How We Pray at St. Stanislaus Kostka

The Sacred Mysteries are offered as they were for nearly 2000 years.  Today, while the novel form for offering the Holy Eucharist has the priest facing the sacred assembly, here we follow an ancient form of the Holy Offering, the priest and the people together, raising their eyes to the East from where the Lord will come at the end of all things.

This option for offering the Sacred Mysteries was nearly universally eclipsed in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council beginning in the mid-1960s, but Pope Benedict, Cardinal Sarah, and other Church Fathers have inspired a resurgence of this ancient gesture for offering the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist.

At the Altar of Sacrifice, the priest lays down his life and the sacred assembly does likewise.  This is our mutual fiat – our yes spoken and offered in thanksgiving that the Lord receive us as a people in need of redemption.  The Lord indeed comes to us with redeeming grace.  Together, priest and people offer themselves in Christ and through Christ to the Father.  Ours is a plea that God make all things new and keep us on the narrow, but difficult path that serves humanity even as it carries us to the homeland.  Our turning Ad Orientem facilitates a proper response to having been fed with the Word of God as well as an appropriate preparation for the Supper of the Lamb.

Please click here to see the Joyful Proclamation from Fr. Anthony Buś, C.R.

*Offering the Holy Sacrifice, "Ad Orientem" at St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish was suppressed by the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago effective January 31, 2022.  Our hope and prayer are that this ancient gesture for offering the Sacred Mysteries, "Ad Orientem," will eventually be allowed and our peace and tranquility in the worship of Almighty God be restored.