Priest Not Facing Congregation

[MargaretTeresa]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1310857588' post='2268398']
I love it, feel 'right'.
[/quote]

Agreed. Especially since it's like Fr Joe is standing there talking straight up to Jesus (thanks to our large crucifix that's like RIGHT THERE from the altar.)

[Nihil Obstat]

I hope you're grateful for your priest. I wish my family's parish priest would do that.

[faithcecelia]

Very much. I even emailed him last week to say thanks for Mass and to wish him an easy move as the diocese has rented them a house for a year and they have moved this week.

[Aloysius]

ad orientum is the coolest term, IMO; but it literally means facing east, though when we use the term we generally mean the "liturgical"/symbolic east, or some "spiritual east". ad Deum is a good term for this to. you might sometimes see it more technically referred to as ad apsidem, towards the aps. of course, there remains something to be said for the ancient practice of all of the people including the priest facing true geographical east where the sun rises, but some churches are not built with this orientation sadly so ad apsidem would be the preferred way, facing a symbolic liturgical East, everyone facing God together.

[ryansouf504]

I almost jumped out of my seat when I read this thread. I did my senior thesis on the theological significance of ad orientem! I just wrote a blog on my recent experience at a monastery. Check it out ryansfiat.com God bless your priest

[faithcecelia]

[quote name='ryansouf504' timestamp='1310884872' post='2268644']
I almost jumped out of my seat when I read this thread. I did my senior thesis on the theological significance of ad orientem! I just wrote a blog on my recent experience at a monastery. Check it out ryansfiat.com God bless your priest
[/quote]


Just been reading your blog, like it very much

[HopefulBride]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1310903988' post='2268692']
Just been reading your blog, like it very much
[/quote]

Ditto

[faithcecelia]

Another beautiful Mass this morning and afterwards had my first chance to actually speak to this lovely new priest I was with others, so it was a brief conversation over coffee and the other ladies needed his attention more than I did, but hopefully once he and his family are properly settled in their new house I will be able to book an appointment to talk to him properly. Oh, and he sings the prayers too

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1310929050' post='2268778'] but hopefully once he and his family
[/quote]
Is he a Roman priest? An Anglican-Use convert?

[faithcecelia]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1310938481' post='2268885']
Is he a Roman priest? An Anglican-Use convert?
[/quote]


Ordinariate. He, his wife and FIVE teenage children have been staying with the parish priest - bet he will need a holiday now to recover!

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1310938840' post='2268887']
Ordinariate. He, his wife and FIVE teenage children have been staying with the parish priest - bet he will need a holiday now to recover!
[/quote]
That is very cool. I LIKE IT.

[faithcecelia]

For me personally, the Ordinariate being given a 'home' at my parish has been an answer to many, many prayers. I wrote some weeks ago about how unwelcome I have felt in the parish and how I have never settled in. For 18mths I have flitted between Masses and parishes - sometimes even paying over £15 in travel costs to go to the mainland - even though my parish church is only about 200yds from home. Yes, of course I agree that Mass is Mass, not a popularity contest, but as an overner I found this status pinned to me more obviously in the parish where almost everyone is a caulkhead and with it the standard island lack of acceptance for overners.


It was pretty much despairation that led me to attend the first Ordinariate Mass, figuring that if nothing else it was at a sensible time of day (9:15) given that Sunday is my only day off. I loved it immediately and have made it my regular Mass. I go to the crypt after with them for coffee and have been welcomed and accepted, spoken to by name etc more than I have in 18mths. In just a few weeks Wendy (Mrs Father!) has told me about her family, the stress of the move, the children each making their own decision re conversion etc. Maureen and John have become, I feel, friends and John even started speaking to me the first time I met him - he has severe Tourettes with almost continual tics made worse by nerves, so tends to let Maureen do the talking. She told me he said after the first week that he had never been aware of someone meeting him for the first time and not batting an eyelid at his behaviour. Although officially a parishioner of the parish, I already consider myself a member of the ordinariate group.


They are so passionate - still buzzing with the zeal of conversion - and a wonderfully mixed group - young and old, etc.



I emailed Fr Jonathan after Mass last Sunday as i wanted to welcome him to the Church, and also thank him for how welcome I have been made by the Ordinariate group. I think, in him, we have an amazing Catholic priest and that his Anglican history helps that massively. I have no idea of the Anglican Church in the US but over here High Anglican worship has made Catholics look protestant (no offence to anyone, but only way I can describe it) so we now have insence every Sunday , Mass said [i]ad orientem [/i]the Gospel read, no, [i]proclaimed[/i] from the body of the church, solid, longer homilies etc etc it goes on and on.



I know you all pray for priests, but please add a postscript especially for Ordinariate priests, and especially for Fr Jonathan Redvers Harris, who has helped me love Sundays again