This focus on our love for God in our life, that He is everything to us, that He is the center.
I will make a connection here, perhaps, to our celebration in the extraordinary form.
Those of us who have experienced this form of the Latin Rite, of the Roman Rite of the Church,
see clearly in this rite
An orientation and a focus which is on God, not on us.
The whole orientation of this sacred liturgy is clearly on God.
Even the orientation of prayer.
And this orientation of prayer that we use here is probably one of the more, if you will,
controversial elements in the minds of some in the more modern sense of this liturgy.
You'll hear people say things like,
well, I don't like it when the priest turns his back on me.
That's not what this is about.
It's not about the priest turning his back on anyone.
It's about the priest facing the Lord God with you.
Someone once pointed out what happens in a liturgy, and perhaps I betray some of my own
sentiments spiritually with regard to the sacred liturgy, what happens when we face
one another at the altar?
When the priest stands on this side of the altar and faces the congregation,
which, quite honestly, if you polled people I'm sure would probably be the preferred orientation,
but what happens then? Where is the focus?
We become almost a circle,
and we're focused within.
We're focused on each other.
And I've heard people say,
I don't like this because I can't see the priest's face
when he's celebrating the Mass.
Well, you're not supposed to be looking at the priest's face.
Our focus is on Christ.
On God.
And so, when we're facing one another place to people, there's an inward sort of focus,
and there's a focus on us.
And we see this even portrayed in some of the hymnody of the church.
We have so many hymns that we sing today that are focused on us, gather us in the rich and the haughty, the blind and the lame.
It's a very inward focus on us.
and I can list many others.
So there's no longer an orientation of prayer
in song toward God,
but it becomes very focused on us, gathered in worship.
And that's not the orientation
and focus of the sacred liturgy.
And so, in the extraordinary form, when the priest faces the crucifix, in this case, we can't say we're facing east, otherwise we'd have to stand on that side of the altar and face that way, but that's the general intention here, is that priests and people face east.
the direction of the rising sun, the direction from which Christ will come again in his glory,
the eschatological orientation of the liturgy that we look for the end time and prevent it in the 16th,
speaks so beautifully about the cosmic nature of the liturgy.
He talks about, we celebrate here what has already happened.
The already, what Christ has accomplished in his paschal mystery, his death and resurrection.
But we also have a focus and an orientation on the not yet, the yet to come.
The eschatological orientation with liturgy, in times when Christ will come again in glory.
We turn to Him in prayer as we await His return in glory.
And as we do so, we participate in heavenly liturgy which goes on now in the presence of the angels.
And so, when you hear people,
Describe this liturgy, and the priests, so to speak, turning his back on us.
Correct them.
It's not about that. It's about all of us, priests and people, together, united in prayer,
facing Christ, represented by the crucifix.
Our focus and our orientation is on Him.
Our worship is directed toward the Almighty God.
With our whole heart our soul our whole strength and with all of our mind