Last Updated:Friday - 09/24/2010

WCR Letters to the Editor

It's the priest who holds up his hands

The question posed for Sister Louise Zdunich was "Why and since when do we hold up our hands at the Lord's Prayer at Mass?" The simple answer is we don't, the priest does!

Nowhere in the current General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) does it say that the orans posture is recommended for the congregation during the Our Father. The only posture specified for the congregation at the Lord's Prayer is standing. It says nothing at all about what people do with their hands.

This is not a change from the past. In fact, the orans posture has never been the custom in the Latin Church for the laity. In discussing the ICEL (International Commission on English in the Liturgy) revisions, the bishops specifically rejected the orans posture.

Some members of the laity are in the habit of holding up their hands in unison with the priest during the Our Father at Mass I suspect either because they enjoy being disobedient or perhaps because they feel inferior in holiness to the priest if they are not physically imitating his actions at every turn.

This is a gross misconception that has arisen from a faulty interpretation of Vatican II's call for a "full and active participation by all the people" (during Mass) whereby many such as Sister Zdunich seem to feel that the term active refers specifically to something physical rather than something contemplative. This has led to numerous abuses and the general feeling that one may do as he or she pleases at Mass.

Despite, for example, Sister Zdunich's praise of liturgical dance in places like "Spanish and Afro-American churches," Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has said in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, "Dancing is not a form of expression for the Christian liturgy."

As Pope John Paul has also stated: "Ours is a time of continual movement which often leads to restlessness, with the risk of 'doing for the sake of doing.' We must resist this temptation by trying 'to be' before trying 'to do.'" I hope that Sister Zdunich will refrain in the future from writing misleading articles that serve to confuse the faithful and which lend credence to liturgical abuses.

Paul Kokoski
Hamilton

Plaudits to Art Babych's coverage

Before we had an Ottawa bureau, national coverage was sometimes offered in patchwork fashion. The need for a presence in the capital became especially apparent before and during the 1984 papal visit. With the subsequent birth and growth of CCN, Art broke new ground as a bureau of one.

For a dozen years of deadline writing at the national level, Art deserves a major award - and a long vacation. I look forward to his freelance contributions and assure him of my gratitude and prayer.

Welcome, now, to Deborah Gyapong at CCN's Ottawa bureau. At a critical time in both Church and society, may CCN continue to guide and inform us with depth, breadth and courage.

Roma De Robertis
Saint John, N.B.

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