Ad Orientem
It used to be that the universal posture of liturgical worship was with the priest facing the altar, alternatively called ‘ad orientem’ (toward the east) or ‘versus Deum’ (facing toward God). In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, this practice came to an abrupt and nearly universal end—being maintained only in sister rites and the handful of parishes that maintained traditional latin masses.
The strange thing though? VII never decreed that the priest should face the people! While the missal of Paul VI does indeed permit such a posture, it is not de rigeur. Even the Missal for the ‘novus ordo missæ’ (‘new order of mass’ —the term coined by Paul VI himself) presupposes that the priest is still maintaining the traditional liturgical posture. Multiple rubrics in the missal instruct the priest to turn and face the people at certain times. This only makes sense if the priest is not facing the people for the preceding liturgical action. When considered through a historical lens: this makes all the more sense because the liturgical posture had always required the priest to face toward God at the altar in the old rite too. The presumption was that this liturgical posture would continue even in the new rite of mass. Our current habit of having the priest stand with his back to the tabernacle facing the people marks a stark break with immemorial custom.
The most important thing to remember?
The priest isn’t “turning his back on the people”.
He is actually facing toward God.
I suspect you would find it rather rude if, whenever someone was talking to you, they were always standing with their back to you like they were talking to someone else. And yet, this is exactly the behavior that has become so commonplace in the church today. Why would we accept such a practice when the Person in question is God the Father?!
When the priest is praying at Mass, he is talking to God the Father on our behalf, or in Christ’s name (“in persona Christi”). When he is offering the sacrifice at the altar, he is doing so in the person of Christ. It is often downplayed that the Mass is a ritualistic sacrifice, and not just a meal. It is true that we do partake in the Sacred Supper, but this is actually not the primary focus of the Mass. In fact, only the priest needs to receive our Lord for the sacrifice to be complete; this is why so-called ‘private’ masses exist, and why a priest is obliged to say a daily mass, even when there are no other people present. This is because the priest’s job is to offer sacrifice for the sins of men. Christ, the great High Priest, is also the Sacrificial Lamb. He offered Himself as both priest and victim. Our priests today re-present this Sacrifice over, and over, and over again to God the Father on our behalf. There is a wealth of theological implications for this fact, which explains why nearly 2,000 years of immemorial custom always involved the priest facing liturgical (and typically literal) East: which is the direction from whence tradition holds Our Lord will come again in Resurrected Glory. We look to the Resurrection with joy and anticipation, because the Lamb is immolated on our altars on our behalf by the priest.
This essential element of the mass is recalled very vividly by one of the antiphons that is to be chanted during the distribution of ashes on Ash Wednesday:
“Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, stand between the porch and the altar, and weep and cry out:
‘Spare, O Lord, spare Your people! Do not close the mouths of those who sing Your praise, O Lord!’” —cf. Joel 2:17
In this striking image, we see that the graces that flow forth from each re-presentation of the Immolated Victim flow down to the Church Militant on earth, as well as the Church Suffering in Purgatory, while the whole Heavenly Host (Church Triumphant) gazes on in wonder and adoration of the Heavenly Father.
Increasingly, parishes are rediscovering this wonderful tradition, and to help with that transition, here is a free PDF that can be shared at your parishes as flyers or bulletin inserts. It is available in both English and Spanish. This document is by no means exhaustive; the goal was only to provide a very basic overview of the ‘why’ on a single side of letter paper.
This document contains some basic historical background, a few reasons why it is a good thing, and some rapid-fire objections and answers. These latter are drawn heavily from an article posted on the website of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Mishawaka, IN (a gorgeous church, well-worth visiting if you are ever in the area!).
The quote from Robert Cardinal Sarah is from this National Catholic Register article.
There is still much more to be said about ad orientem worship, however this is a good primer.
I would like to extend my gratitude first and foremost to my pastor who is working hard to educate the parish about why this practice is so important, as well as my colleagues, Johnny and Lucia, who diligently translated the English copy into Spanish. The gorgeous image show in the blog thumbnail is from the following article.
