09/03/2026
When you came into church today, you may have had to take a double look: why is the pulpit (ambo) on the other side of the sanctuary? And why is Father sitting on the other side? Well, there’s a very important reason for this, as well as some practical reasons for this switch, and I wanted to use this week’s bulletin column to explain this change. This is not so much a change, as much as it is a restoration.
The pulpit or ambo is designated as the place where the Word of God is proclaimed during the Mass, and where the Word is opened for us through preaching in the homily. As a piece of liturgical furniture, it is meant to be noble and in a worthy place. Traditionally, the pulpit was placed on the north side of the sanctuary. In the Traditional Latin Mass (both of the Roman and Dominican rites), this corresponded to the side of the altar popularly called “the Gospel side,” since the Gospel would be read from that side of the altar during Mass, while the priest would preach his homily from the nearby pulpit. There was also symbolism in placing the pulpit on the north side of the sanctuary in the Roman liturgy: from Rome, the north was seen as the land of the pagan barbarians, who needed to hear the Gospel, lest they invade the Eternal City. And so, the priest would literally preach to the north in order to evangelize the pagans, at least symbolically. Thus, we would face east (the direction of Christ’s return in glory) for offering sacrifice at the altar, while the Gospel would be preached toward the north.
I never would have thought about moving the pulpit, until a conversation last summer when we were rehearsing for the Solemn High Mass in the Dominican Rite for the Feast of St. Dominic. During the rehearsal, it came to my attention that the pulpit and the sedilia (the priest’s chair) were reversed from what the rubrics envisioned. While the rubrics of the Novus Ordo Mass can accommodate the placement of the pulpit on either side of the sanctuary, the rubrics of the Dominican Rite are very specific about the placement of the pulpit and the sedilia. After this conversation, I started to explore whether it would be appropriate (and feasible) to reverse the placement of the pulpit and the sedilia in the sanctuary. I also delved into the history of our sanctuary and liturgical furnishing.
At St. Patrick’s, the current pulpit was installed following the 1935 fire, and was designed to be placed on the north side of the sanctuary. This is evident from the position of the hand railing on the pulpit: the railing is positioned on the “open side” of the steps, while the side without a railing is meant to be placed against the wall. I looked at various photos of the sanctuary, and for most of the church’s history over the last 90 years, it was placed on the north side of the sanctuary. The last photo to indicate this is from the 1993 parish directory, while a photo from 1999 places it on the south side of the sanctuary, where it has been ever since. I talked to some friars who were here at the time about this move, and apparently it was due to the installation of the sound system in the 1990s. The sound equipment was mistakenly placed on the south side of the sanctuary, and the parish had no choice but to move the pulpit to the south side in order to avoid unnecessary costs, though the move was never intended.
Thirty years later, we have a different sound system in the church, which isn’t affected by the placement of the pulpit (the microphone simply had to be unplugged from the jack on the south side, and re-plugged in on the north side!). Moreover, we are preparing for a different technical improvement before the year’s end: not the sound system, but the new church lighting! Now seemed the opportune time to restore the pulpit back to its original placement on the north side of the sanctuary, as the new lighting will be positioned to illuminate properly both the pulpit and the sedilia. We’re also making this switch during the time of the new altar boy trainings and refresher courses. While only seven friars in the priory will have to get used to a slight adjustment in the sanctuary, there are nearly 80 altar boys who will need to re-learn what they have been trained to do in order to make our parish liturgies reverent and beautiful (especially during the Gospel Procession). I had a discussion about this with our Altar Boy Deans over the summer, and we talked through some of the adjustments we would need to make. One Dean suggested that it would be best to make the change before the refresher course, instead of changing it for all the altar boys to re-learn at another time of the year. I agreed, which is also part of the reason for making this move now. Additionally, this change is being made with the permission of the Office of Divine Worship of the Diocese of Columbus, which must approve any significant changes to the worship space of parish churches.
If you’ve been used to sitting on the south side of the church so that the pulpit is right in front of you (or if you usually sit on the north side because you don’t like having it right in front of you!), this change may be a bit jarring. If you need to switch your regular seats during Mass, I encourage you to do so. But I also encourage everyone to see this as a restoration of a piece of our church architecture, as we place the pulpit where it was intended to be. With this move, our sanctuary will now be properly ordered for future celebrations of Dominican Rite Masses. And considering the ancient symbolism of preaching toward the pagans from the north (and no, I’m not referring to “the state up north!”), such a sign is so important in our own day and age. We are faced with new forms of paganism, from the threats of secularism, to anti-Catholic and anti-religious sentiment within our culture. May the preaching of the Gospel toward the north, in keeping with the long-standing tradition of the church, remind us of the need to evangelize the world, which so desperately longs to hear the Word of Truth spoken by Jesus Christ in the Gospels!
God bless you,
Fr. Paul, O.P.
