After the Sunday Mass has begun with a Procession and accompanying Song, the Penitential Rite, and the Gloria (except in Lent and Advent), then the Priest prays the Opening Prayer of the Mass, officially called the Collect.
To collect something is to gather it. We are familiar that the Sunday Mass has a collection of money and sometimes food for the poor. When the word "Collect" is used for prayer, it is a gathering of the People present and their various prayers into one official prayer on behalf of all by the Priest to God.
I have pointed out that the Introductory Rites of the Mass are meant to gather together the Catholic Faithful for Sunday Mass and make visible the Church in that gathering of Priest (or Bishop) and People.
At this moment of Prayer, the gathering has occurred; the people are "collected" and "recollected."
The Priest Celebrant says "Let us pray." And then all observe a few moments of silence, to lift up our their own prayers and have them gathered into the Collect. This Collect always addresses God the Father and makes petition through Christ Jesus united to the Holy Spirit. It is a Trinitarian Prayer. It usually relates to the Liturgical Season or to some aspect of the Christian life.
Like so much in our Catholic sacramental life, the spiritual and the physical are united. When the Priest begins to pray the Collect, he lifts up his arms and extends his hands in what is called "the orans position." What we are witnessing is the physical posture of prayer used by the Jews and Christians of the ancient world. Paintings found in the ancient Christian underground cemeteries called the catacombs often depict this prayer posture.
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| From the Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome |
This style of prayer is found in both the Old and New testamnets. For example, the Psalmist prays: "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." (Psalm 141:2) In I Timothy 2:8, Paul says, "I want peoples everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." The orans gesture is one of openness to God, a posture of receptiveness and surrender to God, as well as of petition.
Thus the Priest continues to use this ancient form of prayer even till today. In general, anytime we see the Priest lift his hands and pray, he is praying on behalf of all the People. If he is praying for himself (called for at certain times in the Mass and always silently), he does not raise his hands in the orans position.
What about the Laity using the orans position in Mass? The Catholic Charismatic movement uses uplifted hands in prayer. We see some laity at Mass raise their hands at different times. It is neither called for nor forbidden. Hands can be lifted in prayer by worshipers in such a way that it doesn’t draw attention to oneself; drawing attention to oneself is not desirable in Mass.
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| Prayer at Mass in Lebanon |
If we were to ask most people today what is the gesture you make in prayer, they would probably say that one folds one’s hands to pray (and bows one’s head and perhaps even kneels). Where did the folded hands gesture come from? We don’t know for sure, but it may have originated in the Middle Ages in Europe, when a man made an act of homage to his noble lord. He would kneel and he would fold his hands which would be held in the hands of his superior. He would then pledge himself to his lord, to be "his man," belonging to his lord. It is easy to see how this could have been applied to homage and self-surrender to God: kneeling, and offering one’s folded hands to be held in God’s invisible hands, God who is Lord of heaven and earth.
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| Feudal Homage Ceremony |
By the way, this ceremony is still practiced today in the Catholic Church, in the ordination Rite when a newly ordained priest puts his folded hands into the hands of the Bishop and promises obedience to the Bishop and his successors.
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| A Candidate for Ordination promises Obedience |
We have now come to the conclusion of the Introductory or Gathering Rites of the Sunday Mass. Their purpose fulfills what is prayed in Eucharistic Prayer III:
"Listen graciously to the prayers of this family,
whom you have summoned before you:
in your compassion, O merciful Father,
gather to yourself all your children
scattered throughout the world."
When this happens, we are participating in the Great Gathering which is our salvation and the Kingdom of God:
"Christ stands at the heart of this gathering of men [and women] into the "family of God". By his word, through signs that manifest the reign of God, and by sending out his disciples, Jesus calls all people to come together around him. But above all in the great Paschal mystery - his death on the cross and his Resurrection - he would accomplish the coming of his kingdom. "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all [people] to myself." Into this union with Christ all... are called." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #542)
Next Week: Overview of the Structure of the Mass
