With current awareness of certain male problems coming to the fore it seems to cause people to substitute the word prostate for prostrate about 50% of the time as in, “during the Litany of the Saints the priest candidates will lie prostate.” Exactly how that would be done I care not to imagine.Prostration is a rare bird in the Church but still used. Primarily it is used at the beginning of services on Good Friday and as mentioned above during the ordination rite. Some religious orders still use this posture during the taking on of vows. The candidate would lie down before the sanctuary
and a funeral pall would be laid over him showing his death to his former life and the taking on of a new way of living.Prostration (the laying down completely on the floor, face down) is a sign of ultimate gesture of abandonment of self, submissiveness, and of complete worship. The double genuflection mentioned in an earlier post is actually a form of prostration. It is a kin to the nod of the head being a bow.
7 comments:
LOL!
Our priests once prostrated themselves before the altar, and I'll tell you, it took our breath away.
I love it when they lie prostrate before the altar on Good Friday, in complete silence.
It's humbling for us all.
My first experience of prostration was the Good Friday the day before the Easter Vigil Mass when I was welcomed into the church. That triduum in particular is burned in my memory, with brilliant fire, so that when I close my eyes I can still see it. The prostration before the Good Friday mass, the fire lit outside the church before the Vigil, the singing of the Litany of the Saints...
We need the physical sign, and unlike the connotation of the English word, this is not a mere 'posturing' but a real attitude of submission, because we are human beings, not spirits loosely tied to bodies, and whenever Worship makes good use of all that we are, orienting us completely towards the Paschal mystery, we are transported from earth to heaven, even for a little while.
I also love the Veneration of the Cross -- it must involve a real wooden cross, and if it were up to me there wouldn't be an altar server wiping it, it would be covered in dirt and smelling like a woodlot.
Thank you Lord, for the incredible Grace you have bestowed upon me, by making me a part of the One Holy Catholic Church. Amen, Amen, Amen.
W
Warren I envy your appreciation and love for the Catholic faith. I think us cradle Catholics take too much forgranted. At least this one.
Warren, amen to your amen, and you said it so beautifully. From this side of RCIA, all I can say is how potent it is to accompany someone who is venerating the Cross for the first time. It is the greatest solace they've ever had (unless they've been allowed confession), while awaiting that glorious Easter Vigil.. wow.
It is so moving to see our venerable old Rabbi do this prostration before the holy ark once a year, in the Yom Kippur day service.
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