Dear Parishioners,

In my remaining weeks at St. Joan of Arc Parish, I would like to share some insights on a number of the fundamental components of the liturgy such as gesture, posture and vesture. These components are not unique to Roman Catholic worship, nor are they exclusive elements in any organized religion. They are some of the basic building blocks of all ritual language, religious or secular.

Catholic liturgy maximizes their power to shape those who participate in ritual activities by using them abundantly and layering them with theological significance. For example, the gesture of immersion into water during the baptismal rite is symbolic of an interior cleansing in the individual being baptized but also, on a theological level, but also brings about the incorporation of this person into the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Focusing more specifically on liturgical gestures, The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), the church’s most official and universal collection of rubrics and directives as to how the Mass is to be celebrated, we find the clearest understanding of those bodily gestures that are integral to Catholic worship.

The gestures and bodily postures of both the priest and the deacon, and the ministers, and also the people, must be conducive to making the entire celebration resplendent with beauty and noble simplicity, to making clear the true and full meaning of its different parts, and to fostering the participation of all. Attention must therefore be paid to what is determined by the GIRM rather than by private inclination and arbitrary choice. A common bodily posture is a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community gathered together for the Sacred Liturgy. (GIRM no 42)

It is significant to note that the church discourages individuals from incorporating their own private gestures and postures into the Mass. While these embodied movements may have personal meaning for individuals, the Mass is a communal action and is not the arena for additions and adaptations which are not universally recognized. Those who fail to abide by this customary way of participating in ritual activity might be said to singularize themselves, that is make themselves a singular object of attention. While such people do not intend any disrespect or disloyalty to the church’s discipline, they tend to reinforce an erroneous understanding that the liturgy is a private enterprise that may be altered by personal whims and preferences. This teaching was emphasized as far back as 1947, when Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical Mediator Dei, stated; Private individuals, therefore, even though they be clerics, may not be left to decide for themselves in these holy and venerable matters. (GIRM no. 58) “These holy and venerable matters” is a reference to the structure and celebration of the church’s official liturgy.

Of all the gestures woven throughout the Mass, the most common is the Sign of the Cross – that gesture made by the right hand that moves from the forehead, to the chest, to the left shoulder and then to the right. This action is performed at the beginning and end of each Mass and is common to all the participants, although a priest or bishop turns his hand outwardly when blessing the assembly to evoke the notion of bestowing God’s blessing. Our former principal, Sr. Carolyn Seig, OSB, repeatedly emphasized to students that this gesture should always be done fully and broadly, slowly and reverently and should never appear as though one were swatting flies.

In many ways, the Sign of the Cross is the quintessential gesture for Christians because it summarizes the life of Jesus was most radically revealed in his sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus’ death was vindicated by God the Father when he raised him from the dead, thereby transforming the cross, once a sign of death and defeat, into an everlasting sign of victory and life.

Although the Sign of the Cross is given its fullest expression at the beginning and end of each Mass, “lesser” signings of the cross can be found elsewhere in the liturgical action. One of these is prescribed at the proclamation of the gospel immediately after the name of the evangelist is named. All present make a small sign of the cross with their thumb on the forehead, lips and heart. It is a prayerful gesture asking that the power of the gospel fill our minds, be proclaimed from our lips and lodged deeply within our hearts. It is a simple but lovely gesture that should not be overlooked or dismissed as trivial.

Another use of this gesture is during the Eucharistic Prayer when, after the priest extends his hands over the elements of bread and wine beseeching the Holy Spirit to “come down” to transform them into the body and blood of Christ, he makes a horizontal crossing over these gifts. This point in the Mass is called the “epiclesis” which means “a calling down.” It is, as already mentioned, a calling down of God’s Spirit who brings about the substantial change in the bread and wine. It is not the priest who does this. Rather, the priest is simply a vehicle through which God’s grace flows.

Another moment in the liturgy where the Sign of the Cross may be incorporated is at the incensation of the bread and wine at the Preparation of the Gifts. The priest may take the censer, filled with burning incense, and make a large cross with it over these elements which earth has given and human hands have made.

Once a year on Ash Wednesday we are marked with the sign of the cross on our foreheads with ashes that were made from last year’s palm branches. Also, in the Baptismal Rite as well as the Anointing of the Sick, the sign of the cross is made with one of the Holy Oils and applied to some part of the human body.

Through this brief examination of the structure of the Mass we can see how organic the Sign of the Cross is to this highest form of Catholic worship. The following reflection by the liturgical scholar Mark Searle, offers a prayerful way to deepen one’s understanding of the Sign of the Cross, our most frequently enacted gesture in both public worship and private prayer.

Sign of the Cross At the beginning and end of Mass;
at the beginning and end of our lives;
at the beginning and end of all we do stands the sign of the cross saying:
this place, this space of time, this life,
this child, this people, this corpse,
belongs to the Lord and will not be
snatched from Him
who bears indelibly in his body
the marks of that same cross.

Blessings,

Fr. Gabriel OSB

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