why does the priest do this?

[PurpleRabbit187]

Can someone explain the significance of the priest beating his chest/heart 3 times during the Holy Eucharist?

 

[Liberasit]

Can someone explain the significance of the priest beating his chest/heart 3 times during the Holy Eucharist?

I haven't seen this before. Something to do with the Trinity?

 

[PaladinValer]

Can someone explain the significance of the priest beating his chest/heart 3 times during the Holy Eucharist?

It is traditionally done twice during the liturgy.

Once during the Confession and Absolution and once during the Agnus Dei. It symbolizes contrite repentance and penitence.

 

[Albion]

It's entirely optional. However, when it's done it symbolizes admission of guilt and repentance.

 

[FireDragon76]

Can someone explain the significance of the priest beating his chest/heart 3 times during the Holy Eucharist?

It's an Anglo-Catholic thing. I used to go to an Anglo-Catholic Continuing church that did that sort of thing. The people would all say "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed", then strike their chest three times along with the priest, then the Agnus Dei was sung (which is another strictly optional practice, I believe). Parts of this practice are borrowed from Roman Catholicism, to my knowledge. It just adds a touch of penitence to the rite, as well as an acknowledge of the presence of Christ in the sacrament.

Another thing that's sometimes done is elevating the Host, sometimes the priest will say "Behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world". Other times not. It's strictly optional and the official prayer book doesn't have those rubrics, but some Catholic leaning clergy have always done bits and pieces of this (during Elizabeth's reign, some clergy, including Elizabeth's chaplain continued to elevate the Host, despite protestations). This is a practice that dates back to at least before the Middle Ages when the priest would elevate the Host so that people could see it and, the theory went, benefit from seeing the Host, even if they themselves did not commune (which often happened, sometimes the bishops would suspend communion to the laity due to fears about abuse of the Host).

It just depends, if a priest's Anglo-Catholic but the church is not, then they might perform the acts alone themselves in front of the Host, but it wouldn't be improper to follow along with the priest in doing so. Anglican priests all tend to bring their own churchmanship to the altar and it's normal to have variations from priest to priest. At the local Episcopal cathedral, only one of the half dozen priests that serves there is Anglo-Catholic in background, but a few others also elevate the Host, but generally most keep the amount of gestures and actions done to a minimum.

 

[everbecoming2007]

I have seen this gesture with some visiting priests at my parish. It is symbolic of penitence. Perhaps it comes from references in the Bible to beating one's breast in grief.

 

[Wigglesworth]

Can someone explain the significance of the priest beating his chest/heart 3 times during the Holy Eucharist?

As noted above, striking the breast is an act of contrition. There are words to go with the gestures, Agnus Dei.

From New Advent:

A name given to the formula recited thrice by the priest at Mass (except on Good Friday and Holy Saturday) in the Roman rite. It occurs towards the end of the Canon, after the prayer "Haec commixtio", etc. Having finished saying this prayer, the priest covers the chalice with the pall, genuflects, rises, inclines his head (but not his body) profoundly towards the altar and, with hands joined before his breast (and not, therefore, resting on the altar), says with a loud voice: "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis" (Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us), repeats the formula unchanged, and still a third time, substituting now "dona nobis pacem" (grant us peace) for "miserere nobis", meanwhile striking his breast thrice, once at each "miserere nobis" and once at "Dona nobis pacem", with the right hand (the left hand resting throughout, from the first "Miserere", on the altar).

 

[John Shrewsbury]

It's an Anglo-Catholic thing. I used to go to an Anglo-Catholic Continuing church that did that sort of thing. The people would all say "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed", then strike their chest three times along with the priest, then the Agnus Dei was sung (which is another strictly optional practice, I believe). Parts of this practice are borrowed from Roman Catholicism, to my knowledge. It just adds a touch of penitence to the rite, as well as an acknowledge of the presence of Christ in the sacrament.

Another thing that's sometimes done is elevating the Host, sometimes the priest will say "Behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world". Other times not. It's strictly optional and the official prayer book doesn't have those rubrics, but some Catholic leaning clergy have always done bits and pieces of this (during Elizabeth's reign, some clergy, including Elizabeth's chaplain continued to elevate the Host, despite protestations). This is a practice that dates back to at least before the Middle Ages when the priest would elevate the Host so that people could see it and, the theory went, benefit from seeing the Host, even if they themselves did not commune (which often happened, sometimes the bishops would suspend communion to the laity due to fears about abuse of the Host).

It just depends, if a priest's Anglo-Catholic but the church is not, then they might perform the acts alone themselves in front of the Host, but it wouldn't be improper to follow along with the priest in doing so. Anglican priests all tend to bring their own churchmanship to the altar and it's normal to have variations from priest to priest. At the local Episcopal cathedral, only one of the half dozen priests that serves there is Anglo-Catholic in background, but a few others also elevate the Host, but generally most keep the amount of gestures and actions done to a minimum.

We do this in my church which is Anglo Catholic.

