Turn East, Young Man

When I was dating my now-wife, she attended a parish whose priest decided to begin celebrating Mass ad orientem, meaning that for much of the Eucharistic Rite he faced away from Mass attendees and toward the high altar. (The church, built in the 1920s, was in the traditional cruciform shape and had such an altar.) Having only returned to the Catholic Church of my youth less than two years before, I suppose I was more open than some to this. One Sunday, the priest explained to parishioners why he was doing it, and it made sense to me.