Editing Genuflection (section)

=== In front of the Blessed Sacrament ===
Genuflection is a sign of reverence to the Blessed Sacrament. Its purpose is to allow the worshipper to engage his whole person in acknowledging the presence of and to honor Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stmarysgloucestercity.org/genuflection|title=St Mary's Roman Catholic Church|website=www.stmarysgloucestercity.org|access-date=3 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017150213/http://www.stmarysgloucestercity.org/genuflection|archive-date=17 October 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> It is customary to genuflect whenever one comes into or leaves the presence of the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the Tabernacle. "This venerable practice of genuflecting before the Blessed Sacrament, whether enclosed in the tabernacle or publicly exposed, as a sign of adoration, ...requires that it be performed in a recollected way. In order that the heart may bow before God in profound reverence, the genuflection must be neither hurried nor careless."<ref>[https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2INAES.HTM "Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship", ''Inaestimable donum'', §26, 17 April 1980]</ref>

Genuflection to the [[Blessed Sacrament]], the consecrated [[Eucharist]], especially when arriving or leaving its presence, is a practice in [[Anglicanism]],<ref name=Allen>{{cite book|last=Allen|first=John|title=Desmond Tutu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d3P9AAItwS0C&q=genuflecting+Anglican&pg=PA87|access-date=8 November 2012|date=1 September 2008|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=978-1556527982|quote=Devout "high church" Anglicans genuflect as they pass the reserved sacrament.}}</ref> the [[Latin Church]] of the [[Catholic Church]],<ref name=Ingram>{{cite book|last1=Ingram |first1=Kristen Johnson |last2=Johnson|first2=Kristin J |title=Beyond Words|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsOehcciTHkC&pg=PA27|access-date=8 November 2012|year=2004|publisher=Church Publishing, Inc.|isbn=0819219738|page=27}}</ref> [[Lutheranism]],<ref name=Armstrong>{{cite book|last1=Armstrong|first1=John H.|last2=Eagle |first2=Paul E.|title=Understanding Four Views on the Lord's Supper |date=26 May 2009|publisher=Zondervan|isbn=978-0310542759|quote=Lutherans worship Christ wherever he is, including the sacraments, and thus Luther genuflected before the baptismal font and the sacrament.}}<!--|access-date=8 November 2012--></ref> and [[Western Rite Orthodoxy]].<ref name=SMPC>{{cite web|url=http://www.westernorthodox.com/stmark/customs|title=Customs - Western Orthodox|publisher=Saint Mark's Parish Church|language=en|access-date=29 March 2015|quote=To 'genuflect' (kneel down briefly and then arise) is the Western Orthodox way of venerating the sacrament or the altar. To take your place in church, walk quietly down the center aisle, and then genuflect before moving to the left or right into the pew. The same is done when leaving the pew, either to go up to communion or to leave after the service is over. The clergy and faithful also genuflect or bow when passing by the vessel in which the blessed sacrament is reserved. Another time to genuflect is at these words of the creed: 'Who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.'|archive-date=25 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225044709/http://www.westernorthodox.com/stmark/customs|url-status=dead}}</ref> It is a comparatively modern replacement for the profound bow of head and body that remains the supreme act of liturgical reverence in the East.<ref name=CE>Bergh, Frederick Thomas. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06423a.htm "Genuflexion"]. ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 7 October 2016.</ref> Since in many Anglican, Roman Catholic and Western Orthodox Churches the Blessed Sacrament is normally present behind the altar, genuflection is usual when arriving or passing in front of the altar at the communion rail.

Only during the later Middle Ages, centuries after it had become customary to genuflect to persons in authority such as bishops, was genuflection to the Blessed Sacrament introduced. The practice gradually spread and became viewed as obligatory only from the end of the fifteenth century, receiving formal recognition in 1502. The raising of the consecrated Host and Chalice after the Consecration in order to show them to the people was for long unaccompanied by obligatory genuflections.<ref name=CE/>

The requirement that genuflection take place on both knees before the Blessed Sacrament when it is unveiled as at Expositions (but not when it is lying on the [[corporal (liturgy)|corporal]] during Mass)<ref name=CE/> was altered in 1973 with introduction of the following rule: "Genuflection in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, whether reserved in the [[church tabernacle|tabernacle]] or exposed for public adoration, is on one knee."<ref>''De Sacra Communione et de Cultu Mysterii Eucharistici extra Missam'', 84</ref> "Since a genuflection is, per se, an act of adoration, the general liturgical norms no longer make any distinction between the mode of adoring Christ reserved in the tabernacle or exposed upon the altar. The simple single genuflection on one knee may be used in all cases."<ref name=zenit/> However, in some countries the [[episcopal conference]] has chosen to retain the double genuflection to the Blessed Sacrament, which is performed by kneeling briefly on both knees and reverently bowing the head with hands joined.<ref name=zenit>{{cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur92.htm|title=Tabernacles, Adoration and Double Genuflections|work=ZENIT Daily Dispatch |date=26 July 2005 |first1=Edward |last1=McNamara |publisher=EWTN |access-date=3 March 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190114044554/http://www.ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur92.htm |archive-date= Jan 14, 2019 }}</ref>

As a result of the custom of genuflecting to the sacrament, it is customary in some countries, Germany for example, for people attending mass to genuflect before entering their pew during mass and when leaving it. Though the sacrament in its tabernacle is the "recipient" of this sign of respect, it is almost invariably performed in the direction of the (high) altar, and the crucifix above or behind it as being the most easily recognisable landmark in any church (it is also almost always in close proximity to the tabernacle).