[Charles Martel]

Hmm. Any particular latitude/longitude?

Or is this a hat-tip to the Druids?

[stockpirate]

Should people then start chanting Allah at the bar.

[reg45]

While the congregation sings “Here Comes the Sun”.

[RaginRak]

...while I face the exit door

[rjsimmon]

“But as soon as we reach the moment when one addresses God – from the Offertory onwards – it is essential that the priest and faithful look together towards the east. This corresponds exactly to what the Council Fathers wanted.”

They have it backwards. The East represents opposition to God. After the fall in Eden, man went 'east'. The Temple faced East so that the high priest faced west to the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies.

Abraham travelled west, from Ur to reach the land promised by God.

[Fiji Hill]

The dawn is sprinkling in the east
Its golden shower, as day flows in;
Fast mount the pointed shafts of light:
Farewell to darkness and to sin!

Away, ye midnight phantoms all!
Away, despondence and despair!
Whatever guilt the night has brought
Now let it vanish into air.

So, Lord, when that last morning breaks,
Looking to which we sigh and pray,
O may it to Thy minstrels prove
The dawning of a better day.

To God the Father glory be,
And to His sole begotten Son;
Glory, O Holy Ghost, to Thee
While everlasting ages run.

—Ambrose of Milan, fourth century AD

[Salvation]

BTTT!

[al_c]

Wha … ?!

[Stingray51]

I believe that facing East in the liturgical sense means facing the altar. If a man was in front of you leading you into battle, would you want him to be walking backwards? Traditionally, most parts of the Mass were celebrated facing the altar but after the hippies took over the priest turned to face the people and it became less about worship and more about community and the priest’s personality and so forth. In the older form of the Mass, a dud of a priest (and there are obviously many) makes a lot less of a difference.

[Petrosius]

Note to everyone: Cardinal Sarah is speaking about liturgical east, not geographical. Early churches were built with the altar at the east end of the building. When Mass was being said the priest and the congregation would both face east toward the altar, facing in the same direction as the sacrifice was offered to the Father. Even when the church is built with a different orientation, the rubrics would call the direction that the congregation would face toward the altar "east".

What Cardinal Sarah is speaking of is the priest and the congregation facing the altar together. This is opposed to the general current practice of the priest standing on the other side of the altar and facing the congregation, called "versus populum." This recent innovation tends to suggest that the Mass is merely a communal meal recreating the Last Supper. The ancient orientation (which by the way literally means "toward the east") brings out more clearly the Mass as a sacrifice with the priest and congregation joined together in addressing God the Father.

[Mr. M.J.B.]

Get ready to rhumble!