Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Kneel, sit, stand

Galatians 2:11-21

When I was young we always knelt to pray. As a child I found this posture particularly uncomfortable. I the book never seemed to be in the right place for me to read it, not that I wanted to read it as such. I just  wanted to monitor how close we were to the end of the prayer and I could stand up or sit.
Look up, it's a celebration was one of the themes of one of the priests at the Cursillo Weekend which we attended. He asked "Do you sit or kneel at a party?" We say we are "celebrating" the Eurcharist so why sit, stand up. The rubric in the older Prayer Books does instruct kneeling. In the newer versions we are allowed to choose our posture. There were times in our Houston church when there would be two or three people standing. You can guess who were two of them. But I think that in the penitential part of the service kneeling seems quite appropriate. The question is what do I do when I am a visitor in a church which does not share my views?

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