Turning Toward the Lord

A Strategy for Eucharistic Revival - An Interview with Fr. Brian Straus, S.T.L.

As a part of the ongoing Eucharistic Revival, many priests and parishes are implementing an ancient Christian practice to assist the faithful in developing greater devotion to the Eucharist. Fr. Brian Straus is Pastor of St. Peter the Apostle parish in Joplin, MO, and has extensive education in sacramental and liturgical theology, holding a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from The Liturgical Institute at the University of St. Mary of the Lake. We asked him to explain this practice for our readers.

1. So what is ad orientem worship? Is ad orientem the same thing as the Traditional Latin Mass?

"Ad orientem" refers to the direction the priest faces while celebrating Mass. When Mass is celebrated ad orientem, the priest and the people face the altar together during the Eucharistic prayer. Ad orientem means "toward the East," and churches were historically constructed so that the priest and people face East together, since East is the direction of sunrise and the Resurrection of Christ. But even when a church isn't constructed for the people to face east, we can celebrate ad orientem as symbolic of that direction. While the Traditional Latin Mass is always celebrated ad orientem, the term also applies to the Mass of St. Paul VI, which is the post-Vatican II Mass we are familiar with in almost all Catholic parishes today! The new Mass can be celebrated either facing the people (versus populum) or ad orientem, which indeed was its normative direction when the new Mass was first promulgated in 1970.

2. For how long in the history of the church has mass been celebrated facing east or with priests and people facing the same direction?

There is much debate about the accuracy of historical studies about the first centuries of the Church, when detailed rubrics and records of the liturgy of the Eucharist were not well kept. There is some evidence that the earliest forms of the "Breaking of the Bread" (ancient Mass) were celebrated versus populum. The practice of ad orientem also goes back to the first centuries of Christianity in many forms of Christian liturgy, so by no means is there evidence of a uniform practice. By the time Christianity was legalized in the 300's and better historical records could be kept, the liturgy was almost exclusively celebrated ad orientem in both the Eastern and Roman Church, and with few exceptions, this practice continued among Roman Catholics until the twentieth century!

3. Why did the church decide to celebrate mass this way -what's the logic?

We have to understand what the Mass truly is and what it's about! When we participate at Mass, we are made present at the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, which occurred once-for-all, but the graces of that sacrifice of Christ are given to us anew each time we participate in Mass! The Mass is the sacrifice of Christ which becomes our sacrifice as we unite ourselves spiritually to it. In the liturgy, the priest celebrant liturgically represents Christ the Head of the Church and "stands in" for Christ. So as the liturgical action is Christ offering Himself to the Father on our behalf, and we join ourselves to that sacrifice... so the priest (who stands in for the High Priest Jesus) offers the sacrifice of Christ to the Father on our behalf, and we join ourselves to it. With that in mind, symbolically, the church sanctuary is heaven; the altar is the cross and the empty tomb; and the priest is Jesus Christ, the "one mediator between God and man" (1 Tim 2:5), who goes to God to intercede on our behalf. The reason for the ad orientem direction is that the priest celebrant is not only one of the people, but also appointed to lead the people in worship like Christ the head, and offers the sacrifice of the people to God. This liturgical action is more accurately perceived when the people and priest are united in facing God together, with the priest (Christ) at the Head of the Body! In Eastern Catholic liturgies, this is powerfully symbolized by the priest walking behind the iconostasis into a secluded room, like the "Holy of Holies" in the Jerusalem Temple, to pray the most sacred prayer of the liturgy, until he comes out to give the consecrated Eucharist to the people. Symbolically, the priest enters heaven to intercede before God, and returns to the world with the heavenly bread in hand to give to us! This is the idea behind ad orientem, which better portrays the mystical reality of the Mass than the priest and people "around" the altar as though it were a dinner table and the Body were more focused on itself than on God. The priest does not pray to the people, but to God for and with the people; just as Jesus does not pray to His Body the Church, but for and with His Body to the Father! 

4. What did the Second Vatican Council say about ad orientem? Did the council suppress it?

The documents of the Second Vatican Council said nothing about which direction the celebrant should face! The document Sacrosanctum Concilium says many wonderful things about how to preserve liturgical reverence and help people to actively participate in the liturgical action. This document was written when the official Roman form of the liturgy was the Traditional Latin Mass (the Mass of St. John XXIII from 1962), but the document did call for a renewal and reform of the liturgy, so that people could more easily participate in and understand the Mass. That renewal process resulted in the Mass of Paul VI in 1970, but even the new rubrics and instructions of the Mass didn't require the priest to face the people from the other side of the altar. They presupposed that the liturgy was still celebrated ad orientem, but the Vatican subsequently did allow permission for priests to begin facing the people, without saying which was the preferred practice. Well, in the early 70's, almost overnight, nearly every parish in the world celebrated in the new versus populum orientation. This practice was experimented with in the years before Vatican II as part of the Liturgical Movement, but Vatican II neither mandated this practice nor forbade ad orientem; in fact, the Mass we are accustomed to presupposes that the priest faces ad orientem toward the altar together with the people, and priests only started to celebrate facing the people by Vatican permission!

