Ad orientem

''Ad orientem'', meaning "to the east" in Ecclesiastical Latin, is a phrase used to describe the eastward orientation of Christian prayer and Christian worship, comprising the preposition ''ad'' (toward) and ''oriens'' (rising, sunrise, east), participle of ''orior'' (to rise).Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary'': "orior''
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''Ad orientem'' has been used to describe the eastward direction of prayer that the early Christians faced when praying, a practice that continues in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox churches, Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Assyrian Church of the East, as well as the Eastern Catholic and Eastern Lutheran churches. It was normative in the Roman Catholic Church until the 1960s, with the current exception of the Tridentine Mass; many Lutheran and Anglican churches continue to offer the Divine Service ''ad orientem''. Although the Second Vatican Council never ordered any change from ad orientem to versus populum, in the aftermath of the Council, such a change was widespread in many places afterward and became the norm, though ad orientem was never forbidden, and indeed the Pauline Missal presumes the Mass is said ad orientem in its rubrics. In the celebration of the Mass, it indicates that the priestly celebrant faces the altar with his back to the congregants, so they all face the same direction, as opposed to '' versus populum'', facing the people.

Since the time of the early Church, the eastward direction of Christian prayer has carried a strong significance, attested by the writings of the Church Fathers. In the 2nd century, Syrian Christians hung a Christian cross on the eastern wall of their house, symbolizing "their souls facing God, talking with him, and sharing their spirituality with the Lord." Two centuries later, Saint Basil the Great declared that "facing the east to pray was among the oldest unwritten laws of the Church". Nearly all Christian apologetic tracts published in the 7th century in the Syriac and Arabic languages explicated the reason that Christians prayed facing the east is because "the Garden of Eden was planted in the east () and that at the end of time, at the second coming, the Messiah would approach Jerusalem from the east."

Parishes of the Coptic Church, a denomination of Oriental Orthodox Christianity, are designed to face east and efforts are made to remodel churches obtained from other Christian denominations that are not built in this fashion.

Christian prayer facing east

In the time of the early Church, the eastward direction of Christian prayer was the standard and carried a strong significance, attested by the writings of the Church Fathers.

Origins of the practice

The eastward direction of prayer among early Christians is a custom inherited from the Jews. At the time of the formation of Christianity, Jews commonly prayed not only towards the Temple of Solomon, where the "presence of the transcendent God (''shekinah'') esidedin the Holy of Holies of the Temple", but also toward the east, although to what extent this practice was widespread is disputed. After the Temple was destroyed, synagogical liturgy continued the practice of praying in that direction, "inseparably bound up with the messianic expectation of Israel." It was the practice, Paul F. Bradshaw says, of the Jewish sects of the Essenes and the Therapeutae, for whom "the eastward prayer had acquired an eschatological dimension, the 'fine bright day' for which the Therapeutae prayed being apparently the messianic age and the Essene prayer towards the sun 'as though beseeching him to rise' being a petition for the coming of the priestly Messiah." Eventually, a "process of mutual stimulus and disaffection" between Jews and early Christians seems to have brought about the end of Jewish prayer towards the east, and Christian prayer towards Jerusalem. The Islamic practice of praying initially towards Jerusalem, as well as the concept of praying in a certain direction, is derived from the Jewish practice, which was ubiquitous among the Jewish communities of Syria, Palestine, Yathrib and Yemen.

Additionally, the Christian custom of praying towards the east may have roots in the practice of the earliest Christians in Jerusalem of praying towards the Mount of Olives, to the east of the city, which they saw as the locus of key eschatological events and especially of the awaited Second Coming of Christ. Although the localization of the Second Coming on the Mount of Olives was abandoned after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the eastward direction of Christian prayer was retained and became general throughout Christendom.

