The Vocabulary of Prayer - Bowing

The older rite of the Mass (pre-Vatican II) had many occasions when bowing was called for and very specific directions on the type of bow. There are fewer calls for bowing in our current rite.

Bowing is another way in which we engage our body in our prayer. I grew up at a time when we were taught to bow our heads at the name of Jesus. It is something I still do – automatically, without any need to think about it. And I am happy to have that habit of reverencing the name of the Lord. This bow is a simple bow of the head.

There is a deeper bow, head and shoulders, which I make when entering or leaving church and when I pray the Holy, Holy, Holy. This also is a sign of reverence for the altar, the cross, and the transcendent mystery of God.

And there is the profound bow from the waist. I do this when “I confess to Almighty God that I have sinned…”

One bow that is less common is touching one’s forehead to the ground while kneeling. This is the common prayer position for Muslims when saying their daily prayers. It has its roots in the Old Testament:

Ezra opened the scroll so that all the people might see it, for he was standing higher than any of the people. When he opened it, all the people stood. Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people, their hands raised high, answered, “Amen, amen!” Then they knelt down and bowed before the LORD, their faces to the ground. (Nehemiah 8:5-6)

We also find it in the Gospels:

They (the magi) were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. (Matthew 2:10-11)

Attending to such bodily actions can enrich our prayer.

The Vocabulary of Prayer - Posture

Our posture is another resource for our prayer. It is easy to pay little attention to posture; we simply stand, sit, or kneel at the proper times.

However, there are different ways of standing. There is a difference in simply “standing around” and standing up to greet someone. In the first case, one can simple be “killing time.” In the second our body is part of our communication with the person we are greeting.

Standing is the posture of a free person. The first Ecumenical Council of the Church decreed that it was forbidden for Christians to kneel to pray on Sundays because that was the day of the resurrection.

We stand in the presence of important people. At Mass, we stand to greet Christ in the Gospel. If we are attentive to our posture, our standing is an acknowledgement of the presence of Christ in the Gospel that is about to be proclaimed to us.

When we sit for the first two readings, we can simply sit down or we can sit and focus our attention on the word of Scripture.

We do not spend as much time kneeling in prayer as we once did. But it is still an important posture of prayer, a posture that recognizes the transcendence and greatness of the God to whom we pray.

Another, less common posture is prostrating our self on the floor. It is a dramatic gesture which the liturgy calls for in two instances. At ordinations, the entire assembly calls upon as the saints and those to be ordained are prostrate on the floor of the sanctuary. On Good Friday, the ministers enter in silence and prostrate themselves before the altar in silent prayer.

Although it is customary to depict St. Clare holding the ciborium with the Eucharist, at the convent in Assisi where she lived, she is said to have prostrated herself in prayer before the Eucharist reserved in the tabernacle as she prayed for the deliverance of Assisi from the mercenaries that were marching on the city.

Saint John Paul II’s secretary has said that he would find John Paul prostrate in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Our bodily posture is meant to be part of our prayer and will be, much more so if we attend to it.

The Vocabulary of Prayer - Hands

When we pray, our bodies are meant to be part of that prayer. Perhaps the most natural bodily expression of prayer is the use of our hands.

It is very common for people, when they pray before a meal to join hands as an expression of community, of our desire to be more deeply related to one another. This has also become common practice in many places when we pray the Lord’s Prayer at Mass. It is physical witness to our belief that we are one family, God’s daughters and sons gathered around the Lord’s Table to be nourished with the shared Bread and Cup of Life.

The tradition folded hands has its roots in feudalism. It is still the gesture used by a priest at his ordination. He kneels before the bishop who ordains him and who takes the priest’s hands in his own as the priest promises obedience and respect. When we pray with folded hands, we figuratively invite the Lord to take our hands in his.

We can also pray with open hands, a sign of offering. We come before the Lord with open hands and the Lord fills them with the Bread of Life.

Another gesture with our hands is with hands lifted up and outstretched. This position is the mirror image of Jesus outstretched hands on the cross. It is an invitation to the Lord to bring to greater perfection the image of Jesus in us.

There is a painting by Giovanni Bellini in the Frick Collection in New York which depicts St. Francis praying with his hands extended.

The manner in which we use our hands can help us to focus our prayer.

Proclaiming the Word

This past Sunday, the person who read the New Testament reading had a warm smile. It was a natural smile; she did appear to make any conscious effort “to smile at the congregation” as she made eye contact with those listening to her. There was warmth to her presence as she read, a warmth that encourage listening.

We communicate with much more than our voice.

2010 Translation

A translation of the missal was prepared and received the approval of the eleven English-speaking conferences of the world.  This translation was rejected by the Congregation for Divine Worship. As a result, instead of the 1998 translation of this Sunday’s Prayer over the Gifts:

O God,

you provide us with gifts

to be offered to your name

and you accept them as a sign of our loving service.

In your mercy grant that the offering you enable us to make

may obtain for us an enduring reward.

We have this 2010 translation:

O God,

who provide gifts to be offered to your name

and count our oblations as signs

of our desire to serve you with devotion,

we ask of your mercy

that what you grant as the source of merit

may also help us to attain merit’s reward.

Remember this is a prayer to be prayed aloud and heard by a congregation.

One element that marks the 2010 translation is the frequent use of “merit.” One of the meanings which the Merriam-Webster dictionary provides for “merit” is: a spiritual credit held to be earned by performance of righteous acts and to ensure future benefits. In light of the theological battles of the 16^th century that led up to the Council of Trent, I puzzle over the repeated use of this work in our liturgical prayer.

