GENUFLEXION
424
GENUFLEXION
sion of penitence and sorrow for sins committed"
(Rabanus Maurus, De Instit. Cler., II, xli).
I. An Attitude ou Posture at Prayer. — To kneel while praying is now usual among Christians. Under the Old Law the practice was otherwise. In the Jew- ish Church it was the rule to pray standing, except in time of mourning (Scudamore, Notit. Eucharist., 182). Of Anna, the mother of iSanuicl, we read that she said to Heli: " I am that woman who stood before thee here praying to the Lord" (I Kings, i, 20; see also II Esd., IX, 3-5). Of both the Pharisee and the publican it is stated in the parable that they stood to pray, the attitude being emphasized in the case of the former (Luke, xviii, 11, 13). Christ assumes that standing would be the ordinary posture in prayer of those whom He addressed: "And when you shall stand to pray", etc. (Mark, xi, 25). "And when ye pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, that love to stand and pray in the synagogues", etc. (Matt., vi, 5). But when the occa- sion was one of .special solemnity, or the petition very urgent, or the prayer made with exceptional fervour, the Jewish suppliant knelt. Besides the many pictor- ial representations of kneeling prisoners, and the like, left us by ancient art, Gen., xli, 43 and Esth., iii, 2 may be quoted to show how universally in the East kneeling was accepted as the proper attitude of suppli- ants and dependents. Thus Solomon dedicating his temple "kneeling down in the presence of all the mul- titude of Israel, and lifting up his hands towards Heaven", etc. (II Par., vi, 13; cf. Ill Kings, viii, 54). Esdras too: " I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands to the Lord my God" (I Esd., ix, 5) ; and Daniel: "opening the windows in his upper chamber towards Jerusalem, he knelt down three times a day, and adored, and gave thanks before his God, as he had been accustomed to do before" (Dan., vi, 10), illustrate this practice. Of Christ's great prayer for His disci- ples and for His Church we are only told that "lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said", etc. (John, xvii, 1); but of His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemani : " kneel- ing down, he prayed" (Luke, xxii, 41). The lepers, beseeching the Saviour to have mercy on them, kneel (Mark, i, 40;cf.x, 17).
Coming to the first Christians, of St. Stephen we read: "And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying", etc. (Acts, vii, 59); of the Prince of the Apostles: "Peter kneeling down prayed" (Acts, ix, 40); of St. Paul: "kneehng down, he prayed with them all" (Acts, xx, 30; cf. xxi, 5). It would seem that the kneeling posture for prayer speedily became habitual among the faithful. Of St. James, the bro- ther of the Lord, tradition relates that from his con- tinual kneeling his knees had become callous as those of a camel (Euseb., Hist. Eccl., II, xxiii; Brev. Rom., 1 May). For St. Paul the expressions " to pray" and "to bow the knee" to God are complementary (cf. Phil., ii, 10; Eph., iii, 14, etc.). TertuUian (Ad Scap., iv) treats kneeling and praying as practically synony- mous. And when forgiveness of offences has to be be- sought, Origen (De Orat., 31) goes so far as to main- tain that a kneeling posture is necessary.
It is remarkable that the "orantes" (praying fig- ures) of early Christian art are in the catacomb fres- coes invariably depicted as standing with arms ex- tended. Some remarks of Leclercq (Manuel d'Arch- fologie chretienne, I, 153 sqq.) suggest that a probable explanation may be found in the view that these "orantes" are merely conventional representations of prayer and of suppliants in the abstract. They are symljols, not pictures of the actual. NoWj conven- tional representations are inspired as a rule m respect of detail, not so much by manners and customs prev- alent at the date of their execution, as by an ideal con- served by tradition and at the place and time accepted as fitting. Ancient art has left us examples of pagan as well as of Christian " orantes". The attitude (stand- ing with arms extended or upraised) is substantially
the same in all. This, then, is the attitude symbolical,
among the ancients, of prayer. In reality, however,
suppliants have, as a matter of course, very generally
knelt. Hence such classical phrases as: "Genu pon-
ere alicui" (Curtius) ; " Inflexo genu adorare" (Seneca) ;
"Nixi genibus" (Livy); "Genibus minor" (Horace).
On the other hand, examples are not wanting of
Christians who pray standing. The " Stans in medio
carceris, expansis manibus orabat", which the
Church has adopted as her memory of the holy
martyr, St. Agatha, is an illustration. And as late
as the end of the sixth century, St. Gregory the
Great describes St. Benedict as uttering his dying
prayer "stans, erectis in coelum manibus" (Dial., II,
c. x.xxvii). Nor is it unlikely that since standing has
always been a posture recognized, and even enjomed,
in public and liturgical prayer, it may have survived
well into the Middle Ages as one suitable, at least in
some circumstances, for even private devotion. Yet,
from the fourth century onwards, to kneel has certainly
been the rule for private prayer. Eusebius (Vita
Constant., IV, xxii) declares kneeling to have been the
customary posture of the Emperor Constantine when
at his devotions in his oratory. At the end of the
century, St. Augustine tells us: "They who pray do
with the members of their body that which befits sup-
pliants; they fi.x their knees, stretch forth their hands,
or even prostrate themselves on the ground" (De curS.
pro mortuis, v). Even for the ante-Nicene period,
the conclusion arrived at by Warren is probably sub-
stantially correct: — "The recognized attitude for
prayer, liturgically speaking, waS standing, but kneel-
ing was early introduced for penitential and perhaps
ordinary ferial seasons, and was frequently, though
not necessarily, adopted in private prayer" (Liturgy
of the ante-Nicene Church, 145)
It is noteworthy that, early in the sixth century, St. Benedict (Reg., c. 1) enjoins upon his monks that when absent from choir, and therefore compelled to recite the Divine Office as a private prayer, they should not stand as when in choir, but kneel throughout. That, in our time, the Church accepts kneeling as the more fitting attitude for private prayer is evinced by such rules as the Missal rubric directing that, save for a momentary rising while the Gospel is being read, all present kneel from the beginning to the end of a low Mass; and by the recent decrees requiring that the celebrant recite kneeling the prayers (though they in- clude collects which, liturgically, postulate a standing posture) prescribed by Leo XIII to be said after Mass. It is well, however, to bear in mind that there is no real obligation to kneel during private prayer. Thus, unless conditioned on that particular posture being taken, the intlulgence attached to a prayer is gained, whether, while reciting it, one kneel or not (S. Cong, of the Index, 18 Sept., 1802, n. 398). The "Sacro- sanctae", recited by the clergy after saying the Divine Office, is one of the exceptions. It must be said kneel- ing, except when illness makes the doing so physically impossible. Turning now to the liturgical prayer of the Christian Church, it is very evident that standing, not kneeling, is the correct posture for those taking part in it. A glance at the attitude of a priest officiat- ing at Mass or Vespers, or using the Roman Ritual, will be sufficient proof. The clergy in attendance also, and even the laity assisting, are, by the rubrics, assumed to be standing. The Canon of the Mass des- ignates them as " circumstantes". The practice of kneeling during the Consecration was introduced ilur- ing the Middle Ages, and is in relation with the Eleva- tion which originated in the same period. The rubric directing that while the celebrant and his ministers recite the Psalm "Judica", and make the Confession, those present who are not prelates should kneel, is a mere reminiscence of the fact that these introduc- tory devotions were originally private prayers of pre- paration, and therefore outside the liturgy properly so
