Vatican Prevails On The English Missal Translation

[vianney]

I just had a talk with Bishop Morlino today and yesterday

[cmotherofpirl]

I posted the orans question and recieved this from Deacon Wally.

"Many Catholics are in the habit of holding their hands in

the "Orans" posture during the Lord's prayer along with the

celebrant. Some do this on their own as a private devotional posture

while some congregations make it a general practice for their

communities.

Is this practice permissible under the current rubrics, either as a

private practice not something adopted by a particular parish as a

communal gesture? What is the status of the bishops' proposal to

include this practice as part of the liturgical norms for the US?

No position is prescribed in the present Sacramentary for an

assembly gesture during the Lord's Prayer. While the recently

approved revised Sacramentary does provide for the use of the orans

gesture by members of the assembly during the Lord's Prayer, the

revised Sacramentary may not be used until it has been confirmed by

the Holy See. I might also note that in the course of its discussion

of the this question, the Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy

expressed a strong preference for the orans gesture over the holding

of hands since the focus of the Lord's Prayer is a prayer to the

Father and not primarily an expression of community and fellowship."

Now, if we look at the question, the COMMITTEE wanted the Orans

position to TAKE THE PLACE OF holding hands, so they placed the

question to the bishops as a whole. The bishops voted against

REPLACING holding hands with the Orans position. In so doing, they

were actually stating that there was NO PREFERENCE in the position

of the faithful at Mass during the Lord's Prayer other than standing.

So, the report of the Adoremus people was correct, if incomplete in

its explanation. The Orans position was voted down as a MANDATORY

posture, but was not forbidden by the bishops.