Posture while praying

Started by Heinrich, February 13, 2019, 09:24:39 PM

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Heinrich

I can kneel, but sometimes getting up is a tortuous experience. My left knee "locks" up. Some days are better than others whilst ambulating, but I have forgone kneeling at home for an entire Rosary. Prior to Sunday Mass i can get through two decades, but then have to sit.
Question: do I lose efficacy in prayer by not kneeling? I whimp out in fear of enduring the aforementioned pain, even on days that aren't so painful.
Schaff Recht mir Gott und führe meine Sache gegen ein unheiliges Volk . . .   .                          
Lex Orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
"Die Welt sucht nach Ehre, Ansehen, Reichtum, Vergnügen; die Heiligen aber suchen Demütigung, Verachtung, Armut, Abtötung und Buße." --Ausschnitt von der Geschichte des Lebens St. Bennos.

awkwardcustomer

#1
Why not stand while praying, or alternate between kneeling and standing?  This was the practice before pews were introduced.

Is standing while praying less efficacious than kneeling?  I've no idea, but being in pain seems like quite a distraction from prayer.  Meanwhile, standing is a respectful posture, more so that sitting.
And formerly the heretics were manifest; but now the Church is filled with heretics in disguise.  
St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15, para 9.

And what rough beast, it's hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
WB Yeats, 'The Second Coming'.

Gardener

You can only do what you can do. And sometimes, if you can do it, maybe shouldn't so you aren't crippled for days afterward.

We gain more by kneeling minds than we lose by sitting knees.
"If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

Philip G.

I usually kneel, but sometimes I stand.  They both work.  And, it may be the case that I need both. 
For the stone shall cry out of the wall; and the timber that is between the joints of the building, shall answer.  Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and prepareth a city by iniquity. - Habacuc 2,11-12

Xavier

Kneeling is very good if it is possible, it is an external sign of reverence, and helps us have an attitude of loving surrender toward God, our Father and King, or Mary, our Mother and Queen; but if infirmity or other difficulty prevents us, we can say it sitting down or even in some other posture, with reverence internally. This is what St. Montfort recommends: "I WOULD like to add that the Rosary ought to be said reverently----that is to say it ought to be said, as far as possible, kneeling, with the hands joined and clasping the Rosary. However, if people are ill they can of course say it in bed or if they are traveling it can be said on foot----and if infirmity prevents people kneeling it can be said seated or standing." http://www.catholictradition.org/Classics/secret-rosary45.htm

Another great position imo to take before God in prayer is prostration on the ground, as is common in the East, at least, for e.g., at every Glory Be. "We see this prostration, kneeling and adoring over and over again.  Before Jesus ascends into heaven in Matthew 28 the apostles fall in adoration before him.  The Magi prostrate before the baby King Jesus. The Samaritan who was healed from leprosy prostrates before Jesus in gratitude and recognizing that only Jesus being God could have healed him.  St. Paul shows us how to pray in Acts of the Apostles 20:36 "And when he had said these things, he knelt on his knees and he prayed,".   This is when St. Paul is leaving his beloved disciples." http://www.traditionalcatholicpriest.com/2013/06/16/traditional-kneeling-and-prostrating-before-jesus/

Anyway, the most important thing is to have reverence in our hearts for God. Offer to our Blessed Mother, Heinrich, your desire to kneel before Her if it were possible. Then pray as best you can. God does not ask the impossible, but praying on our knees has its special reward: "Our Lady also said to Blessed Alan: "I want you to know that, although there are numerous indulgences already attached to the recitation of my Rosary, I shall add many more to every fifty Hail Marys (each group of five decades) for those who say them devoutly, on their knees----being, of course, free from mortal sin. And whosoever shall persevere in the devotion of the Holy Rosary, saying these prayers and meditations, shall be rewarded for it; I shall obtain for him full remission of the penalty and of the guilt of all his sins at the end of his life. Do not be unbelieving, as though this is impossible. It is easy for me to do because I am the Mother of the King of Heaven, and He calls me full of grace. And, being full of grace, I am able to dispense grace freely to my dear children." (28th rose)
Bible verses on walking blamelessly with God, after being forgiven from our former sins. Some verses here: https://dailyverses.net/blameless

"[2] He that walketh without blemish, and worketh justice:[3] He that speaketh truth in his heart, who hath not used deceit in his tongue: Nor hath done evil to his neighbour: nor taken up a reproach against his neighbours.(Psalm 14)

"[2] For in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man."(James 3)

"[14] And do ye all things without murmurings and hesitations; [15] That you may be blameless, and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you shine as lights in the world." (Phil 2:14-15)

Stubborn

Quote from: Heinrich on February 13, 2019, 09:24:39 PM
Question: do I lose efficacy in prayer by not kneeling?

