Who should raise hands (orans) at Mass (the Eucharist)?

The above image (and others like it) is a popular internet-circulating infographic meme proscribing anyone in the congregation from raising their hands (in orans) during the Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father”) at the Eucharist/Mass. But it is false on so many levels.

Most obviously: Cardinal Burke in the top photo isn’t even raising his hands in orans. The moment in that photo isn’t the Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father”) at all! In the image, Cardinal Burke is presiding ad orientem (towards the East). If this were during the Lord’s Prayer, he would face the altar, in the same direction as the congregation. In this photo, he has turned to face the congregation and is “extending his hands” in greeting (as the rubrics describe it) with words like “The Lord be with you.”

Laity in the congregation holding hands and raising hands during the Lord’s Prayer in the Eucharist is not uncommon – often a legacy of the ecumenical charismatic renewal movement. And it is one of the pet hates of traditionalists – especially online. But is it actually forbidden or even discouraged in the (clearest, ie. RC) liturgical directives (“say the black; do the red”)?

When I have been silly enough to enter into (online) discussion about this, I have been quickly pointed to Ecclesiae de Mysterio Article 6, Section 2. This highlights that “deacons or non-ordained members of the faithful [may not] use gestures or actions which are proper to the… priest celebrant.” The focus in that text is particularly on the Eucharistic Prayer and certainly would proscribe priestly actions such as extending hands towards the offerings at the invocation of the Holy Spirit.

But the argument is clearly circular: those vehemently opposing laity raising hands during the Lord’s Prayer are saying this is an action proper to the presiding priest at that point. The moment that one disagrees that during the Lord’s Prayer orans is a uniquely priestly gesture, simply one of the postures common to all Christians at prayer – lay and ordained – the argument against it from official documents falls away.

The Roman Missal’s rubrics are clear that the priest’s hands are extended in orans during the Lord’s Prayer, but they are silent about the posture and gesture of the congregation (I haven’t seen traditionalists discuss if a priest present in the congregation can pray in orans at this point!). The silence about gesture of the laity in the current rubrics has led at least the Roman Catholic Bishops in Italy and those in the Philippines to explicitly rule that orans is a permissible gesture for the congregation during the Lord’s Prayer in the Eucharist – underscoring that this is not a uniquely priestly gesture at this point.

It is even stronger in the Maronite Qurbono, the the Eucharistic liturgy of the Maronite Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with Rome. There ALL (priest AND laity) are required to raise their hands in orans during the Lord’s Prayer in the Eucharist!

My own “rule of thumb” (rule of palms?), as a priest when I am presiding, is to raise my hands in orans when I am proclaiming aloud a prayer that those in the gathered community is praying along silently with me in their hearts (e.g. the collect, the parts proper to the presider in the Eucharistic Prayer,…) What gesture individuals use do not greatly concern me. There are some wise words in 2 Timothy 2: “Have nothing to do with stupid and senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone.”

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