Author Topic: Priest facing east. (Read 988 times)

Chariot Of Truth · « **on:** October 16, 2014, 05:30:26 AM »

I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough, to share some light upon the subject of whether
the priest facing east is an ecclesiastical Tradition in our Faith? Is anyone aware of unanimous teaching of the Fathers, and so forth? Thank you.

poche · « **Reply #1 on:** October 16, 2014, 11:32:19 PM »

The tradition of the priest facing east while celebrating mass is a tradition of long standing within the Catholic Church.

poche · « **Reply #2 on:** October 17, 2014, 12:38:07 AM »

Versus populum (Latin for "towards the people") is the liturgical orientation in which the priest celebrates Mass facing the people. The opposite orientation, whereby the priest faces in the same direction as the people, is often called ad orientem ("towards the east"), even if the priest is not in fact facing the east.

From the middle of the 17th century, almost all new Latin-rite altars were built against a wall or backed by a reredos, with a tabernacle placed on the altar or inserted into the reredos. This meant that the priest turned to the people, putting his back to the altar, only for a few short moments at Mass. However, the Tridentine Missal itself speaks of celebrating versus populum,[2] and gives corresponding instructions for the priest when performing actions that in the other orientation involved turning around in order to face the people.[3]

Earliest churches in Rome[edit]It has been said that the reason the Pope always faced the people when celebrating Mass in St Peter's was that early Christians faced eastward when praying and, due to the difficult terrain, the basilica was built with its apse to the west. Some have attributed this orientation in other early Roman churches to the influence of Saint Peter's.[4] However, the arrangement whereby the apse with the altar is at the west end of the church and the entrance on the east is found also in Roman churches contemporary with Saint Peter's (such as the original Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls) that were under no such constraints of terrain, and the same arrangement remained the usual one until the sixth century.[1] In this early layout, the people were situated in the side aisles of the church, not in the central nave. While the priest faced both the altar and east throughout the Mass, the people would face the altar (from the sides) until the high point of the Mass, where they would then turn to face east along with the priest.[5]

Other pre-twentieth-century churches in Rome[edit]It was only in the 8th or 9th century that the position whereby the priest faced the apse, not the people, when celebrating Mass was adopted in the Roman Rite.[6] The new usage was introduced from the Frankish Empire and later became almost universal in the West.[7] However, in several churches in Rome, it was physically impossible, even before the twentieth-century liturgical reforms, for the priest to celebrate Mass facing away from the people, because of the presence, immediately in front of the altar, of the "confession" (Latin: confessio), an area sunk below floor level to enable people to come close to the tomb of the saint buried beneath the altar. The best-known such "confession" is that in St Peter's Basilica, but many other churches in Rome have the same architectural feature, including at least one, the present Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, which, although the original Constantinian basilica was arranged like St Peter's, is oriented since 386 in such a way that the priest faces west when celebrating Mass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versus_populum

Chariot Of Truth · « **Reply #3 on:** October 17, 2014, 03:43:07 AM »

Poche thank you for your reply. Do you think that facing east is Apostolic Tradition,
and if so how could it be altered? I read through the Second Vatican Docuмent On The Liturgy, personally I see the change was pushed for after the council? How could it accepted at all? If my memory serves me correctly even Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger believed it was Apostolic in nature,
would appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the matter, and anyone else who would like to talk about this topic. Thank you.

poche · « **Reply #4 on:** October 17, 2014, 04:32:03 AM »

I believe that the tradition of praying facing east is a tradition of apostolic origins. The traditioin didn't start as the priest saying the mass with his back to the people. It started as the priest praying facing east with the people. It is aslo a tradition within the Chaldean rite to pray facing east. In fact it is a Chaldean custom to place a cross on the easter wall of the house in anticipation of Jesus' return which is supposed to be from the east.
Also, there is nothing preventing a priest from saying the Novus Ordo ad orientum.

Stubborn · « **Reply #5 on:** October 17, 2014, 04:45:36 AM »

Link
The Catholic Sanctuary
and the Second Vatican Council

by Michael Davies

The Catholic Sanctuary and
the Mass Facing East

"A real change in the contemporary perception of the purpose of the Mass and the Eucharist will occur only when the table altars are removed and Mass is again celebrated at the high altar; when the purpose of the Mass is again seen as an act of adoration and glorification of God and of offering thanks for His blessings, for our salvation and for the promise of the heavenly life to come, and as the mystical reenactment of the Lord's sacrifice on the Cross."

-----Msgr. Klaus Gamber, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy, 1993, p.175

In the Traditional Mass of the Roman Rite the Catholic priest offers Mass in a sacred place, a sanctuary, set apart from the rest of the church for sacrifice, as was the Holy of Holies in the Jєωιѕн Temple, to which the celebrant refers explicitly in the silent prayer Aufer a nobis as he ascends to the altar of sacrifice: "Take away from us our iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that with pure minds we may enter the Holy of Holies." As he recites this prayer the celebrant is filled with the thought of the holiness of God and the awesome nature of the mysteries that he is about to celebrate.

