IMAGES OF JOINING HANDS FOR PRAYER FULL
In the hour of His triumphant ascension, Jesus spreads out His hands in a farewell gesture and a last blessing, by which He, as it were, empties His hands so full of heavenly gifts: "And, lifting up His hands, He blessed them" (Luke, xxiv. He likewise appeals to His own people who remain deaf to His calling: "All the day long have I spread My hands to a people that believeth not and contradicteth Me" (Rom., x. During three long hours He prays and pleads with His heavenly Father, with arms extended as a suppliant. The attitude of our divine Redeemer upon the Cross is an invitation to all men to come unto Him. The Apostles and early Christians prayed with outstretched arms and uplifted hands, thus reproducing the attitude of the divine Mediator who, with arms stretched out wide, offered Himself in our behalf upon the tree of the Cross. For your hands are full of blood" (Is., i. Isaias declares in the name of God that the Lord is weary of Israel's prayers: "And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away My eyes from you: and when you multiply prayers, I will not hear. cxxxiii, they that stand in the house of the Lord are exhorted to lift their hands towards the holy place: "In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless ye the Lord." Again, the lifting up of the hands is considered to be in itself a sacrifice: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight: the lifting up of my hands as evening sacrifice" (Ps. In the Psalms we come across innumerable exhortations to lift our hands to God in prayer. In this incident the lifting up of the hands, or rather arms of Moses, is identified with his prayer, and the dropping of the arms from sheer fatigue is taken as a cessation from prayer. And it came to pass that his hands were not weary until sunset" (Exod., xviii. And Moses' hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put under him, and he sat on it and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides.
The first example that occurs to the mind is the incident related in Exodus, when Josue fought against Amalec, while Moses stood on top of the hill with Aaron and Hur: "And when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel overcame: but, if he let them down a little, Amalec overcame. The Jews were wont to pray in the same manner. Virgil also bears witness to this when he relates how Aeneas beheld the gods of Troy in a dream: at onceĬorripio e stratis corpus tendoque supinasĪd caelum cum voce manus. When favors or help were asked, the Greeks and Romans not only extended, or raised their arms and hands, but held up the palm of the hand, as beggars hold out their hand when an alms is given them. "Vos, Aeterni ignes, et non violabile vestrum Sustulit exutas vinclis ad sidera palmas: Thus Virgil, to quote only one, relates how the traitorous Sinon lifted his hands towards heaven after they had been freed from the cords with which he had been bound: There are innumerable allusions to this practice in the Classical writers of Greece and Rome. There is one gesture which we find in the oldest religions, as well as among the Jews and early Christians, namely, that of extending the arms and of lifting the hands towards heaven, or towards the divinity to which supplication was made. For that reason gestures play a very important role in our religious functions and, because in the course of time all ceremonies have a tendency to become rigid and formal, not to say conventional, we must know their origin and meaning, so that they should never degenerate into a soulless mummery. The Liturgy of the Church neglects none of those things which may be of assistance in our worship of God. We have but to watch ourselves attentively, and we shall soon find by personal experience that any strong feeling or emotion tends to reveal itself by some outward action or gesture. At times the gestures of an Italian, or an Oriental, are so expressive or descriptive of that which forms the subject of conversation, that a deaf man should not find it impossible to guess at that which is being discussed by watching the gesticulations of the interlocutors. Now, if even the more stolid Northerner frequently accompanies his speech with gestures of hands and arms and other movements of the body, such dramatic actions are far more commonly witnessed in the South.
The natives of these countries are, broadly speaking, more lively and demonstrative than the inhabitants of our colder northern latitudes. The Liturgy of the Catholic Church was formed in the East and in the southern countries of Europe. Shop: Roman Catholic "RC" Brand Original White Logo Collection Premium Tee | Multiple colors and sizes available!
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