where the priest and the congregation face the same way towards the tabernacle, the crucifix towards the Lord. And the genesis of this was in the ancient church for the direction of east was of prime importance. The east was where the Lord began his passion. The mount of olives east of Jerusalem. It was east where our Lord ascended into heaven from that same place. And it was from the east that it was believed that the Lord would come again to judge the living and the dead. The east represented the Lord. The west represented sin and darkness. It's why candidates and catechumans in the early church when they renounced sin and Satan would turn west. But when they professed the creed, they would turn east towards the Lord. And praying towards the east was not always geographically possible. What developed then was a liturgical east where the crucifix, the altar, the tabernacle represented that direction, represented the Lord. For that's where the Lord is in the tabernacle present there. That's the Kohl's notes. I think you like the Kohl's notes. But here are three reasons why ad orientem is fitting theologically for our mass. The first reason I I briefly mentioned last week, our mass, the liturgy has a primary direction and that direction is towards the Lord. The mass is fundamentally about the worship of God. The mass then is not primarily about us. It's not a closed circle. It's not primarily horizontal. The direction of the mass is vertical. It's a pilgrimage to heaven. It's what the entrance procession is to represent. The pilgrimage to heaven which the sanctuary represents. Ad orientem is fitting because it makes known that inherent direction of the mass where we're all directed the same way towards the Lord in the Eucharist. That's the first reason. The second reason why it's fitting for the mass is this. When we speak to someone, we face them. We we know this intuitively. built into us. How many times have parents had to raise their voice to their children and say, "Look at me when I'm talking to you." Parents at Lords have never had to do this. At St. Paul's, maybe,

but it's built into us. I've heard mothers say to toddlers, "Look at my face. look into my eyes when I'm talking to you. Well, if this is true when it comes to people, how much more true is this when we speak to Almighty God in our highest form of worship that of the mass? How much more important is it that we face the Lord? And he's right there. There are of course parts of the holy mass where the people are addressed. When you're spoken to, the opening greeting, the the readings, the homily, the intentions, when you're spoken to, the priest faces you. But then come the prayers of the offertory, the prayers of the Eucharist. And to whom are those prayers addressed? They're addressed to almighty God, to the father in heaven. And so we turn to him. The operating principle is this. When the priest speaks to the people, he faces the people. When the priest speaks to God, he faces God. When the community speaks to each other, we face each other. But together, when we speak to God, we face him as one. priest and congregation together. That's the second reason. When we speak to someone, we face them and we face God. Rolling on to the third reason. Ad orientem is fitting for the mass because the mass is less about us and more about him. As John the Baptist said, he must increase, I must decrease. Ad orientem takes the attention off the priest and places it on the Lord. It takes the emphasis off the congregation. The priest facing you, making eye contact with you and places it on the Lord. When the priest celebrates ad orientem becomes almost anonymous, the priest disappears and only Jesus remains offering the great sacrifice of himself to the father for all of you. And if I'm honest, this is my experience, not that my experience matters. the traditions and laws and wills of the church do. But my experience is that the church knows what she's doing in handing this on to us for so long. When I celebrate mass ad orientem, I can celebrate almost more devoutly. Focus on the altar, on the tabernacle, on the crucifix, the Holy Spirit dove. My intention is not fixed on you but on God. And that's the job of the priest to pray worthily for you and to offer the sacrifice of Jesus for you. And that's your job too by the way to offer the sacrifice of your lives in union with the priest to the father in heaven. It's why we face the Lord together. And so at this mass, we've come in from the west, from the darkness, sometimes the pain of our lives with all that is within us. And we face the east, we face the light. Together, we face the Lord. God bless you. God love you. Amen. Father Dan, welcome back. Ken, it's good to be back. Hey, a wonderful homily once again on ad orientem. That was your second one. Yes. In the series. And so I want to offer to you a couple of uh thoughts where people might have concerns about ad orientem and ask how you'd respond to them. So the first one is in the second Vatican council, they spoke about the mass and the participants as having a full conscious and active participation in the in the mass. Um some say that when you turn the priest towards the congregation so the his face is facing them it encourages this full active and conscious participation in the mass. So how would you respond to that concern? Thanks for the question. It's in fact probably one I hear often just about various things in the mass. Right. But uh I think the first question we always have to ask is what did the council mean by full and active participation? I think there's been a a little bit of misunderstanding there. I think there's been a view that in order to have full and active participation, you you have to be doing something or you have to see everything. you have to sing everything and you always have to be kind of doing something whether it's seeing hearing or actively doing something and there's been clarifications upon what this means uh the second Vatican council what they mean it it was actually it was used by a number of popes before the second Vatican council so it's always good to go back and see how they used it was used by Pope Pas the 10th I think first way back in something like 1903. But the pope who used it the most was Pope Pius I 12th. He published an encyclical on the liturgy right before the second Vatican council