Why Catholics Sit, Stand, and Kneel

[URA]

A brief explanation for the 3 main poses during Catholic mass; I thought Catholics & non-Catholics alike would find it interesting.
Sit, Stand, Kneel: The Symbolic Meaning of All that Moving at Mass! | ChurchPOP

 

[Lulav]

Interesting info!

 

[thecolorsblend]

A brief explanation for the 3 main poses during Catholic mass; I thought Catholics & non-Catholics alike would find it interesting.
Sit, Stand, Kneel: The Symbolic Meaning of All that Moving at Mass! | ChurchPOP

To amplify a bit, the Church takes the postures so seriously that they tweaked the Anglican liturgy when establishing the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for the Anglo-Catholics. Specifically, they corrected some parts of the liturgy where the Anglicans would kneel and other places where they would stand.

The postures are important.

 

[Willie T]

I thought they were just bored and needed to stretch some.

 

[seeking.IAM]

These practices are the same in my church except for prayer where rubrics of The Book of Common Prayer call for standing or kneeling. Standing is preferred as signified by being listed first. Nonetheless most in my parish kneel except for a few of us renegades.

 

[thecolorsblend]

I thought they were just bored and needed to stretch some.

Then you were wrong.

 

[FireDragon76]

We sit, stand or kneel. There really isn't a formal code for the exact details, the pastor will say "you may stand or kneel" most of the time. Our cantor, Tom, and his wife Donja, are former LCMS and kneels during the Words of Institution, whereas most people stand. We respect each others different piety. Some people cross themselves, others do not.

Everybody unless they are infirm stands for the Gospel reading, though. And plenty of older people cannot kneel, and that's fine.

One thing I like is that we generally all kneel for communion, whereas it does seem that Catholics don't do this anymore. I don't think its a dealbreaker of course (Jesus is there for us regardless) but I think its cool some old practices survive in Lutheranism.

 

[seeking.IAM]

At the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD the Church decided prayer posture.

"...prohibited kneeling on Sundays and during the Pentecost (the fifty days commencing on Easter). Standing was the normative posture for prayer at this time, as it still is among the Eastern Christians. Kneeling was considered most appropriate to penitential prayer, as distinct from the festive nature of Eastertide and its remembrance every Sunday. The canon itself was designed only to ensure uniformity of practise at the designated times." (Wikipedia First Council of Nicaea)
​

The point being posture is a thousands of years old tradition of the Church.

 

[Ttalkkugjil]

A brief explanation for the 3 main poses during Catholic mass; I thought Catholics & non-Catholics alike would find it interesting.
Sit, Stand, Kneel: The Symbolic Meaning of All that Moving at Mass! | ChurchPOP

I don't find it particularly interesting.

 

[Skittles]

We are body and soul combined. The postures of our bodies can amplify or mute worship. If you don’t think so then next time you are listening to a sermon stand up and cross your arms and see if it affects the attitude you intend to project.

 

[FireDragon76]

These practices are the same in my church except for prayer where rubrics of The Book of Common Prayer call for standing or kneeling. Standing is preferred as signified by being listed first. Nonetheless most in my parish kneel except for a few of us renegades.

Kneeling is hard to get used to, being formerly Orthodox. It's just not how we prayed. Also, increasingly in the Episcopal Church it's just not done, either., except perhaps during a confession.

 

[seeking.IAM]

Kneeling is hard to get used to, being formerly Orthodox. It's just not how we prayed. Also, increasingly in the Episcopal Church it's just not done, either., except perhaps during a confession.

I attend a High-Church, Anglo-Catholic Episcopal Church. We kneel. Always. Through Prayers of the People. Through confession. Through Holy Eucharist. Through the dismissal prayer. Always.

 

[FireDragon76]

I attend a High-Church, Anglo-Catholic Episcopal Church. We kneel. Always. Through Prayers of the People. Through confession. Through Holy Eucharist. Through the dismissal prayer. Always.

In the broad church environment I am familiar with, it seems to be less common now days.

 

[seeking.IAM]

In the broad church environment I am familiar with, it seems to be less common now days.

I agree. Often times it has to do with church architecture in addition to churchmanship. More modern worship spaces with chairs instead of pews tend not to have kneelers. Our church is 153 years old so we don't exactly do modernity.

 

[FireDragon76]

I agree. Often times it has to do with church architecture in addition to churchmanship. More modern worship spaces with chairs instead of pews tend not to have kneelers. Our church is 153 years old so we don't exactly do modernity.

I went to an ACNA church a while that had chairs with kneelers and in some ways I liked it more because it wasn't as confining as pews. And it was interesting indeed to go to a contemporary, charismatic, but liturgical worship service, in some ways I liked that sort of thing. However, ultimately I did not agree with the ACNA's decision to leave Episcopalianism, so I could not remain in that church in good conscience.

Most Lutherans now days aren't kneeling as much as they used to. At my church we do have kneelers but it's strictly optional except everybody generally kneels for the prayers of the people. We usually stand during the Lord's Supper, though my friend Tom comes from an LCMS background and they kneeled alot, so he used to do that moreso.