 

[PurpleRabbit187]

I'm not Anglo-catholic, but I've seen most priests in my country do this. I don't know about other country's but angle-catholicism here looks very much more traditional and full of pageantry, than ordinary Catholicism. But then again when I think about it the South African Anglican church, quite oddly, can be liberal yet very traditional and the same time. Thank you all for your answers, I appreciate it very much. God bless you all.

 

[Albion]

I'm not Anglo-catholic, but I've seen most priests in my country do this. I don't know about other country's but angle-catholicism here looks very much more traditional and full of pageantry, than ordinary Catholicism. But then again when I think about it the South African Anglican church, quite oddly, can be liberal yet very traditional and the same time. Thank you all for your answers, I appreciate it very much. God bless you all.

I'm guessing that you don't see it in the Church of England in South Africa.

(Sorry. I couldn't resist.)

 

[PaladinValer]

I'm not Anglo-catholic, but I've seen most priests in my country do this. I don't know about other country's but angle-catholicism here looks very much more traditional and full of pageantry, than ordinary Catholicism. But then again when I think about it the South African Anglican church, quite oddly, can be liberal yet very traditional and the same time. Thank you all for your answers, I appreciate it very much. God bless you all.

Don't forget: Anglicanism is Catholic; just not Roman Catholic.

And that observation about comparative ceremonial and pageantry between Anglicanism and the Roman Catholics isn't unique to your area. I've experienced here several times here in the US. One of my aunts is the cantor in the Roman Catholic parish she attends out her way, and when she's come to mine, she's remarked on how more ceremonial and traditional our liturgy is...and I don't even attend a high-church parish. And when I've gone to her parish just last year, I was able to see again for myself how true her story was.

Of course, ceremonial isn't what makes a valid liturgy. I'd only attend a high-church parish if I thought so. Just go where the sermons and/or homilies are good, the liturgy in high-, middle-, or low-style is done...and actually done...with reverence and dignity, and where God's work is accomplished, the Spirit is alive, and where there is at least decent theology.

 

[PurpleRabbit187]

I'm guessing that you don't see it in the Church of England in South Africa.

(Sorry. I couldn't resist.)

Albion, your sarcasm remains dear to my heart

 

[Albion]

Albion, your sarcasm remains dear to my heart

No, that wasn't sarcasm. It was a little joke, is all.

 

[Liberasit]

No, that wasn't sarcasm. It was a little joke, is all.

I know it is not form to explain jokes but I don't get this one

 

[Albion]

I know it is not form to explain jokes but I don't get this one

Oh no?

Well, here it is. Agulhas referred to the Anglican Church in the Province of South Africa, a member of the Anglican Communion, and spoke of ritualistic practices (the topic of this thread). But there is an older Anglican church in South Africa, the Church of England in South Africa (CESA) which is well-known for being low church and conservative. So when Agulhas spoke of the former one of these as if it were the only Anglican church in the Republic, I kidded her by mentioning CESA--which would not be likely to have presbyters engaging in breast-beating during the liturgy.

 

[JustAnglican]

I'm glad Agulhas mentions the fact that here in SA we do not use labels like Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical etc. It is a norm here that a person simply attends the Anglican Church in their neighborhood (as long as the services are conducted in a language that one understands). I found myself in a CESA parish once and did not seem Anglican to me at all.

 

[Albion]

I'm glad Agulhas mentions the fact that here in SA we do not use labels like Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical etc. It is a norm here that a person simply attends the Anglican Church in their neighborhood (as long as the services are conducted in a language that one understands). I found myself in a CESA parish once and did not seem Anglican to me at all.

I'm sure that's true. My feeling--and that's all it is--is that there is a general trend affecting most denominations to "modernize" and remain "relevant," etc. and that this manifests itself in different ways. For the more ceremonially-minded, it often means "contemporary" hymns and vestments and experimental liturgies, but for those churches that were less ceremonial to begin with, it becomes something that is barely identifiable as liturgical (more like a Presbyterian church, for instance).

 

[Liberasit]

I'm glad Agulhas mentions the fact that here in SA we do not use labels like Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical etc. It is a norm here that a person simply attends the Anglican Church in their neighborhood (as long as the services are conducted in a language that one understands). I found myself in a CESA parish once and did not seem Anglican to me at all.

Here in the UK, churchmanship is only really relevent in urban areas. Other than that, you go to the local church and make do, sometimes with a Dunkirk spirit. They don't even worry about it and have fleeting thoughts about other denominations and church shopping.

 

[RileyG]

Isn't this common in most liturgical Churches?

Interesting, during the confeitor, during the introductory rite, right before the absolution and Kyrie, many people (and the priest always) will strike their breast three times when "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault" is prayed.

During the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us) many people will also strike their breast three times.

 

[Liberasit]

Isn't this common in most liturgical Churches?

Interesting, during the confeitor, during the introductory rite, right before the absolution and Kyrie, many people (and the priest always) will strike their breast three times when "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault" is prayed.

During the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us) many people will also strike their breast three times.

Not here