Ad Orientem
Bishop Edward Slattery of the Diocese of Tulsa is a champion of Ad Orientem. Here you can read his thoughts on the subject. The National Catholic Reporter wrote a piece on the subject which Father Z has put through his patented fisk machine and which may be read here. I of course am all in favor of Ad Orientem. Priests should render the sacrifice of the Mass at altars when possible and not at the Protestant-lite communion tables that have come into vogue since Vatican II, in a well-intentioned but completely wrong-headed attempt for greater involvement by the laity in the Mass. Quotes from Pope Benedict regarding Ad Orientem are here at the wonderful blog New Liturgical Movement, which I had not read until researching this post. What do you think?
3 Responses to Ad Orientem
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I never “got” all of the carrying-on about Ad Orientem until I attended a triple of back-to-back Masses (for All Souls), where the celebrant did the first Mass “the regular way”, the second Ad Orientem in English, and the third Ad Orientem in Latin.
Oh. The difference was striking: in the first Mass it was to some degree the “Father X Show”, while in the second and third the priest was not so much “Father X” as he was the archetypal Priest.
Precisely Karen! Ad Orientem underlines that the Mass is a sacrifice to God and our greatest act of worship. It is all about Him and not all about us. After Mass there is plenty of time for the extensive duties that God mandates that we owe to our neighbors.
If “ad orientem” means towards the East, what does one do for the many churches in NYC which are built North / South?