Incarnátes Est

Priest kneels, in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, during the Creed while saying the words:
“Et incarnátes est de Spíritu Sancto ex María Virgine, et homo factus est.”

“Et incarnátes est de Spíritu Sancto ex María Virgine, et homo factus est.” These words are taken from the Nicene Creed in Latin and they are translated (in the new english translation of the Mass) – “By the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

Do we realise fully what we are saying when we recite these words. We are affirming our belief in the fact that God, for our sake, humbled himself to the point that he actually came down from heaven and became a man so that he could save us. Can you imagine the Queen of England coming out of her palace and spending the next 33 years sleeping on the streets with all the homeless people in England? Well that is absolutely nothing compared to the fact that God did in fact come down from heaven and did become a man for our sakes.

The rubric of the Roman Missal requires that Catholics should bow in reverence and acknowledgement of what God did for us, while we are saying these words. Sadly, I see very few Catholics who do so today, although it may be that I don’t notice, because I myself am bowed over, looking at the floor, during the recitation of these words.

Some Catholics will be aware that the rubrics, in what is now known as the extraordinary form of the Mass, required that Catholics should kneel down while saying these words. I would not be averse to this practice being implemented again. I think we all need far greater humility in the current worldly environment where reverence and love for God is almost non-existent today.

We should all begin, at the next Mass we hear, to set the example of following the rubrics and bowing deeply while we recite these words.