‘Every knee should bend’: Australian Archbishop Fisher urges kneeling for the Eucharist

SYDNEY (LifeSiteNews) — Australian Archbishop Anthony Fisher, O.P., has issued a pastoral letter for the Feast of Corpus Christi calling the faithful of his diocese to renewed Eucharistic adoration and reverent kneeling in worship.

On June 3, The Catholic Weekly published a pastoral letter entitled “Adoring the Eucharistic Lord: ‘Let us kneel before the God who made us,’” issued by Fisher, archbishop of Sydney, Australia, for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The letter was addressed to priests, religious, and lay faithful of the archdiocese, and forms part of preparations for the International Eucharistic Congress scheduled to take place in Sydney in 2028.

“Of these physical postures, kneeling most clearly reveals what we believe about God and our relationship to Him,” the archbishop writes. “We are also called to make a sign of reverence before we receive Holy Communion at Mass. In most cases this reverence is shown by bowing deeply, however many people choose to genuflect, or even to receive Communion kneeling. This is a perfectly valid option envisaged in the current Missal. Kneeling was the default position of receiving Holy Communion in the Latin Church for many centuries.”

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The archbishop’s letter develops a theological account of divine self-gift, arguing that God communicates love, life, and truth to believers through sacramental participation, culminating in the Eucharist as the privileged mode of communion. The text further emphasizes the Incarnation as the basis for sacramental life, stating that Christ assumed human nature, “joining in every aspect of our human bodily lives except sin,” and that grace is conveyed through the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist.

A central portion of the letter focuses on reverence in liturgy, especially kneeling as a visible expression of worship. “Altar rails, which still exist in many of our churches, are a reminder of this reverent custom,” the archbishop wrote. “In the Tantum Ergo, sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that where our senses and intellects fail before so great a mystery, our faith and very bodies must supply by bending our knees.”

“Some people think kneeling is degrading, the grovelling of a slave, a sign of desperation, penitence, even self-hatred. They regard it as unbecoming children of God or inconsistent with the modern sensibility to bow to no one. Perhaps on this basis kneelers were removed from pews and confessionals in some churches, and people even instructed not to kneel,” the archbishop suggests.

For this reason, Fisher further situates kneeling within biblical tradition, citing examples from the Old and New Testaments. He references figures such as Moses (Ex 3:1–6), Solomon (1 Kings 8:54; 2 Chr 6:13), Daniel (Dan 6:11), Psalms (Ps 95:6), and the Magi as instances of bodily reverence before God (Mt 2:11). In the New Testament, the prelate cites episodes of supplication and worship before Christ, including healing miracles and acts of thanksgiving (Mt 15:30; Mk 1:40, 5:22, 5:33, 7:25; Lk 8:41, 17:16; Jn 11:32; Acts 9:40). The letter also quotes St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil 2:10).

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A key passage from the Gospel accounts is used to connect Eucharistic worship with Christ’s own prayer in Gethsemane, in Luke 22:41, where Jesus is described as kneeling in prayer before His Passion. The letter presents this as a model for Eucharistic adoration, encouraging periods of silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

“On the Night before He Suffered, Jesus modelled a Eucharistic kneeling when He knelt to wash His disciples’ feet, and having given us His all in the Eucharist, He went out into the darkness to pray, kneeling in anguish and asking His disciples to watch one hour with Him. When we make a holy hour praying before the Blessed Sacrament, or at least a few holy minutes, we might kneel at least for part of the time, as a Gospel expression of thanksgiving and trust, adoration and awe, penitence and need, sheer companionship with Jesus,” the archbishop wrote.

In the conclusion of his letter, Fisher asked his parish clergy “to restore kneelers in every church where they are missing” and “to teach the faithful the appropriate postures as set out in the rubrics of the liturgy and encourage them to adopt them in worship and in private prayer so that our bodies support and express our hearts in their acts of devotion.”