Did you ever notice that the sanctuary of Catholic churches are built or oriented towards the East?  I think of that every time I’m walking towards the altar to receive the Eucharist. Depending on the hour of the day, I will either be blinded by light shining through the stained windows as I walk forward or the warm light will be falling on my back.

Just like the sun that rises in the East, I’m reminded how the Son of God has Risen.  

 

“Five years before he became Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger wrote that, notwithstanding various liturgical innovations, “one thing has remained clear for the whole of Christendom: praying towards the east is a tradition that goes back to the beginning.”   “As he wrote in The Spirit of the Liturgy:  The common turning toward the east was not a “celebration toward the wall;” it did not mean that the priest “had his back to the people.” . . . For just as the congregation in the synagogue looked together toward Jerusalem, so in the Christian liturgy the congregation looked together “toward the Lord.” . . . They did not close themselves into a circle; they did not gaze at one another; but as the pilgrim People of God they set off for the Oriens, for the Christ who comes to meet us.”

Lord Have Mercy,

Paula