Corpus Christi Retrospective Part 1:
Ad Orientem

This year my parish continued its tradition of celebrating our Corpus Christi Masses on the high altar. This obviously means that rather than facing the congregation through much of the Mass, the priest is facing the same direction they are: towards the altar, toward the tabernacle, towards the Lord.

This way of celebrating the Mass is called Ad Orientem, which means “towards the east”. Many people wrongly call this “with the priest’s back to the people”.

It can sometimes cause bewilderment in modern Catholics, as the practice was almost entirely abandoned during the initial phase of the liturgical reform in the 1970s. Here’s how it’s described in a brochure we put together for last Corpus Christi:

The point of facing east is to emphasize the essential character of the liturgy: that of a procession out of time and into eternity in Heaven. We see and taste this procession in the course of the liturgy.

The celebrant, standing in the person of Christ, leads the way, but we are all moving together, as a community and as the people of God, as part of the same procession that begins at the Introit, continues through the Offertory, and culminates with our reception of Holy Communion.

The practice offers a psychological and spiritual benefit. It permits you the worshiper to contemplate the purely sacramental character of the Mass and focus less on the personality of the celebrant. From the celebrant’s point of view, it permits a more intense focus on the mystery of the sacrifice taking place rather than on the personalities of the worshipers.

Over the past several years, I’ve been to a handful of Ordinary Form Masses celebrated in this way, which I’ve discussed here. In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, of course, Mass is always celebrated this way. We are fortunate to have a parish in Tacoma that celebrates the Extraordinary Form.

But of course, there is absolutely no reason why ad Orientem worship should be restricted to one form of the Roman rite. Indeed, virtually every Rite in the Catholic Church worships this way.

Despite all the variations in practice that have taken place far into the second millennium, one thing has remained clear for the whole of Christendom: praying toward the east is a tradition that goes back to the beginning.

Moreover, it is a fundamental expression of the Christian synthesis of cosmos and history, of being rooted in the once-for-all events of salvation history while going out to meet the Lord who is to come again.

(Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy)

It is, however, a hard sell in the 21st Century. We do it at Corpus Christi at the high altar and perhaps a handful of daily Masses throughout the year on the high altar or, more recently, the Marian altar. I don’t know of another Ordinary Form parish in the city that does it at all.

But perhaps, just perhaps, that might be slowly changing. Recently, Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, gave an interview to the French magazine Famille Chretienne in which he strongly advocated for ad Orientem worship.

To convert is to turn towards God. I am profoundly convinced that our bodies must participate in this conversion. The best way is certainly to celebrate — priests and faithful — turned together in the same direction: toward the Lord who comes. It isn’t, as one hears sometimes, to celebrate with the back turned toward the faithful or facing them. That isn’t the problem. It’s to turn together toward the apse, which symbolizes the East, where the cross of the risen Lord is enthroned.

By this manner of celebrating, we experience, even in our bodies, the primacy of God and of adoration. We understand that the liturgy is first our participation at the perfect sacrifice of the cross. I have personally had this experience: In celebrating thus, with the priest at its head, the assembly is almost physically drawn up by the mystery of the cross at the moment of the elevation.

(Robert Cardinal Sarah)

Read the whole interview. It’s amazing, but then Cardinal Sarah is an erudite and compelling teacher. I can heartily recommend his book, God or Nothing.

So, will we do this again? Celebrate ad Orientem at our parish?

I think so. Certainly, it has now become a custom that we do it at Corpus Christi. We celebrated a Mothers’ Day Mass on the Marian altar; I see no reason why we wouldn’t celebrate a Fathers’ Day Mass on the Saint Joseph altar.

Beyond that, for the last couple of years at least one American bishop has urged the parishes in his diocese to celebrate this way during Advent. Many did.

Perhaps this may be a good next step.