Why Ad Orientem?

(This is Fr. Michael's bulletin article from December 2024 explaining the way we are now celebrating the Mass in our parishes.)

For the past two Advent seasons, we have shared the experience of celebrating Mass ad orientem - a phrase that the means “to the East” and which the Church uses to describe Mass when the priest and people face the same direction when the priest is at the altar.

To be totally honest, I have been very excited about both of these experiences. Celebrating the Mass as a priest is an interesting experience. For a large part of the Mass (the Eucharistic prayer), the priest is speaking to God the Father. In simple terms, I’m saying to the Father, “this is what Jesus said and did at the last supper” and I offer to Him the same sacrifice that Jesus did.

The complicated part is that, most of the time, when I’m speaking to the Father, saying the most important prayer that the Church has, I am also facing a congregation of people and wearing a microphone. Because of this arrangement, it’s very easy for all of us to fall into seeing the Mass as a kind of presentation - the priest stands at the front and talks to the people. It can even feel like a performance, rather than the actual prayer and offering that it is meant to be.

As we’ve experienced facing the same way at mass during these past two Advent seasons, I’ve done a lot of praying and thinking. I fully believe that celebrating Mass this way can be beneficial for all of us; and even though it may feel strange or unfamiliar sometimes, celebrating ad orientem is something found both in the tradition of the Church and in the current Roman Missal (the book of prayers we use for the Mass).

Based on all of that, I’ve decided that I would like to continue celebrating Mass ad orientem in our parishes past the end of Advent.

To address a few things:

- this is not me making any kind of statement in our parishes. I love that our two churches celebrate Mass with a variety of music and traditions, and don’t fit into any particular mold (traditional, charismatic, etc.). This decision is about helping all of us to enter more fully into what the Mass is at its core: a prayerful offering to the Father.

- Yes, we are allowed to celebrate this way. If you look at the Roman Missal, there are numerous examples of “then the priest turns to the people” throughout the Eucharistic prayer.

- Why is celebrating ad orientem not very common? It is actually becoming more common as priests discover the beauty of it, but, it’s true, celebrating versus populum (“towards the people”) became the norm after Vatican II. However, as I said above, ad orientem is still built into our texts for Mass and I really believe it will become more common in the future.

I didn’t go into this Advent with the intention of making this change permanent, but the more I think about it, the more I think it is something worth doing.

If you have a difficult time with it, I ask you to at least be open-minded. Pray about it and, please, bring your concerns to me. I am doing this, not to hurt or aggravate anyone, but because I am your pastor and I care for you and your relationship with God.

I understand if some of you may have questions or may disagree with this decision. I am happy to speak about this in person with anyone. Just leave me a message in my office or email me at mgossett@diosteub.org.

Above all, let’s embrace the season of Christmas and ask the Lord to continually draw us closer to Him.