Early Christianity

Early Christians, who were largely persecuted, usually worshipped in house churches, and the Eucharist was never exposed to non-Christians. The church-hall, according to the evidence found at Dura-Europos, was oblong, with the people facing the eastern wall, where there was a platform where the table-altar of the Eucharist was offered by the presbyter/priest, who also apparently faced east. Images of biblical scenes and figures, including that of Christ, adorned the walls, including the eastern wall. In the 2nd century, Syrian Christians indicated the direction in which to pray by placing a cross on the eastern wall of their house or church, a direction that symbolized "their souls facing God, talking with him, and sharing their spirituality with the Lord." Believers turned towards it to pray at fixed prayer times, such as in the morning, evening and other parts of the day; this practice continues among some Christians today, along with the related custom of Christian families erecting their home altar or icon corner on the east wall of their dwellings.

Among the early Church Fathers, Tertullian used the equivalent phrase ''ad orientis regionem'' (to the region of the east) in his '' Apologeticus'' (AD 197)."Inde suspicio olem credere deum nostrum quod innotuerit nos ''ad orientis regionem'' precari"
Tertulliani Apologeticum, XVI, 9
; translation: "The idea hat the sun is our godhas no doubt originated from our being known to turn to the east in prayer"
Tertullian, Apology, chapter XVI
. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215) says: "Since the dawn is an image of the day of birth, and from that point the light which has shone forth at first from the darkness increases, there has also dawned on those involved in darkness a day of the knowledge of truth. In correspondence with the manner of the sun's rising, prayers are made looking towards the sunrise in the east." Origen (c. 185 – 253) says: "The fact that ..of all the quarters of the heavens, the east is the only direction we turn to when we pour out prayer, the reasons for this, I think, are not easily discovered by anyone." Origen "firmly rejects the argument that if a house has a fine view in a different direction, one should face that way rather than towards the east.""quod ex omnibus coeli plagis ad solam orientis partem conversi orationem fundimus, non facile cuiquam puto ratione compertum"
''Origenis in Numeros homiliae'', Homilia V, 1translation
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In the fourth century, Saint Basil the Great declared that one of the many beliefs and practices that Christians derived not from written teaching but by the tradition of the apostles was to turn to the East when praying. Using the phrase ''ad orientem'', Augustine of Hippo mentioned the practice at the end of the fourth century.

Syriac and Arabic Christian apologetics of the 7th century explained that Christians prayed facing east because "the Garden of Eden was planted in the east () and that at the end of time, at the second coming, the Messiah would approach Jerusalem from the east." Saint John of Damascus taught that believers pray facing east because it "reminds Christians of their need to long for and strive for the paradise that God intended for them" and because "Christians affirm their faith in Christ as the Light of the world" by praying in the direction of sunrise.

Later ecclesiastics

In the ninth century, Saint John of Damascus, a Doctor of the Church, wrote:

Timothy I, an eighth-century patriarch of the Church of the East declared:

Moses Bar-Kepha, a ninth-century bishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church called praying towards the east one of the mysteries of the Church.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, described the eastward orientation as linked with the "cosmic sign of the rising sun which symbolizes the universality of God." He also states in the same book (The Spirit of the Liturgy) that:

Present-day practice

Members of Oriental Orthodox Churches, such as those belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Coptic Orthodox Church, as well as Oriental Protestant Churches such as the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, pray privately in their homes in the eastward direction of prayer at seven fixed prayer times; when a priest visits a home, he asks the family where the east is before leading them in prayer. Indian Christians and Coptic Christians in these traditions, for example, pray daily in private the canonical hours contained in the Shehimo and Agpeya, respectively (a practice done at fixed prayer times seven instances a day) facing the eastward direction.

Eastern Orthodox Christians, as well as members of the Church of the East, also face east when praying.

Members of the Pentecostal Apostolic Faith Mission continue to pray facing east, believing that it "is the direction from which Jesus Christ will come when he returns".

Liturgical orientation

The Ecclesiastical Latin phrase ''ad orientem'' is commonly used today to describe a particular posture of a priest in Christian liturgy: facing away from the people towards the