How We Pray at St. Stanislaus Kostka

After the Second Vatican Council, standing for reception of the Holy Eucharist became the norm and fits the directives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  Nonetheless, kneeling to receive Jesus in Holy Communion is in keeping with the enduring tradition of our ancestors.  Today the option to kneel or stand rests with the individual.  Likewise, the option to receive the Holy Eucharist on the tongue or on the hand rests with the individual.

Whichever manner we choose to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, let us be conscious of this sacred and life sustaining encounter.  Let us receive Him in grace and with gratitude, humbly and in humility.

We listen.  In response to the call of the Blessed Virgin Mary we strive to create quiet refuge from the labor of life’s journey where the soul is opened to the transforming power of God’s ever abiding presence.  The grace of the Holy Eucharist will assist a covenant people on its return to childlike trust in Jesus, provide healing and strength, and inspire enthusiasm for the work of life.  Therefore we wish to safeguard sacred silence in this sanctuary that God’s voice is heard in the deep recesses of the soul.

The Sacred Mysteries are offered as they were for nearly 2000 years.  Today, while the ordinary 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 find the Joyful Proclamation from Fr. Anthony Buś, C.R.  here.