Liturgica 1
I OFTEN hear people say, “The early Christians always stood during the eucharistic prayer.” But this is not really true. Nothing is said in early Christian sources about standing or kneeling for the Eucharistic Prayer (the Great Thanksgiving) as such. What is directed is that there should be no fasting or kneeling on any Sunday, and similarly during the great fty days of Easter. This applied to all praying on those days. So, for example, whereas in the fourth century on weekdays morning prayer in many places began with the penitential Psalm 51, for which apparently people knelt, this was not so on Sundays and it was often replaced with the canticle Benedicite omnia opera, “Bless the Lord, all works of the Lord,” this song of creation being a particularly appropriate choice for the rst day of the week as a memorial of creation. In other words, it was the day that was being distinguished by this rule and not the Eucharist. Of course, in many places where the Eucharist was regularly celebrated only on Sundays, this would mean that people always stood for the eucharistic prayer; but we don’t know for sure what happened in those places where from at least the third century onwards there began to be celebrations of that rite on other days of the week as well, because the early sources are silent on this matter. Whatever posture was adopted in those earlier centuries, however, it seems certain that it would have been maintained for the whole prayer: there wouldn’t have been a change from standing to kneeling part way through it. The more recent tradition of kneeling from after the Sanctus to the end of the prayer arose out of the medieval view that the eucharistic prayer proper, or Canon of the Mass, only began after the Sanctus. As this view is no longer held, would it not be logical to encourage worshippers to retain the same posture - whatever that might be - throughout the whole prayer in order to give visible expression to its unity?
* Full article available in printed copies.
Paul F Bradshaw
an Anglican priest, is Emeritus Professor of Liturgy, University of Notre Dame, USA, and a consultant to the Church of England Liturgical Commission.