5. Why isn't ad orientem familiar to people nowadays?

As I mentioned, parishes and priests very quickly started celebrating versus populum exclusively in the early 70's. Many priests today may not even know that ad orientem is still an option, since it has rarely been practiced or taught in seminaries; most laypeople have never been exposed to it unless a priest was brave enough to try it out! There is also a dearth of understanding of the true purpose of active participation in the liturgy envisioned by the Council. Many books, journals and hymnals since the 70's have led priests and laity to believe that the Mass is primarily a fellowship meal, or a simple re-enactment of the Last Supper, or a prayer service where we offer worship to God, and ad orientem doesn't make sense if we hold these simplistic senses of the Mass. While the Mass includes all these elements, its primary essence is to make present the celebration of Christ's salvific sacrifice and our participation in it, or as Vatican II said, "by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn also to offer themselves!" (SC 48). And ad orientem makes perfect sense in that light. So a better understanding of the meaning of active participation will lead to a reasonable desire for ad orientem, and celebrating ad orientem will better orient our understanding of the spirit of the liturgy. 

6. What is the argument for suppressing this practice now? Is it a bad thing now?

The Council, the Vatican and the USCCB have never suppressed the celebration of the Mass ad orientem, although there are arguably a few hints that versus populum is more favored today. But several bishops have discouraged their priests from celebrating ad orientem. This may come from various misunderstandings of ad orientem celebration as to its origins or purpose. For example, someone may incorrectly believe that the Council or the liturgical revisions mandated that the priest must face the people, or perhaps they believe that those who like ad orientem are somehow trying to reject the Council and return to pre-conciliar practices. Perhaps the most charitable interpretation of such a viewpoint, in my opinion, would be that celebrating ad orientem can be confusing to the people, bring about disunity, and/or make the laypeople feel excluded from the action at the altar. I agree that such negative effects are a possibility, but they can be easily prevented with proper education and prayer! People will be confused, unless we together learn the purpose and benefits of celebrating ad orientem... disunity might come about, unless we stress the intrinsic unity of the Catholic liturgy even when it "looks different" in different churches or cultures... and laypeople might feel excluded, unless clergy and theologians help them understand how to foster and experience authentic, conscious and active participation in the Eucharistic liturgy, and show them how ad orientem can lead to heightened participation in the Eucharistic Prayer!

7. Does ad orientem prevent people from participating fully in the mass?

Not at all! Ad orientem can help grow our active participation since it more clearly portrays the essence of the liturgical motion. One of the common objections to celebration ad orientem is that people can't see what's happening on the altar during the offertory, when the priest prepares the paten of bread and chalice of wine and offers them to God, nor during the Eucharistic Prayer, in which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit's consecration of the elements into the Body and Blood of Christ and intercedes in prayer for the Church. I answer this by pointing out that seeing doesn't mean understanding. What's happening in the offertory and consecration is more than what can be seen. The priest is not only physically preparing vessels of bread and wine, but primarily (and more importantly) dedicating them to God in prayer. Line-of-sight is not necessary for people to join themselves to this moment of prayer! The priest is also praying for God to receive the sacrifice, but even in the post-conciliar liturgy this is still a "secret" (silent) prayer the priest says. So while the laity are incorporated into the prayer of the priest as Christ the Head incorporates the Body, each member of the faithful does not need to be physically involved in this moment like the altar servers, nor do they particularly need to see the priest doing the relatively mundane task of transferring the bread, wine and water into vessels. In fact, the congregation might join themselves more easily to the Offertory prayers if they aren't distracted by the visible details! A similar argument can be made for the Eucharistic Prayer. As Pope Pius XII told us in his letter Mediator Dei, the only moment of the liturgy that belongs totally and solely to the priest (as representative of Christ the Head) and not to the congregation is the Words of Consecration, which are the Words of Christ the Word: "This is my Body... this is the Chalice of my Blood." Of all the moments of the Mass, the moment of consecration is the one moment that only the priest is "active", as only Christ the Head can pronounce those words (even though every member of the faithful should be actively listening and joining themselves in thought and intention to those words). Then, immediately after, the priest "shows the host/chalice to the people", according to the rubrics. This implies that in the moment of the Consecration, the people can't see the Eucharistic elements (or don't need to), but after the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ, the priest shows them to the people by lifting them into the air! In the Eucharistic Prayer, the congregation doesn't lose the ability to participate by not having line-of-sight; instead, this orientation makes it easier to visualize the liturgical reality unfolding in the prayer through priest, altar, and sacrifice!

