What differences are there between kneeling and making a genuflection?

Fr. Juan José Silvestre, a liturgist of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarra, defends the genuflection (support the right knee on the ground) as an “expression of an incarnate and conscious faith” and remember that this gesture is different from what is done when praying of knees.

“It is one thing to pray on the knees during the consecration, for example, and another is the genuflection, which is a sign of worship or veneration to the Eucharist,” details the priest, a doctor in Sacred Liturgy, in statements to ACI Press.

“Genuphlection implies the right knee Earth, while in the consecration we are with both knees on the ground,” he adds.

Prayer of knees in the Bible

Fr. Silvestre confirms how this practice is based in the Bible: “Its most remote origin is that prayer of knees that we find in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.”

In this sense, it puts examples such as Jesus “in prayer in the garden of Los Olivos”, in which “Saint Luke tells us that the Lord prayed kneeling”, or that of St. Esteban in the Acts of the Apostles, who “before being martyred, is also praying of knees.”

In any case, he ensures that this reverential gesture in the origins of Christianity was more attached to a “certain penitential character” (that is, of recognition of sin, repentance and desire for conversion). Therefore, in the first centuries, Christians “on Sundays did not kneel because it is not a day of request for forgiveness.”

In medieval feudal regimes, it was a practice of veneration to power

However, over time the gesture was acquiring a new nuance and, from the eleventh century, the genuflection “is linked to a manifestation of veneration and respect.” The expert appreciates how this practice in the Middle Ages had its origin in the veneration before the feudal lord, the king or the emperor, but then transferred “to that worship to the Eucharist.”

In this sense, the liturgist stressed how, in spiritual development, genuflection is linked to a deepening in the faith that is based on “the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.” “Jesus is present with his body and his blood, so before his soul and divinity this gesture of worship is linked,” he says.

Genuflection only with the right knee

In fact, genuflection is defined in the Missal, the liturgical book that contains the prayers, readings and rubrics for the celebration of the Eucharist, according to the Roman rite.

Thus, he clearly explains how the genuflection “is done bending the right knee to the earth, which means worship.” And he adds: “That genuflection was done in the feudal regime with the left knee. Therefore, we do it with the right knee.”

This gesture is reserved for specific moments: “For the worship of the Blessed Sacrament or the Holy Cross, or the solemn worship of Good Friday until the beginning of the Easter vigil.”

The priest explains that the Roman misal details the three genuflections that the priest must do in the Eucharistic celebration: “After showing us the body of Christ, after showing us the chalice with the blood of Christ and before the ‘This is the Lamb of God’.” In addition, if the tabernacle is in the presbytery, “he arrives at the presbytery and another when leaving the presbytery, at the beginning and end of the celebration.”

For this reason, the faithful are also called to do the same: “When they arrive and pass in front of the tabernacle, they also do genuflection. That is, when one passes in front of the place of the Eucharistic reserve, the sign of veneration, of worship, is that sign of genuflection.”

Finally, it makes it clear that the misal also indicates that, during the consecration, the faithful must be on the knees, if there are no circumstances of force majeure that prevent it as the health conditions or that the place is “very narrow” or there is a “large number of attendees.”