Throughout the centuries the Catholic people have spared no effort and no expense to build sanctuaries which provided a worthy setting for the awesome Sacrifice, sanctuaries which provided a foretaste of the true Holy of Holies, Heaven itself. In the Eastern Churches the faithful are not even permitted to witness the most solemn moment of the liturgy as it takes place behind the ikonostasis. However, in the past three decades tens of thousands of exquisite Catholic sanctuaries have been destroyed-----in obedience, it is claimed, to the requirements of the Second Vatican Council. Before examining this claim it is necessary to make a brief examination of liturgical development in the Church.

The early Christians assembled for Divine worship in the house of one of their number who possessed a large dining room. The reason was, of course, that as a persecuted minority the Christians could erect no public buildings. A number of present-day churches in Rome bear the name of Christians in that locality who had dwellings where Mass was celebrated in the first centuries. Mass was also celebrated in the Roman catacombs on the tombs of the Martyrs, which gave rise to the practice of imbedding the relics of Martyrs in the altar when Christians were eventually allowed to build churches.

Our knowledge of the way Mass was celebrated increases with each succeeding century, since there is a gradual and natural development, with the prayers and formulas and eventually the ceremonial actions developing into set forms. The only liturgical book used up to the fourth century was the Bible, and we have no actual copies of liturgical books extant prior to the seventh century.

Historical factors played a crucial role in the manner in which the liturgy was celebrated. During times of persecution, brevity and simplicity were its principal characteristics, for obvious reasons. The toleration of Christianity under Constantine I [324-337] and its adoption as the religion of the Empire under Theodosius I [379-395] had a dramatic effect on the development of Christian ritual. Congregations increased in size, and benefactions for the building and furnishing of churches resulted in the enrichment of vessels and vestments. Those presenting such gifts would naturally want them to be the richest and most beautiful possible. In a parallel development, the liturgical rites became more elaborate, with solemn processions and stress upon the awesome nature of the rite. This elaboration of the liturgy during the fourth century came about throughout the Christian world as the result of the liturgy's change from an illegal and private ritual into a state-supported and public one.

THE MASS FACING EAST

The most important consideration in the building of churches and the construction of sanctuaries was the fact that, in the East and in the West, Mass was always celebrated facing eastward. The rising of the sun in the East each day was seen as a symbol of the Resurrection of the Saviour and of His Second Coming. St. John Damascene
[c. 675-c. 749] wrote:

At His ascent into Heaven He went to the East, and so do the Apostles pray to Him; He will come again as the Apostles saw Him going, and so the Lord Himself says: "As the lightning comes forth from the East and shines even to the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." Since we wait for Him, we pray toward the East. This is the unwritten tradition of the Apostles.

The Second Coming was awaited with great eagerness by the early Christians; whereas today, alas, it is something to which the typical Catholic rarely if ever devotes a moment's thought. The East was also seen as a symbol of Heaven, the Jerusalem above, in contrast to the Jerusalem below, toward which the Jєωs turned in worship.

An erroneous argument put forward by proponents of Mass facing the people is that "Christ, Whom the priest represents at Mass, did not sit with His back to the Apostles at the Last Supper." Quite true, but neither did He face them across a table. They all reclined on the same side of the table, facing Jerusalem, just as for nearly 2,000 years of Christian history priest and people have offered or assisted at Mass on the same side of the altar, facing the East. Nor, incidentally, was the Last Supper a vernacular celebration. The liturgical language of Hebrew was used, which was as different from the everyday Aramaic used by the Jєωs at that time as Latin is from contemporary French.

Archaeological research proves that from the moment the Christians were allowed to build churches, they always did so along an east-west axis. By the end of the fourth century, it was an invariable rule in the East that churches should be built with the apse [the semicircular end which houses the altar] at the east end, and the same procedure had been adopted in the West by the second half of the fifth century.

A small number of the more ancient churches in the West, in Rome in particular, still had an apse at the west end. But where this was the case, the altar would be constructed so that the celebrant could stand on the west side of it and thus offer the Sacrifice facing the East. He would indeed be facing the people; however, his purpose would not be to celebrate Mass toward them but rather to celebrate the Eucharistic liturgy facing the East. During the first part of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Catechumens, the people would face the altar to hear the readings and the homily. At the end of the Mass of the Catechumens, the celebrant would say, "Conversi ad Dominum" -----"Turn toward the Lord"-----which meant "Turn to face the East." Then, for the duration of the Eucharistic liturgy, the people would turn to face the East, men on one side of the church and women on the other, and hence they would have their backs to the altar.

Chariot Of Truth · « **Reply #6 on:** October 17, 2014, 05:26:29 PM »

Glad to hear from you again. I hope you are well. I share your view that it is indeed Apostolic, but how can another practice dominate in this day and age? Would not such an act be a sin against the faith? To my understanding Catholic Tradition ( capital T) is binding! As I find myself speaking in such a manner, I realise that the Church cannot approve impious worship, so I wonder is there something else I am missing? Is there another piece to this jigsaw puzzle?
Well, my brother in the Faith, once again I leave you with these thoughts. May the peace of the Lord be with you. Thank you.

PG · « **Reply #7 on:** October 17, 2014, 08:42:27 PM »

Were all churches before vatican 2 true east, or "liturgical east"? I understand that "liturgical east" means that all people face the same direction(normal for the tridentine rite), but they are not actually facing east. I remember fr. pfieffer mentioning liturgical east as not actually being east. That is why they had to put in the word liturgical. Is this correct? And, what percentage of chuches do this?