Ad Jesum per Mariam

Ad Jesum per Mariam
...if you genuinely wish to reach a high level of prayer in all honesty and without falling into the traps that the devil sets for those who pray, SAY your Rosary everyday... St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

MY BIG BANG - LIKE THEORY ON AD ORIENTEM AND VERSUS POPULUM

My Theory on Ad Orientem and Versus Populum

It dawned on me that Ad Populum or where the priest is celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass facing the people is really a compromised, degrading, and shameful act of adoration and worship towards God. As I see it, it seems to me, that the style of Ad Populum or Versus Populum is like a darkened consciousness of people who thinks that the priest who celebrates the Holy Mass and themselves must have a tangible fellowship where the priest is facing and the people must have an active physical participation in the Mass, where it is always thought that Jesus Christ is inside the tabernacle (that’s why it must be Ad Orientem), Jesus Christ is acting invisibly in the person of the one who celebrates the Mass (again, that’s why it must be Ad Orientem), Jesus Christ will be present in the Liturgy of the Eucharist (again and again, that’s why it must be Ad Orientem. Where is the Real Presence of God before the Liturgy of the Eucharist? In the tabernacle), and too many to mention right but lax arguments that support their positions regarding the Ad Populum which they like to be done in the Mass. It is very saddening and a horror for me for I meditated on this that the Ad Populum is a product of fear and the decline of the people who were attending Mass. So, in that case, the adoration and worship must be done where the adoration and worship guide which is the priest must face the people like what Protestants and other religions do when they do their adoration and worship to God (Is not it funny? We adore and worship God like Protestants does who was no difference from the Gentiles?). The Ad Populum is therefore an adaptation of style of adoration and worship of the Protestants where there is a sharing and conversational relationship where there is an intimate bond between the worship leader or speaker and the people or the listeners.

What’s the great difference between Ad Orientem and Ad Populum?

1 Ad Orientem is facing the sole or only person of adoration and worship which is God while Ad Populum is confusion as if the priest is Jesus Christ or God even if he is just acting in the person of Christ or in persona Christi.

2. Ad Orientem is a desired style of God when He is adored and worshipped in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass while Ad Populum is a style hated by Jesus Christ for He is the leader and the priest is just a guide of the people toward Jesus Christ but it was gone the other way around where the priest becomes the leader of the people and Jesus Christ is nothing.

3. Ad Orientem is all-eyes and all being towards God while Ad Populum is where the priest is treated like a star and showbiz personality.

4. Ad Orientem is sole and only God-worship while Ad Populum is a Protestant-like worship who worships God with their mouths but their hearts are far from the Lord.

5. Ad Orientem is a solid adoration and worship towards Jesus Christ in His Real Presence in the Sacred Hosts inside the tabernacle while Ad Populum doubts the God who is inside the tabernacle.

6. Ad Orientem is God-centered while Ad Populum is self-centered; consciousness arises on both the priest and the people about each other between them thus compromising the only person of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which is God.

7. Ad Orientem is really a sacrifice of all who face God, and the priest is the one who guides the people towards Jesus Christ who leads the Sacrifice, sacrificing Himself to the Father, acting in the person of the priest. Ad Populum is also a sacrifice, but the sacrifice and the person who will be sacrificed is not the only object why we have the Liturgy of the Eucharist as it must be, but also the priest who is facing the people which is kinda “epal” or there is a constant without-facing-the tabernacle frontal bodily appearance of the priest which is totally unnecessary for it degrades and compromises the function of a priest which is to offer sacrifice. For whom? For God. Where is God? In the tabernacle. So what must we do? OF COURSE AD ORIENTEM!

Just my two cents worth ladies and gentlemen,

Mary H. Distributist

Go and set the world on fire!


To the greater glory of God!

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