Friday, February 26, 2010

Gestural disunity

I have tried to explain this to people here, they just say so what. People ct as if you are anitsocial if you don't grab their hand, sorry but I don't like it

The Egyptian

Thanks to a new found blog 10 Reasons

Gestural disunity

Here is a picture of worshipers adopting a hands-clasping version of the Orans position, presumably during Mass, on the home page* for the Worship office of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati:

And here is a backgrounder from renowned canon lawyer Ed Peters on the dubiousness of that very practice:
While the orans position as such has a rich tradition in Jewish and even ancient Christian prayer life, there is no precedent for Catholic laity assuming the orans position in Western liturgy for at least a millennium and a half; that point alone cautions against its introduction without careful thought. Moreover — and notwithstanding the fact that few liturgical gestures are univocal per se lay use of the orans gesture in Mass today, besides injecting gestural disunity in liturgy, could further blur the differences between lay liturgical roles and those of priests just at a time when distinctions between the baptismal priesthood and the ordained priesthood are struggling for a healthy articulation.

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