By Kaitlin Klein
Wonderful Adventure
My husband received a book on musical composition as a Christmas gift. It contains 100 exercises, taking basic music theory and giving prompts to encourage him to practice and stretch his knowledge and skills. This evening, he was sharing about completing his first exercise, and I was bouncing ideas off of him for this column. We landed on the connection between music composition and humans being body-soul composites – it's a stretch, I know! But the Lord gave us bodies to navigate our world, be His hands and feet, do His will, build His Kingdom, and eventually enter into heaven. As my husband gets excited about composing music, we can be excited about praising God with even simple physical aspects of living. For example, the sign of the cross, such a simple gesture, is a powerful prayer and sign of faith. I will focus on different gestures and physical stances related to the Mass and Eucharist, although they are by no means exclusive to going to church. As the new year begins, it doesn't hurt to go back to the basics and reflect on how we can use gestures we may take for granted to increase our reverence and adoration of the Eucharist and enhance our prayer and spiritual lives.
The sign of the cross may be easy to overlook since it is one of the first prayers we learn and teach to our children. We begin and end prayers with this gesture and words and cross ourselves after dipping our fingers in holy water. St. Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary of Our Lady who appeared at the grotto at Lourdes, was observed making a devout sign of the cross. When asked about this, she said she tried to imitate Mary's sign of the cross she saw in her vision. We can also make sure we are actually saying each and every word: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." I also cross myself when walking or driving by a church to acknowledge the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Genuflecting is a common Catholic gesture, but my own observations remind me that there may be some confusion about it! Genuflecting shows adoration to the Blessed Sacrament by lowering the right knee to the ground – all the way to the ground. (If a physical issue prevents one from doing so, a bow may be used instead to show reverence.) The “General Instruction of the Roman Missal” (GIRM) calls for a genuflect when one passes in front of the tabernacle. When entering a church, many genuflect before entering the pew; this is a great act to do if done facing the tabernacle, or when passing in front of it, like the GIRM instructs. We are to genuflect only to the Son of God in his True Presence and to nothing else. Although not required, some lower to both knees when approaching the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a monstrance. To show proper reverence to the altar, or when entering a church and the tabernacle is not visible (or is empty, shown by the red candle nearby being extinguished), bowing to the alar is the proper gesture.
These physical aspects of our faith may be easy to push aside, but they are important and can lead to better adoration of Our Lord, as well as enhance our prayer and give proper praise to God.