mediat. And he uses it 12 times in that document. And when when you read the instances that that he uses it, full active participation is first and foremost an interior participation. That we're participating with our understanding. We should know first of all know what's going on. If we don't know what's going on, we can't participate. How do we participate? And then secondly, we we participate with our hearts and our souls. And so that's the full an act of participation that the church is calling us to with our our minds, our souls, and yes, our bodies, but it just can't be our bodies. And uh and then John Paul II came up with clarifications as well as Pope Benedict on this regard that it just cannot refer to externals. It it first and foremost must part pertain to your internal participation. And so that's an important distinction right because when it comes to ad orientem in in that sense then we can see that it it does not harm at all the participation of the leoty at mass because once we understand it in fact we participate more uh because what what is that at orient as as we touched on it in in our last session. It more fully makes known the direction of the mass and the purpose of the mass. It's Jesus offering the sacrifice to God in the person of the priest. We're on a pilgrimage to heaven together. It's Jesus the good shepherd leading us to heaven. And so the priest faces the same way as the people. And so that alone if once we recognize that and know that and see Jesus in the person of the priest leading us it's we surrender ourselves to that that's full and active participation. Okay. So so your your thought was with the criticism for this was well actually it doesn't hurt conscious and active participation it enhances it. Yes. It leads us interiorly towards Jesus who we are coming to worship and adore in the in the mass. Yeah. And Yes. And one one could make the case. Okay. Make you could make the case. One could just from my experience now of celebrating both ways. I celebrate both ways at the parish. Yeah. That mass facing the people can can take away from our full and active participation. And what do I mean by that? It creates a danger of turning the mass into something it's not. And so when the priest turns around and faces the people, the mass is now it's a closed circle. The community faces each other all the time. There are no points where the community faces God together. And so it it inhibits the I think the true purpose and direction of the mass. And sometimes it can lead to distraction. you know, you you notice the bags on their father's eyes cuz he didn't get much sleep the night before or his sunburned face cuz he's working out in the yard, you know, and and so yeah, and I mean those those are secondary things I think, right? Yes. But uh the main purpose that again turning the other way can make the community enclosed on itself and the mass is not a dialogue primarily between the leoty and the priest between community members. It's a dialogue between the Christian community on earth and the Lord in heaven. Yeah. And so and I remember in in your homaly you said uh something about when a parent is talking to their child you say look at me. Yeah. Yeah. And so I was thinking about this after not only do it does it direct your it your ears right so you're but it it directs your heart because what you look at then eventually captures your heart and so we in the spiritual writers always talk about custody of the eyes. They're talking about in the negative sense that guard your eyes from things that would distract you from the Lord. So here we have all of us gazing upon our Lord with the hope that he capt captures our hearts. I think it's true that the direction that you look in disposes your heart. Now the question is what are we disposing our heart to? What are we looking at? What are we gazing upon? Anyways, just a that's a great insight. I should have used that. you're welcome to in the future. Uh you also said in in your homily that the primary direction of the mass is to the Lord. So why do you think it's so important to rediscover that direction today in these times? I think it's really pivotal in this sense. We always have to ask ourselves. I preached on this last Sunday. What is the primary spiritual danger or sickness of our time? What is the primary spiritual danger sickness? And we weren't at mass last Sunday. We were somewhere else. So, we went. Yeah. What did you say? We'll continue our discussion with Father Dan in just a second. But first, we're going to be putting a pause on our liturgy series just for Advent and then we'll be resuming it in the new year. So, if you want to join our new Advent series starting on the first day of Advent, you can head over to adventaily.com. There you can sign up and start getting our videos 5 days a week, Monday through Friday throughout Advent. Uh, we'd love for you to join us. Now, back to the discussion. What did you say? Man has forgotten God. with a growing secularism that pushes God out of every facet of our lives, trying to push God out of hospitals, out of schools, out of the public square, a growing secularism, just pushing God out. And and because of that, we're forgetting God because we're not in contact with him as much. The culture doesn't support our faith as much as it used to. And so add our is so important because as we kind of indicated it puts the sole focus on the Lord and not ourselves. And so when we come to mass into the church and we p put our focus on God not in not only in what we say but the direction in which we pray. I think it change it can change hearts. It it really changes the experience of the liturgy. Maybe you can speak to that after and then we take that into our lives. Again, what makes bad liturgy is when we forget God in the liturgy or when God doesn't become the center. We're in danger of los of forgetting about God in our lives. We cannot forget about God in the liturgy. So, he must be the center of everything we do in the liturgy. And so at Orientum just enhances that the closed circle which we've been talking about there again there's a danger of the community becoming the center and God becoming secondary or even putting them kind of on the same plane. And so we have forgotten God in our society. And so with the one place we need to focus on him at all times is in the liturgy. That's