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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