This weekend we are observing the Feast of the Ascension. One change in the ritual celebration of the Ascension after Vatican II subtly suggests Christ’s continuing presence. Before the new missal, it was customary to extinguish the paschal candle after the reading of the gospel on this day, suggesting Christ’s absence. The rubrics now are clear that the candle remains lit and near the ambo until and including the celebration of Pentecost. Only after the last Mass of Pentecost is the candle moved to the baptistery area.

Our proximity to the observance of Memorial Day when we decorate the graves of our soldiers puts me in mind of St. Michael, the Archangel. He is the patron of Brussels, Germany, Papua, New Guinea, The Basques, policemen, bankers, grocers, radiologists, paratroopers, the dying and invoked against peril at sea.

The Archangel Michael figures prominently in Judaism and Islam as well as in Christianity. He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, discoursed with Abraham, inspired Joan of Arc—and the Koran states that his tears formed the cherubim. Majestic in appearance, with a tremendous wingspan, Michael is described in the Koran as having “wings the color of green emerald….covered with saffron hairs, each of them containing a million faces.

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The Body at Prayer—Part IV
Early Christians not only stood or knelt for prayer, according to the day of the week, but also assumed what is called the orant position for their prayers—that is, they raised their hands upward, following Jewish precedent (see, for example, Ps. 134:2, 1 Tim 2:8). This gesture, however, was son transformed into a stretching out of hands in symbolic representation of the crucifixion, and then eventually abandoned by all except the presiding minister at public worship, who continued to adopt it when reciting prayers as representative of the congregation. Ordinary Christians substituted instead the less public and dramatic gesture of joining the hands together when they were saying their own prayers, although in recent years this too has tended to disappear from use. On the other hand, those involved in the charismatic movement have now begun to restore the more expressive orant gesture to their worship.

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The National Conference of Catholic Bishops here in the U.S. directed at the November 1968 meeting that the people would kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer (from the canctus to the conclusion of the Great Amen). Other norms of the Church (General Instruction of the Roman Missal) specify the congregation to kneel during the Consecration unless there is a lack of space or some other impeding element.

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