Orans’ Position

I remember going to non-denominational services where the band played at the front, and people had their hands raised, palms upward, in worship. Personally, I was never one to do this. It always seemed to unduly draw attention to the individual(s). Eventually, when I came to an Anglican church and there wasn’t an explicit attempt by people to get attention or make worship all about them- no band or cult of personality- I knew I was home. 

You may, however, have noticed that the priest does raise his arms when praying. Why? The position is called the orans’ position. Orans means prayer; think “Ora pro nobis” (pray for us) or “lex orandi, lex credendi” (the law of prayer is the law of belief). It is a posture of prayer. The psalmist says,  “May my prayer be counted as incense before You; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering” (Ps. 141:2). The posture is one of surrender and reception. We have nothing in our hands; we bring nothing but our worship. We surrender our self-reliance and savior complexes and seek the grace of God. In doing so, we open ourselves up to see what God is doing in our lives and in the world around us. We seek to receive the work of God in our own hearts and minds. 

This was a posture often depicted in the early Church. You may see icons or paintings of saints with hands lifted towards heaven. It is something you are welcome to emulate in your own personal lives of prayer. But why is it only the priest who does it at Holy Communion?

To answer this question, we need to look at the role of the priest. A Latin phrase to help move us in a helpful direction is that the priest acts “In persona Christi”, in the person of Christ. This phrase was used by Church Fathers like Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine. In Vatican II, Rome wanted to clarify what this phrase meant, so they added “In persona Christi capitis”, in the person of Christ the head. Christ as the head of the body is a very Pauline view found clearly in Colossians 1:18, “And he (Christ) is the head of the body.” Again, in Ephesians and 1 Corinthians, Paul claims the same thing. This view, emphasized by Augustine, claims that no one can have Christ as the head unless he is of the body of Christ. Furthermore, his emphasis on “totus Christus” is that it is Christ and the Church who form the whole Christ made present to the world: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us; to that flesh is joined the church, and there is made the whole Christ, head and body.” (On the Epistle of John 1.2) In this concept, Christ and his Church together form the totus Christus (“the whole Christ”). Augustine said it was not that Christ would be incomplete without us, but that he did not wish to be complete without us or without a Church. (cf. Sermons 341.1.1 and 9.1) The church is the hands and feet of Christ, not apart from him, but as we are mystically joined to him.

So, when we come to the Sacraments, the priest is not up there doing some magic trick that is of his own power. Christ is the one who makes himself present through the use of his ministers, by means of bread and wine, in the power of the Spirit. The priest’s function is to act in the place of Christ. In this way, the priest can only do or say what Christ himself does and says. When it comes to confession, the priest, acting in the place of Christ, should proclaim what Christ has and does proclaim. In Holy Communion, the priest offers Christ to the Church in Word and Sacrament because that is where Christ promises to be and where he desires to give himself. 

In the Liturgy, the priest leads the people into the throne room of grace. Remember, this is why the priest faces East, to lead the people into the presence of God and await his Second Coming. So in our collects, the priest collects the prayers of the people and joins them together, offering them to God. Some have found another phrase helpful in a way that joins these concepts: “Ex persona totius ecclesiae” (from the person of the whole Church) refers to the idea that the Church acts and speaks as one unified person — the Head (Christ) and the Mystical Body (the Church)— in carrying out its mission and sacramental life. The priest is then liturgically functioning as both the head and the body. Offering the prayers of the Mystical Body and leading them to Christ, who is faithful to give himself. 

With this in mind, the priest alone takes the orans’ posture because in Holy Communion the Church prays with one unified voice. And, on behalf of the Church, the one to lead them in the prayer is the one who acts in the person/place of Christ, for Christ alone is our sole Mediator and Advocate. And he is the one who gives himself in Word and Sacrament, through the means of grace offered through his Church. This is not meant to elevate the priest or speak of a spotless and perfect church. Rather, Christ offers himself in a broken Church because it is through his grace, found in the mystical and sacramental union, that he seeks to heal us and send us out as images of grace to the world: without the Head, the Body has no life. And without existing within the Body, an appendage cannot last apart from its source of life, which flows from its union with the Head. 

Peace of Christ,

Fr. Aaron