The Office of Divine Worship of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon (United States), has asked the lay faithful not to extend their hands or hold hands during the Our Father at Mass. The instruction appears in the November issue of the archdiocese’s Divine Worship bulletin, in a section titled “Orans Posture During Mass,” shared this November on the archdiocese’s official X account.
The central argument is based on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM). According to the bulletin, number 152 of that document indicates that it is the priest who should extend his hands while praying the Lord’s Prayer, so that if deacons or the laity were to do the same, they would be “adding” something to the liturgy. The Office concludes that “the practice of the lay faithful extending their hands (or holding hands) during the Our Father should not be done.”
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy as the basis
To support this conclusion, the bulletin cites the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Second Vatican Council, which in number 22.3 states that “no one else, even if he is a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own initiative.” From this, the Office reasons that if the liturgical norm expressly reserves this gesture to the priest, the others present may not adopt it on their own, however pious the intention may be.
The text further specifies that the orans posture is “a liturgical posture proper to the priest” and that neither the deacons assisting at Mass nor the lay faithful are ever instructed to adopt it. According to the bulletin, this rule is linked to canon 907 of the Code of Canon Law, which prevents deacons and the laity from performing actions proper to the celebrating priest, and to the practice prior to the 1970 Missal, in which only the priest recited the Our Father with hands extended.
An ancient posture with its own meaning
The document recalls that the orans posture is ancient and appears both in Scripture—for example, in the figure of Moses with arms raised in the Book of Exodus—and in the art of the early Christians. However, it emphasizes that its use in the Mass belongs to the priest, who prays on behalf of the people. The Office acknowledges that the GIRM does not explicitly prohibit the laity from adopting this posture, but maintains that its indications regarding the gesture are directed solely to the celebrant.
The bulletin adds that the liturgy is generally quite uniform, although there has been confusion among the faithful regarding these gestures. With this clarification, the archdiocese aims to provide a common criterion for the parishes in its territory.
The full text can be consulted on the Archdiocese of Portland’s website.