Blessed is the Kingdom

Seeking The Kingdom In All Things

Mea Culpa

Make some prostrations when you pray.

Maxim #6

One of the things that is often a hurdle for Protestants who visit a Catholic liturgy is trying to figure out when to stand, sit, kneel, etc. We Catholics have a very physical form of prayer. This is a good thing as it reminds us that God himself took on a physical body and dwelt among us. We stand during prayers of praise, we sit when we are meant to show our reception to God’s word, and we kneel to show our humility and repentance.

Fr. Thomas Hopko’s sixth maxim for Christian living is to include some prostrations during our prayer. I am sure that many of us would associate this type of action in prayer with Islam, but it is not all that uncommon in Christian prayer. Two examples of prostration in our Catholic tradition would be during the Good Friday liturgy when the ministers enter the church in silence and immediately prostrate themselves before the cross in humble supplication. The other is during the Litany of Saints during an ordination liturgy.

There are some more common actions, however, that mirror at least the idea of prostration. Bowing, kneeling and other ritual actions are ones that during our prayers show forth externally the things that are meant to be growing internally. Thomas Howard, in his book Evangelical Is Not Enough, states it by saying,

By bowing with our heads as well as our hearts, we testify to the restored seamlessness of outer and inner.

Both bowing and kneeling are an outward display of the proper humility that should be shown towards God. It is a reminder to us that we are not the center of the universe.

At our recent diocesan ministries day Fr. Randy Stice described to us the action of beating our breasts during the confiteor prayer that goes along with the words, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. He mentioned the fact that there are many who do not like this action as it seems to focus too much on our own sinfulness, rather than on God’s forgiveness. Fr. Randy pointed out to us that really it is precisely God’s infinite mercy that is being highlighted and that the reference point of the prayer is the story of the publican and the pharisee. We model our prayer at this part of the liturgy on the prayer of the publican who with head bowed, repeatedly beat his breast in humility before God and went away forgiven.

Perhaps the most common Christian act of prostration that I was taught even as a child, was to kneel beside my bed each night to pray that God would watch over me as I slept and to take my soul to heaven at my death. This type of prayer, if done regularly, can help us to redeem not only our souls but our bodies as well.

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This entry was posted by on Monday, January 10th, 2011 at 10:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Fr. Christian is the pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City, TN.

Comments

  • Carmen

    Thank you for reminding us of the meaning of our expressions in prayers. We tend to forget why we do it. God bless you and your ministry always.

  • http://www.fromthepulpitofmylife.blogspot.com/ Ruth Ann

    I put Fr. Hopko’s 6th maxim on my list of 12 that I consider my weak points in the sense that I don’t do them at all or that I ought to do them more. Until I read the maxims I would say I never prostrated during prayer. By that, I mean I don’t lay prone, face downward as your photo demonstrates. So, since I’m not disabled in any way, I decided I will incorporate some prostrations during private prayer. A good time for that, for me, is after examining my conscience in the evening before bedtime. The prostration is like a physical way to say, “I’m sorry.” It’s not something I feel obliged to do daily, but I have tried it and like it. I wouldn’t even mind doing it publicly if it were common practice, but it’s not, at least in the Latin Rite.

  • Kathy

    I remember so vividly my father striking his breast and saying “Mea Culpa” duing Latin Mass pre-Vatican II when I was young. Regrettalby, I’ve used that exprsssion many times in my adult social life, jokingly really, to indicate “excuse me”, or to take the blame for some minor infraction of some sort. That jesture just recently starting coming into my mind again during the confetior at Mass. I’m so glad to see this discussion and commentary on gestures of humility and asking for God’s mercy during prayer. They are important and add such depth and meaning to our prayers. I recall being awe struck the first time I saw preists prostrate themselves during a liturgy. It is such an incredibly powerful gesture. All of us would benefit from learning, or re-learning the meanings and power of these beautiful jestures in our communal and personal prayer lives.

  • http://happyentanglements.blogspot.com Mark G.

    Good post, Father. Allow me to rant.

    Sacrosanctum Concilium states that priest should make the gestures proper to them & the people should offer the gestures that are proper to them. My complaint is that people seem to refuse to do the gestures specified in the Missal, but instead want to do all sorts of other things that are novel innovations.

    The striking of the breast at the mea culpa is still called for in the missals. Another is bowing during et caro factum est in the Credo. The Mass according to the old books requires a prolonged genuflection here in honor of this great Mystery of our Faith. It would help if the clergy regularly did these motions, too.

    But the congregations return of the priestly greeting Dominus vobiscum & Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum is out of order. It is not a common greeting. It is Christ greeting his people. No aping of the priests hand gestures is either called for or required. Don’t get started on the hand-holding at the Pater Noster, especially the “elevation” with the extra little squeeze-n-shake. I feel like my team just won the big game.

    Lex orandi, lex credendi. If we make up our own liturgy (or liturgical gestures), exactly who are we worshiping?

  • http://avowofconversation.wordpress.com Macrina Walker

    Thanks for this, Father Christian. You refer to people associating prostration in prayer Islam, yet what many westerners often fail to realise is that Islam simply took over what were common Christian practices in prayer!

  • Fr. Christian Mathis

    Thanks for all the feedback y’all!

    Glad you have found a place for prostration in your daily prayer Ruth Ann!

    Yes, humility is a large part of our prayer Kathy!

    You are going to like the new Missal Mark.

    And yes I realize that we have been doing these types of prayerful actions longer than Islam, but unfortunately many Christians fail to recognize it.

    Hope that you are all well!

    FC

  • http://nowealthbutlife.com Rae

    I have very real attention issues, and one of the wonderful things about physical forms of prayer (may I call them that?) such as prostrations is that they are not only sometimes the best I can offer, at other times they naturally bring my scattered mind along to pray as well.

    While it is usually futile to try to “force myself to focus,” I often find that literally going through the motions of prayer enables me to pray with my heart and mind as well.

    I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always understand all of they physical gestures of prayer, but I don’t need to know why we cross ourselves at “May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life” in order to know that it is good. And yes, I know that not everyone everywhere does so, but I don’t actually need to know whether it is a tradition which is lost, or an innovation which has not yet become universal. All I need to know is that “This type of prayer, if done regularly, can help us to redeem not only our souls but our bodies as well.”

    And I am afraid that this may sound like a rant. It isn’t at all, just a more rambling version of “I think I understand.”

  • Fr. Christian Mathis

    Doesn’t sound like a rant to me!

  • Kathy

    Thought I’d mention that the origin of the hand holding at St. Thomas during the Lord’s prayer started many years ago when the parish community was very small. Part of the Harriman missions, who we shared a priest with. Very few people at Mass. Espeacially on feast days that fell during the week. Our pastor would invite us all up around the Altar during the consecration, and we would hold hands during the Pater Noster. At Communion we would pass the cup to each other. It was very intimate, and very moving. The tiny congregation started holding hands during Sunday Mass as well. It just stuck. Even though it is not liturgically correct, it’s a tradition that goes back a long way at St. Thomas. Must say I don’t like the “elevation squeeze-n-shake” that it has evolded into over the years either.

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