what I would say. Well, I think if you look at everything that we experience in our society, it's orientated to self. You think about the iPhone, iPhone, iPod, eye touch. Everything is like me, me, me. This this we have live in a selfie culture. Like how many time I remember the first time I took a selfie, I thought, "Oh, this is so weird." Like taking a picture is like so vain. No, I'm I I'm desensitized to it. Do it all the time. Interesting. and and everything, even our consumer mentality. We want our food quick, cheap, easy. If McDonald's advertised slow food, nobody would go. Like, it's all catered to the individual. Um, and the one place that it's not is when you step into the holy sacrifice of the mass, you go to a Catholic church. uh really in a previous episode with Father Cristino this past week we recorded he said the universal antidote the church is the universal antidote to everything that we're struggling with within society and I thought to your point um the direction of the mass so so critical um you you also spoke about when the mass when the priest is facing towards the lord he becomes anonymous he in one sense he's hidden So why explain why do you think that's important for two things the priest and also the congregation who's experiencing the mass? Sure. I brought a quote with me. I didn't get to quote it in the homily cuz I like to keep my homily. You know I forget how long that one was but you know under 12 minutes for sure. You're very disciplined with that. Trying to hit around 8 to 10. I don't always succeed in that regard. But I have a quote from a great uh the theologian and liturgist. His name is mount senior uh Ronald Knox and he has a beautiful quote about the anonymous priest and ad orientem. It concerns really our our theology of the priesthood. Uh and it goes like this. That is what the priest is a living tool of Jesus. He lends his hands to be the hands of Christ. His voice to be the voice of Christ. His thoughts are to be Christ's thoughts. There is there should be nothing of himself in the mass from first to last. As the priest ascends the stairs into the sanctuary, he is no longer himself, but Christ. Isn't that beautiful? It is. And so there's a sense that a priest is to totally surrender himself and who he is, everything, his hands, his thought, his heart, his soul when he celebrates the mass. And so who he is, his face, how often he smiles and catches your eye isn't all that important at mass. What's important is that he's Christ. And when the priest faces the other way, his personality is gone. It doesn't matter who he is, right? And he melts away and what's left is Christ, his hands, his voice. There is some good things to the thought that you know the the soberness of how the priest celebrates the reverence how he celebrates that all lends more to the anonymous priest that the priest's personality should not be shining through during the mass. This is what reverence does for the priest and and alt service too. They're not a distraction, but that soberness, that reverence is so that he disappears, his quirks and his personality don't show so much. And and that it's just Christ and and so part when the priest turns around, it it it gives to that anonymous priest and and so that helps the priest. It takes a lot of pressure off of him. Pope Benedict talks about this. Sometimes when the priest turns around, it feels like you're on the stage as a priest that you have to perform. That's what people do in theater. They they face the audience. They have to perform. And so separates the priest from the people. But when the priest turns around, he he just needs to celebrate reverently as the church intends. Follow the rubrics. And it's like it's so much easier to let go and just pray and celebrate the sacrifice of the mass. So it's good for the priest I think from my experience celebrating it. And then for the people it gives them a a a proper sense of the priesthood and how beautiful that is of the gift of the priesthood and how this is our lord in the person of in in person in the person of the Christ and the priest leading us. It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I could see how priests would feel pressure at the beginning of mass or during mass. You're always facing people to build rapport with the people. Yes. Yeah. You make a great point here. I I have spoken in front of tens of thousands of people over the last 20 years and and and what I do is very different than than what you do, right? When you step on to a stage as a speaker, the first thing you try and do is build rapport. You build an emotional and intellectual connection and you try and do that within the first 10 seconds. Like at if by 30 seconds, if you haven't done that, it it's not going to go well. So, you got to have a strong opening. You catch them. You and and and then you journey with them. Now, that's I think totally appropriate when you're giving a style of presentation like myself where it's supposed to be entertaining and you're supposed to laugh and you're supposed to be moved. But mass is not about that. Like, and I imagine it's very easy for the priest to transfer this attitude and mindset into the mass where the very first thing he is is he's before people. So, maybe the pressure is well, what happened over the weekend? Make a comment on that, right? Or you got to say words of welcome, you know, and make people feel comfortable. Yeah. And kind of take five minutes. That's That's right. Or 10. Or it's like the the the homily before the homily. Yeah. So I never thought about it that way. I could really uh un understand how that would be you were released from that. Exactly. And one of the things I really appreciated about Father Jeff who was the pastor before you and now you shout out to Father Jeff. Shout out to him. You just start the mass. Just start the mass. Just just have the mass. No more words. Don't talk about the sports teams. Just like just start the mass. This is why we're here. And I just Oh, it's so nice. You just go and that's what we do. You you process in and it's the name of the fathers and we just start. Anyways, thank you. Appreciate it very much. And then of course, thank you to Father Jeff who really helped all this. And um but that's the connection to the anonymous priest. Okay. Yeah. Was there something else you didn't want to add to