How Should The Priest Say Mass?

[StColette]

[quote name='dust (the ultra-handsome' post='1556206' date='Jun 3 2008, 03:47 PM']I think the priest should face away from the lady with the lowcut blouse and hip hugger jeans.[/quote]

[cappie]

[quote name='dust (the ultra-handsome' post='1556206' date='Jun 4 2008, 05:47 AM']I think the priest should face away from the lady with the lowcut blouse and hip hugger jeans.[/quote]


You attend a different church than me....

[CatherineM]

We have ladies dressed like that outside our church walking the sidewalk. They're not the church going kind though.

[Knight of the Holy Rosary]

Ad orientem.

[StColette]

[quote name='cappie' post='1556348' date='Jun 3 2008, 06:02 PM'] You attend a different church than me.... [/quote]

ROFL!! I think I'm scandalized ROFL!

[Lisieux Flower]

i think i'd feel left out of the mass if the priest did everything with his back to me. but i've never been to a mass where the priest turned away from the congregation. do you ever feel like you're not an active participant?

[Madtown Sem.]

From what I learned in my Intro to Liturgy class, some confusion came from how St. Peter's Basilica is oriented. Since it faces west, the celebrant would face towards the east and thus towards the people for the Eucharistic prayer, but he was facing ad orientem and even the people would turn to face east with him. Facing the people, it has to be so difficult as a priest to not be the center of the liturgy and direct it towards Christ. That's why it isn't "back towards the people", it's facing toward Christ together, not too mention, I've only been to one Trid. Mass and it was quite obvious that JC was the center of the Mass. My two cents...

[Socrates]

Last Sunday, our pastor announced that he would begin saying all masses Ad Orientum. This was always the standard way the mass was said, and Vatican II actually did not change this (despite much confusion).

Ad Orientum is not said "back to the people," but leading the people facing God in the Eucharist. Priest and congregation face the same direction - towards God.

[Paladin D]

I have nothing against the Ad Orientum, unfortunately I've never been to a Mass where it was done (yet, would like to experience it personally); however, if the 'facing the congregation' direction is gravely inferior, why did His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI celebrate the two public Masses on his Apostolic Journey to the U.S. facing the congregation?

I'm fine with either one.

[Apotheoun]

Facing East during prayer is an Apostolic Tradition.

[cappie]

[quote name='StColette' post='1556507' date='Jun 4 2008, 10:12 AM']ROFL!! I think I'm scandalized ROFL![/quote]

[puellapaschalis]

[quote name='Paladin D' post='1557019' date='Jun 4 2008, 07:44 AM']I have nothing against the Ad Orientum, unfortunately I've never been to a Mass where it was done (yet, would like to experience it personally); however, if the 'facing the congregation' direction is gravely inferior, why did His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI celebrate the two public Masses on his Apostolic Journey to the U.S. facing the congregation?

I'm fine with either one.[/quote]

Two possibilities (I'm not an expert):
1. The Pope has, I think, always had the privilege of celebrating Mass facing the people.

2. Celebrating Mass facing the congregation is so enshrined in the popular consciousness that the process of turning things back around is gradual and takes a long time. The Holy Father has celebrated Mass [i]ad orientem[/i] recently, I believe, in the Vatican. Or, well, "recently" - if memory serves correctly it was at the feast of the Lord's Baptism this year, in the Sistine Chapel. Someone correct me on the details.
Anyhows - the point is that if all papal liturgies (which on foreign trips are organised by the host bishops, not the Holy Father, I think) were suddenly changed back to [i]ad orientem[/i] it would just be much too quick. Better to do it gradually with catechsis a'plenty along the way.

[Paladin D]

Call me stooping down, but I'm fine with either one. The Mass is just as transcending, beautiful, and reverent in either form.

[Apotheoun]

This has been discussed before:

[url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=29506"][u]Ad orientam v. Versus populum, which way is proper?[/u][/url]

Edited June 4, 2008 by Apotheoun

[Deb]

I don't really care where the Priest faces as long as I can receive the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist in a reverent and holy manner. It is what the Priest is saying and doing that is important to me, not where he is facing. My only concern is that it is a valid Eucharist.
I would rather devote any free time I have to praying and giving thanks than being anal about things like this. My Lord seems to be in church every time I attend regardless.

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1556369' date='Jun 3 2008, 07:21 PM']We have ladies dressed like that outside our church walking the sidewalk. They're not the church going kind though.[/quote]

I see them in church, but only with their parents.