Ten Reasons to Say Mass Ad Orientem

For readers of A Catholic Life, you will notice that I enjoy posting videos and photographs of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  I am especially fond of beautiful images of the Tridentine Latin Mass.  When I first tell people of the beauty and solemnity of this worship of our Lord, one of the first things that they ask is "Is that the Mass where the priest faces away from the people?"

I always have to remind these people that the priest is not facing away from them.  He is not facing them at times when He is speaking to our Lord, truly present in the Eucharist before him!

I see a fantastic list going around the Catholic Blogosphere.  Here is that list:

Image Source: Major Seminary in Krakow

1. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is experienced as having a theocentric direction and focus.

2. The faithful are spared the tiresome clerocentrism that has so overtaken the celebration of Holy Mass in the past forty years.

3. It has once again become evident that the Canon of the Mass (Prex Eucharistica) is addressed to the Father, by the priest, in the name of all.

4. The sacrificial character of the Mass is wonderfully expressed and affirmed.

5. Almost imperceptibly one discovers the rightness of praying silently at certain moments, of reciting certain parts of the Mass softly, and of cantillating others.

6. It affords the priest celebrant the boon of a holy modesty.

7. I find myself more and more identified with Christ, Eternal High Priest and Hostia perpetua, in the liturgy of the heavenly sanctuary, beyond the veil, before the Face of the Father.

8. During the Canon of the Mass I am graced with a profound recollection.

9. The people have become more reverent in their demeanor.

10. The entire celebration of Holy Mass has gained reverence, attention, and devotion