GENUFLEXION (ML. genuflexio, from Lat. genuflectere, to bend the knee, from genii, knee + flectere, to bend). The act of kneeling or bending the knees in worship. As an act of adoration, or reverence, there are frequent allusions to genuflexion in the Old and in the New Testa ments; as Gen. xvii. 3, 17; Num. xvi. 22; Luke xxii. 41; Acts vii. 60; ix. 40; Phil. ii. 10. That the use continued among the early Chris tians is plain from the Shepherd of Hermas, from Eusebius's History, and from numberless other authorities; and especially from the solemn proclamation made by the deacon to the people in all the liturgies—"Flectamus genus" (Let us bend our knees) ; whereupon the people knelt, till, at the close of the prayer, they received a corresponding summons—"Levate" (Arise). It is worthy of remark, however, that in celebration of Christ's rising from the dead, the practice of kneeling at prayer, as early as the age of Tertullian, was discontinued throughout the Easter-time, and on all Sundays through the year. The kneeling posture was especially as
signed as the attitude of penance, and one of the classes of public penitents in the early Church took their name, genuflectentes, from this cir cumstance. In the modern Roman Catholic Church the act of genuflexion implies the highest form of worship, and is frequently employed during the mass, as well as whenever persons enter or leave the church or pass in front of the altar on which the Blessed Sacrament is reserved; if it is publicly exposed, the genuflexion is made on both knees. In the Anglican Church the rubric prescribes the kneeling posture in many parts of the service; and this, as well as the practice of bowing the head at the name of Jesus, was the subject of much controversy with the Puritans.