Several weeks ago, Deacon Brian gave a sermon at the 10 a.m. Mass, during which he spoke of "the women who stand at the consecration." While his sermon was awesome, he unfortunately misunderstood why we stand. We, the men and women who stand at the consecration stand because Vatican II declared, "In the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ" (read entire church) "that is, by the Head and his members. From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the Priest and his body which is the church, is a sacred action surpassing all others..." (SC #7) The general posture of prayer to God and the posture to show respect traditionally has been to stand, just as we stand when someone of dignity enters a room.
In the Oakland diocese, some parish congregations kneel during the Eucharistic prayer, other congregations stand. We, certain members of Newman-Holy Spirit parish and the signers below -- both men and women -- stand during the Eucharistic prayer as a sign of respect and to acknowledge our full participation in the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
We believe that our parish community is stronger when we acknowledge the "both/and" rather than the "either/or." Whether we stand, kneel or sit, we are one Newman-Holy Spirit community, all of us broken, all of us called to love one another.
Therese Stawowy, Louis Reimers, Barbara Wander, Debby Roosevelt, Brenda Hepler, Nancy Hartman, Peg Bogle, Susan Burnett, Kara Speltz