General Instruction of the Roman Missal 2

The Communal Nature of the Liturgy

The liturgy is not a celebration of a group of individuals who happen to gather in the same location. Rather, it is the Body of Christ called together by the Holy Spirit to be formed more perfectly into the Body of Christ through the celebration of Mass. A sign of the congregation being the Body of Christ is the common postures enacted by the congregation, for example all of the people standing together. This communal reality, thus, is a theological truth that the liturgy must express. As the people of God act as one body, through their common posture or gestures, the congregation comes to embody this unity.

The postures and gestures that we, as a community, use in the celebration of the liturgy are as much a part of the prayer as the words that are used. They have symbolic importance and express the attitude that we are to take on as we participate in the liturgy. Also, the postures signify a sense of unity which the community shares as it prays as the Body of Christ. The postures and gestures then are not empty actions. Instead, their meaning derives from the context in which they are used. For example, sitting down during the readings is a sign of listening and meditation, while we stand for the Gospel as a recoginition that the proclamation of the Gospel is different from the other readings. It is the high point of the Liturgy of the Word as Christ’s own words are proclaimed. Thus, the purpose of common postures is to foster a deeper connection for the person with the ongoing action of the celebration. Also, most importantly, the body postures being done in common exhibits the unity that should exist within a congregation being formed into the Body of Christ.

Therefore, posture acts as a means of nonverbal communication and is an actualization that the whole person is engaged in the act of praying. Thus, prayer is not simply about the words being said, nor is it simply an intellectual exercise. Prayer is meant to engage a person on all levels of his or her being. Hence, the postures that are used, help to manifest more fully what we are about in celebrating the liturgy.

Furthermore, a primary concern of the Church is to ensure that the faithful are able to fully, actively, and consciously participate in the liturgy. If praying the liturgy is considered to be a communal action and that prayer is both word and action then the common postures can be recognized as

 essential to the people’s participation. Therefore, the postures are a means of helping the person to celebrate the liturgy more fully, actively, and consciously and to do so, not simply as one among a group of individuals gathered. Rather, the common postures witness to the reality that we are part of a community that is gathered by the Spirit to celebrate as a community.

The necessity then of a unified approach becomes more evident when we take into account that liturgical prayer is about both the body posture and the words said. And, it is both the right and duty of the faithful to fully participate in the celebration. The common posture is essential to this participation and if the faithful are not able to know what is expected of them in these communal expressions it dilutes their ability to fully pray and thus to fully participate in the celebration. Hence, the revisions in the GIRM are designed to encourage a unified approach to common postures in order to more fully express the communal nature of the celebration and the faithful’s responsibility through these communal expressions.

Thus, the importance of the communal nature of the liturgical celebration is one reason that the Church now seeks to bring about a greater sense of uniformity in the communal expressions. By seeking uniformity within the United States particularly, and throughout the world in general, it allows a person within a given region to move from any one parish to another and to know what is expected where communal prayer is concerned. This can only happen when people are familiar with what is expected of them where common posture is concerned. This also helps to make clear that the Mass is not the preserve of a single parish but rather it is always a work of the entire Church of which a particular parish is a sign.