Posted on 05/26/2016 4:38:49 AM PDT by marshmallow
Cardinal Robert Sarah made the comments in an exclusive interview with Famille Chrétienne
The Vatican’s liturgy chief has called on priests to celebrate Mass facing east.
In an interview with the French Catholic magazine Famille Chrétienne, Cardinal Robert Sarah said that the Second Vatican Council did not require priests to celebrate Mass facing the people.
This way of celebrating Mass, he said, was “a possibility, but not an obligation”.
Readers and listeners should face each other during the Liturgy of the Word, he said.
“But as soon as we reach the moment when one addresses God – from the Offertory onwards – it is essential that the priest and faithful look together towards the east. This corresponds exactly to what the Council Fathers wanted.”
Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, rejected the argument that priests celebrating Mass facing east are turning their backs on the faithful “or against them”.
Rather, he said, all are “turned in the same direction: towards the Lord who comes”.
“It is legitimate and complies with the letter and spirit of the Council,” he said. “As prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, I wish to recall that the celebration versus orientem is authorised by the rubrics, which specify the times when the celebrant must turn to the people. It is therefore not necessary to have special permission to celebrate facing the Lord.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
Or is this a hat-tip to the Druids?
Should people then start chanting Allah at the bar.
While the congregation sings “Here Comes the Sun”.
...while I face the exit door
I have no problem with Christians facing Jerusalem, but that is not necessarily eastward. It could be any direction depending upon the location of the service.
They have it backwards. The East represents opposition to God. After the fall in Eden, man went 'east'. The Temple faced East so that the high priest faced west to the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies.
Abraham travelled west, from Ur to reach the land promised by God.
“As the lightning comes forth from the East and shines even to the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Matthew 24:27
It is tradition as we await the return of Christ.
[It is tradition as we await the return of Christ.]
CHRIST lives in us. No matter which way we turn, HE is the Center.
Don’t like Anglican, Orthodox, or Catholic tradition, don’t be one...oh, you’re not one, anyway.
Whie it's not exactly a hymn, Here Comes the Sun is a beautiful, positive and inspirational song.
The dawn is sprinkling in the east
Its golden shower, as day flows in;
Fast mount the pointed shafts of light:
Farewell to darkness and to sin!
Away, ye midnight phantoms all!
Away, despondence and despair!
Whatever guilt the night has brought
Now let it vanish into air.
So, Lord, when that last morning breaks,
Looking to which we sigh and pray,
O may it to Thy minstrels prove
The dawning of a better day.
To God the Father glory be,
And to His sole begotten Son;
Glory, O Holy Ghost, to Thee
While everlasting ages run.
—Ambrose of Milan, fourth century AD
Gosh, is that a Masonic temple or Golden Dawn?
Ecumenism marches East. Chrislam’s flag will be interesting ...
BTTT!
Wha … ?!
Paul and Silas were stopped from traveling East to spread the Gospel:
Acts 16:6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
LOL..........oh OK, thanks for clearing that up for us!
Saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to adore him."
Matt 2:2.
I believe that facing East in the liturgical sense means facing the altar. If a man was in front of you leading you into battle, would you want him to be walking backwards? Traditionally, most parts of the Mass were celebrated facing the altar but after the hippies took over the priest turned to face the people and it became less about worship and more about community and the priest’s personality and so forth. In the older form of the Mass, a dud of a priest (and there are obviously many) makes a lot less of a difference.
And they travelled WEST to greet the Messiah.
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