No. Pray while laying down, sitting, standing, walking and doing chores if you can, but pray brother pray! Kneeling is adding penance to prayer and is of course a very good thing to do, but kneeling does not necessarily add to the prayer's efficacy. In fact in your case, it sounds as if you may well lose efficacy in prayer while kneeling -  if your pain is such that it is a distraction.   
Even after a long life of sin, if the Christian receives the Sacrament of the dying with the appropriate dispositions, he will go straight to heaven without having to go to purgatory. - Fr. M. Philipon; This sacrament prepares man for glory immediately, since it is given to those who are departing from this life. - St. Thomas Aquinas; It washes away the sins that remain to be atoned, and the vestiges of sin; it comforts and strengthens the soul of the sick person, arousing in him a great trust and confidence in the divine mercy. Thus strengthened, he bears the hardships and struggles of his illness more easily and resists the temptation of the devil and the heel of the deceiver more readily; and if it be advantageous to the welfare of his soul, he sometimes regains his bodily health. - Council of Trent

Lynne

I'm in the same situation, my left knee too, and so I do not kneel when praying the rosary, even at church, although, once again like you, I may be able to get 2 decades done on my knees at church.
In conclusion, I can leave you with no better advice than that given after every sermon by Msgr Vincent Giammarino, who was pastor of St Michael's Church in Atlantic City in the 1950s:

    "My dear good people: Do what you have to do, When you're supposed to do it, The best way you can do it,   For the Love of God. Amen"

martin88nyc

Due to my own illness I usually pray lying face down or on my back. I think the most important thing is your intention, devotion and willingness. Of course if you can kneel it is even better but there is no set of rules for this particular matter.
"These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Jmartyr

Lower the weight and up the reps.
"If anyone is excommunicated it is not I, but the excommunicators." - Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
" A false church cannot have a true mission." - St. Francis De Sales
" The way is open for us to deprive councils of their authority, contradict their acts freely, and profess confidently, whatever SEEMS to be true. " - Martin Luther

Michael Wilson

I've got bursitis in both my knees, so I can't kneel for very long in either one. I just hope I don't get it in my behind from sitting so much during my prayers.  :laugh:
"The World Must Conform to Our Lord and not He to it." Rev. Dennis Fahey CSSP

"My brothers, all of you, if you are condemned to see the triumph of evil, never applaud it. Never say to evil: you are good; to decadence: you are progess; to death: you are life. Sanctify yourselves in the times wherein God has placed you; bewail the evils and the disorders which God tolerates; oppose them with the energy of your works and your efforts, your life uncontaminated by error, free from being led astray, in such a way that having lived here below, united with the Spirit of the Lord, you will be admitted to be made but one with Him forever and ever: But he who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit." Cardinal Pie of Potiers

Stubborn

The whole video is good but for this thread, just listen from about 6:30 then for only about one minute. I think it should start at 6:30 if I did it right.

[yt]https://youtu.be/VF6jK8_Pr7I?t=390[/yt]
Even after a long life of sin, if the Christian receives the Sacrament of the dying with the appropriate dispositions, he will go straight to heaven without having to go to purgatory. - Fr. M. Philipon; This sacrament prepares man for glory immediately, since it is given to those who are departing from this life. - St. Thomas Aquinas; It washes away the sins that remain to be atoned, and the vestiges of sin; it comforts and strengthens the soul of the sick person, arousing in him a great trust and confidence in the divine mercy. Thus strengthened, he bears the hardships and struggles of his illness more easily and resists the temptation of the devil and the heel of the deceiver more readily; and if it be advantageous to the welfare of his soul, he sometimes regains his bodily health. - Council of Trent

Heinrich

Schaff Recht mir Gott und führe meine Sache gegen ein unheiliges Volk . . .   .                          
Lex Orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
"Die Welt sucht nach Ehre, Ansehen, Reichtum, Vergnügen; die Heiligen aber suchen Demütigung, Verachtung, Armut, Abtötung und Buße." --Ausschnitt von der Geschichte des Lebens St. Bennos.

Jmartyr

"If anyone is excommunicated it is not I, but the excommunicators." - Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
" A false church cannot have a true mission." - St. Francis De Sales
" The way is open for us to deprive councils of their authority, contradict their acts freely, and profess confidently, whatever SEEMS to be true. " - Martin Luther