regarding the congregation? We're we're good. I think we're good. It serves both the priests and the congregation. Yeah. Okay. So, in previous episodes, we've talked about a declining belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. And of course, we know the numbers are just falling off the cliff here. So, do you think celebrating celebrating Adorient can help protect and restore belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist? I think it can. I think it helps in that again we are we're turned towards the tabernacle and this is a beautiful thing. So when I'm celebrating mass Saturday, I look at the tabernacle when I'm saying some of these prayers and it just it just it changes something within the priest and the tabernacle needs to be in the center of course for this to occur and that helps to form the people and the true real presence of the belief in the Eucharist. But that's an important point. Yeah. So the tabernacle needs to be in the center but then turning towards him again all of our attention is on him and not just when we come in for the genuflection but especially during the the mass when we offer the eukarist and so for sure I I think it can be of great benefit for to increase our true belief in Jesus in the in the Eucharist. Yeah. Okay. Um, on a personal note, you've been celebrating ad orientem for how long? On and off. For how long? So, at least 2 years now. And I I would always celebrate privately like that before then. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And if I were with a small group of people like members of my family or things like that, I would always celebrate uh that way. Yeah. Yeah. So how when you reflect upon that and as you started doing this, how do you think this has shaped your priesthood and affected it or has it? Oh yeah. Yeah. It's affected the way I celebrate mass as I indicated it. It imparts upon me the importance of reverence for the priest because then that sets the tone for the whole community for the servers for everyone and because it's not as I said in the homily he must increase I must decrease less of me more of him uh in the mass for the priests and so you know no need to perform you can just focus on offering the sacrifice of the mass you can truly more focus on praying And and I like to look at my congregation, you know, but but you know, things are going on. You guys are doing your best to, you know, celebrate. We have a young congregation. Things are sometimes busy. Yes. Out there. Yeah. And which is fine. I I love our young families. I love that. And it's just so beautiful that they attend mass. But when the priest turns around, his sole purpose at the mass is to offer good and worthy sacrifice in person on behalf of the community. So do you want me how would you want me to do that to the best of my ability or or to put my self in a position where I can do that, you know, not so well or I think you would have me do that so I can do that well. Would you say that? Yeah, absolutely. And so I find turning the other way helps me to do that. It also for the priest you you really feel like a a priest and a good shepherd uh where you're offering the sacrifice on behalf of your people and for your people and you're leading them to heaven. when you're faced the other way, you're you kind of feel like again you got to perform or you you're doing something for them when in reality the mass you're doing something for God on behalf of them. So it just it just changes everything in that regard for me. One could say a priest feel more it feels more like a priest when he celebrates that orient. One could say you feel like more like a father. You're leading your family. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's a beautiful thing and I I know it can seem like a shock to many who haven't experienced it before. And did we touch I'm not sure if I touched on it in my homily about like how one could implement it in churches and diocese. Okay. Offer like what what's your thoughts on that? Yeah. So there a good thought and I've seen some bishops do this catechis important explain it to the people why we do it the long tradition of the church it's been part the more I look into it by the way a shout out for this book if anyone I'm not sure if your listeners ever want more information on it but it's called turning towards the lord by uva michael lang uh and it just the best presentation of vatientum I've read and the modern scholarship is that this is the position we've had from the beginning. Mhm. Right from the beginning all the way till 1970 when facing the people was allowed. And and if the church has had something I'm going on a tangent here, but if here's a good liturgical rule. If the church has practiced something for centuries and millennia, you can be sure that was guided by the Holy Spirit and celebrated saints by saints. And the Holy Spirit guided this and and this is one of those things that has been celebrated since the from the beginning. And from that fact alone, we should be open to it. But anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. So if a if a bishop priest catechiz their people tell them how long it's part of our tradition the meaning behind it then to slowly imp implement it you know we're going to maybe just start on weekdays or beginning in advent during the season of advent we're going to going to face the lord or during the season of lent we're going to face the lord and so you can do it for particular seasons and to slowly implement it because we also don't want to do harm in implementing liturgical practice kind of abruptly cuz that's never happened in the church before, right? And so I know priests and bishops are are concerned about that and and so kateesus give them a heads up. This is what we're doing and give it a shot. And I think you'd be people would be surprised at at the reception of it after a while. Yeah. I think I think they'll be blessed. There's a blessing that will happen. You you'll encounter the Lord in a in in a clearer way, I think. Yeah. So, that's what I would say. Okay. Great. Thanks. Appreciate it. Well, great. We'll uh we'll see you in in a couple weeks I think cuz we're going to take a little break here for Advent and then we'll resume and our next topic is going to be male only alter books. That's a hot topic. Okay. Well, we'll see you after Advent. Great.