God is Deeply in Love with Us!
Mass is the source and summit of our faith. Of course, during this troubling time, we are all hurting from being separated from this great sacrament. Nevertheless, it is always important to stay plugged into our faith community, the saving mysteries, and prayer. That might not look the same as it does normally, but we still have options. With today’s technology, we have the ability to video stream the Mass. We can still hear the Word of God and watch the sacrament take place, but this new format creates some new challenges...
In a conversation not long ago, my parents remarked that while watching Mass at home, they wanted to follow along with Mass as usual, but they realized that they did not know the responses and postures nearly as well as they thought! It is so much easier to stand up, sit down, and recite some specific responses when there are a couple of hundred other people around you doing the same. So I decided to write this small article to help you out. Although there is deeper spirituality to many of these words and actions, after one paragraph on spirituality, this article only contains what you need to get through.
First, a preliminary note on the postures. Standing is a sign of rising up together in unity. It can be to acknowledge the presence of a respectable authority—for instance, the priest when he enters the church, or God when we pray big communal things like the Our Father. Sitting is a relaxed position, mostly for listening or waiting. Finally, kneeling shows great reverence, to the point of worship, so we use this posture during the Eucharistic Prayer. It is also a sign of humility and repentance, which is why we kneel after the Lamb of God to say “Lord, I am not worthy...”
What about number 9, during communion? What is written is correct. There is actually no official posture for the people while Holy Communion is distributed.
While there are not any official, universal rules, many churches or even nations have customs of varying popularity. For instance, in Europe, the people stand during the Eucharistic Prayer except for the consecration (the words of Jesus at the Last Supper to make Him present in the Eucharist), while in the United States we kneel the whole time.
As for Communion, there are a few options. Certain parishes or even different people at the same parish will sit as soon as they have received communion; others will sit after a short period of personal prayer; others sit when Jesus is back in the tabernacle; it seems common for people to sit when the priest sits down, and it is also an option to remain kneeling all the way until “Let us pray”. This is not the place to push for what might be better or worse options.