During an ad orientem celebrated Novus Ordo, the priest faces East, and in my parish the high altar is at the east end of the building, which is not necessarily the case everywhere. After becoming cognizant of this, I have a habit of taking notice where the altar is in parishes, and I was surprised to find that most parishes, at least older ones, the sanctuary is indeed at the east end.
The sun rises in the East. When I see the Precious Body elevated, it too is like a rising sun. From East is where we expect Christ to come again. While all Masses where valid consecration takes place are beautiful, for me, the ad orientem posture just draws my attention to Jesus so much more deeper for several reasons:
A) The consecrated Host is always raised as high as the priest can, so people can see Our Lord. Many priests, since the Mass is celebrated versus populum, facing the people, I have noticed barely lift the host to eye level. Obviously, if he is facing the people, they can see it without a high elevation. However, whether a priest is facing ad orientem, or versus populum, the Lord can, and should be elevated as high as possible. He IS the Source and Summit of our life, and a high, prolonged elevation reminds me of that. This leads me to my next point...
B) Priests that I know, who celebrate ad orientem, hold up the Bread of Angels for what seems like a very long time. This pause gives us time to reflect what we behold. My Lord and my God! My God and my All! These are just some of the exclamations we should be making in the silence of our hearts.
C) When I can't see the priest's face, it forces me to concentrate solely on the Lord during the Eucharistic Prayer. After months of being in ad orientem celebrated Masses, I was in another parish for a funeral, and I was shocked at how distracting it was when the priest looked up around the congregation during the most sacred part of the Eucharistic Prayer: "Take this and eat of it..." It was a subtle distraction, but regardless a stimulus which pulled my attention away if only for a moment. Another trait I see in priests who celebrate ad orientem and versus populum, is that when they do the latter, they do not look at the congregation during this same part. Rather, they look at the Host being consecrated or directly into the Chalice, often hunched over.
D) It may not be true of all priests who celebrate ad orientem, but of those that I know, I hear a definite change in pace, and even tone, at the words of Consecration. This too, drew my attention to what was occurring, just as much as the bells which were soon to ring as the Body of Christ was elevated.
As you can see, these are things that can be done in a Mass whether celebrated ad orientem, or versus populum. To a lesser extent "C", but it helps me a great deal in the Mass when the priest is looking at the Host as it is being consecrated because it drives me to focus more intently. Watch the versus populum masses of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Where are they looking during the words of consecration?
I had uploaded one picture before writing, and blogger is not letting me upload any more. I leave you with this parting shot and will try to make post 3, if it is cooperative. Otherwise, you'll just get some piece of news for the day.
This is one of the times you will see the priest turn to the people.
"Ecce Angus Dei..."
"Ecce Angus Dei..."
July Day of Recollection - Photo Post 1