Note also the dropping of "you" before "who provide." In English one would expect "who provides" after  "O God". 

Rome and Canterbury

Yesterday, June 14, Pope Francis and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, met for the first time since they both took over leadership positions in their respective Churches in mid-March. They talked in private for over thirty minutes in the Pope’s library. Afterwards they prayed together and then had lunch together with their respective delegations, in the Vatican guesthouse where Pope Francis lives.

Archbishop Welby described the visit as a personal, rather than official, visit, “a very private discussion about the nature of our faith and of our spirituality of prayer, of the experience of the grace and mercy and love of God.” He said, “We also touched on other subjects to do with international issues where we looked for ways in which the Churches can develop cooperation and demonstrate our affection for each other, which is a real affection at a very deep level.”

One participant revealed that over lunch the Pope suggested that he and the Archbishop of Canterbury issue a joint statement on human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children and the Archbishop agreed. 

When asked what personal impression he had of Pope Francis, the Archbishop reflected for a moment and then said: “an extraordinary humanity, on fire with the Spirit of Christ.” 

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales accompanied Archbishop Welby. He said they started their visit by praying at the tomb of St Peter and afterwards at the tomb of Pope John Paul II.

This encounter can seem ever so normal. Yet fifty years ago, when the Second Vatican Council opened, such a meeting was unthinkable. Pope John XXIII (Blessed John XXIII) invited delegates from other Christian communities to attend the Council as observers. Yet during the third session of the Council, the question was raised: Was it permissible for the Council Fathers (the bishops) to join the non-Catholic observers in praying together the Lord’s Prayer! Such was the state of affairs at that time.

In the course of the Council several historic events took place. One of the most dramatic was the meeting of Pope Paul VI with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras I, on January 5, 1964 in Jerusalem. The two churches had not only been separated since 1054, there had been no formal contact in over 400 years. In 1963, Pope Paul wrote a handwritten letter to Patriarch Athenagoras. The last time this had been done was in 1584 when Pope Gregory XIII informed Patriarch Jeremiah II about reform of the calendar.

These exchanges led to the formal lifting of the mutual excommunications pronounced by the two churches in 1054. Toward the end of the Council, a joint declaration by the Pope and the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras I, was read out in St. Peter’s. In it the Roman and the Orthodox Churches “consigned to oblivion” the centuries-old excommunications that had poisoned relations between them. That same day in Istanbul, at the patriarchal cathedral, Athenagoras I presented the papal delegation, headed by Cardinal Shehan, of Baltimore, with an annulment of the excommunication of Cardinal Humbert, the legate of Leo IX, in 1054. In Rome, when Metropolitan Meliton of Heliopolis, the representative of Patriarch Athenagoras, received the brief that formally annulled the excommunication of the eleventh-century Patriarch Michael Caerularius, he was embraced by Pope Paul in the kiss of peace with the words “Pax tecum” (“Peace be with you”). Turning to go back to his place, the Metropolitan was greeted by a storm of applause from the Council.

Another major event occurred on the eve of the conclusion of the Council in December of 1965 when Pope Paul VI gathered with the non-Catholic observers at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls for an ecumenical prayer service. It was the first time that any Pope had ever participated in an interdenominational religious service. The lesson in English was read by Dr. Albert C. Outler, professor of theology at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas; the lesson in French was read by Father Pierre Michalon, a Catholic priest and a Council theologian; the lesson in Greek was read by the Archimandrite Maximos Aghiorgoussis, rector of the Greek Orthodox parish church in Rome. The hymn “Now Thank We All Our God,” in which all joined in English, was written by the seventeenth-century German Lutheran composer Johann Cruger.

Today the various Christian communities continue to have many points of division. However, the Second Vatican Council irrevocably changed the relationships between Catholics and Orthodox as well as between Catholics and other western Christians.

Emeritus I

The tradition of popes serving for life has been a significant influence on the cardinals who gather in conclave. Another, perhaps less obvious factor, is the impact of modern medicine which contributes to longer lives. Currently, there are ninety-one cardinals over the age of 80, forty-four of them over than Benedict XVI, and fifteen who are in their 90’s.

In this context, Joseph A. Komonchak’s comments in Commonweal seem particularly to the point:

“There is potentially great significance in Benedict’s action, and it may be that his resignation will be his greatest contribution to ecclesiology. He has so subordinated his person to the office that he could renounce it. His frank admission that he no longer had the strength of mind and body needed for the Petrine ministry not only humanizes the pope himself but helps bring the papacy back within the church, down from what Hans Urs von Balthasar called its “pyramid-like isolation.” All those unique titles that seemed to place the papal office above and beyond all other offices and ministries in the church suddenly have to yield to what their occupants all have in common: a fragile, sinful, and mortal humanity. The pope—and not just this one—loses something of his sacral apartness. He rejoins the rest of us.

“Benedict’s action also suggests the thought that if a pope can resign for reasons of health or of age, he might resign for other reasons too. There could come a pope who agrees with what John Henry Newman wrote in 1870, during the longest pontificate in church history: “It is not good for a pope to live twenty years. It is anomaly and bears no good fruit; he becomes a god, has no one to contradict him, does not know facts, does cruel things without meaning it.” In other words, even though no term limits may be assigned to the papal office, a pope can have his own term limits in mind, and say to himself, and to the church, “Basta!” If papal resignations were to become something normal (that is, more frequent than every seven hundred years), then there might be less reluctance to elect someone younger and still energetic without worrying that he will fall victim to the tendency Newman feared.”

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