8. What is the argument for reviving this practice now? Could it help the church today?

I think I've argued above for some of the benefits ad orientem can bring for helping people acquire increased understanding and active participation in the mystery of the liturgy. I also hope congregations are able to have an experience I never did until seminary: knowing that praying the Mass ad orientem is even an option, since the opportunity to attend the new Mass celebrated ad orientem is so rare in parishes today! We should at least have more cases of priests, bishops, cathedrals, and parishes celebrating ad orientem alongside masses celebrated versus populum so the two forms can exist in dialogue and mutual enrichment, rather than the latter being normalized and the former being a cause for fear or suppression. I have seen many people drawn to the Mass they know and love celebrated in the ad orientem posture because it helps them focus on He Who is the center of our liturgy: Christ our High Priest. And if it helps the faithful be more fully united to Christ's sacrifice, let us remember the Council's directive that "fully conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy... is their right and duty by reason of their baptism" (SC 14).

9. What groups of people might be for or against this practice today?  Why do you think certain groups are for it while others are against it?

Those who resist ad orientem might especially consist of those who lived during the post-Vatican II reforms. Perhaps they never experienced a priest celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass reverently and never managed to deepen their active participation in the pre-conciliar liturgy, so understandably, they associate the reforms with the shift from ad orientem to versus populum, and they see no reason to return to a liturgical expression that they never found life-giving and authentic. Sadly, they didn't perceive the beauty and truth of conscious participation in ad orientem worship, but most often today's priests and faithful who are drawn to it have found a deeper sense of union with Christ! Just as some fall into the trap of believing "what is older is better," it is also easy to make the error of believing "what is older is worse!" Proponents of ad orientem worship don't like it because it is ancient; rather, they see ad orientem as the future of liturgical worship, and see how it has become highly relevant to young Catholics today who are "re-discovering" Catholic tradition and bringing it into today's world. Sometimes it's hard to let go of what you have been used to your whole life, and that's why many old-fashioned priests and faithful have a hard time giving consideration to ad orientem!

10. What would you say to Catholics who feel threatened by this practice?

Ad orientem is not some ancient relic being unearthed; it is not outlawed, ultraconservative, alien, or obsolete; it is actually the normal posture for the post-Vatican II Mass that most of us attend in parishes today! That may be hard to believe since almost all parish Masses are celebrated versus populum, but it's right there in the documents. That's why we ought to give it a try! If the rubrics of the Mass call for legitimate options, then the unity of the Church's liturgy demands a reasonable diversity in the forms of celebration. Vatican II said, "Even in the Liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not implicate the faith or the good of the whole community" (SC 37). As both ad orientem and versus populum are considered right postures conducive to the active participation of the faithful, there can be no good reason to impose an artificial rigid uniformity in these valid options! And our familiar practice of versus populum is not going anywhere anytime soon. Theoretically, a total pendulum shift to exclusively celebrating ad orientem would be as unnecessary and damaging as would be a total refusal to allow ad orientem. The far more healthy option for the Church and the sensus fidei (sense of the faithful) is to allow for the freedom of legitimate variations and the responsible use of each pastor's ars celebrandi in sensitivity to the needs of the particular congregation. Due to decades of liturgical abuses and a lack of the liturgical formation called for by the Council, in many ways we have not yet attempted to implement the Mass envisioned by the Council, including ad orientem, Gregorian chant, use of Latin and vernacular, and many other features called for in the documents and instructions. What would happen if we allowed the Holy Spirit of the Vatican Council to form our liturgy? 

11. What would you say to Catholics who feel nourished by this practice?

In Acts chapter 5, as the Jewish Sanhedrin discuss what to do about the problematic disciples of Jesus, a wise man named Gamaliel suggests they leave them alone. "For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God!" (Acts 5:38-39). The Holy Spirit works in marvelous and mysterious ways. If God intended for priests to solely celebrate in the new posture versus populum, we would not find a resurgence in the sensus fidei of people finding richer union with Christ and reverence in the liturgy celebrated ad orientem. And if you feel this movement is an authentic movement of the Lord, trust that it will be preserved as part of our Catholic tradition into the future, no matter what elements are discouraging it now. Always thank your priest when he encourages tradition and reverence in the liturgy, especially in ways that can be perceived "risky" in our current environment. And even when we can't celebrate Mass according to our preferences, always lean on the promise of the Holy Spirit that each and every validly celebrated liturgy, effective ex opere operato, "is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church... a sacred action surpassing all others" (SC 7).

The individual writers hold their own views and opinions, and they are not accountable for the expressions and beliefs of their fellow writers. Our commitment is to uphold the teachings of the Catholic Church and the Magisterium faithfully. We welcome and encourage disagreement and debate within the scope of the Magisterium's authority.