"Get down on your knees and tell me you love me"

A couple years ago I spent a little over a month nannying in Florida. I went to a parish (I'm kind of upset that I don't remember the name) where there were no kneelers. I assumed that the parishioners either stood or kneeled on the carpet at the Consecration. When it was time to kneel...everyone sat on the chairs, while myself and one older woman kneeled. It definitely was unsettling at the time.

In the blog Offerimus Tibi Dominus, the author quotes Pope Benedict in the Spirit of the Liturgy: "The man who learns to believe learns also to kneel, and a faith or a liturgy no longer familiar with kneeling would be sick at the core. Where it has been lost, kneeling must be rediscovered, so that, in our prayer, we remain in fellowship with the apostles and martyrs, in fellowship with the whole cosmos, indeed in union with

Jesus Christ Himself."

After reading that statement, I am sad and hope that in the two years since I visited, there has been some sort of reform/change in this particular parish. It is pretty convicting when one calls something "sick t its core" and particularly unnerving when referring to liturgy. Kneeling may not be particularly comfortable, at times, but it does put things in perspective. It is part of the experience and it allows one to be in the position of a state of penitence and reverance. As sinners, we are in no way deserving of God's mercy, however, He chooses to make us worthy through his grace and love. I think it is definitely a small price to pay to give God thanks and honor for who He is.