Genuflection

Genuflection the act of bending the knee, or kneeling in prayer. Baronius says that the early Christians carried the practice of genuflectionl so far, that some of then had worn cavities in the floor where they prayed; and Jerome relates of St. James, that he had, by this practice, contracted a hardness on his knees equal to that of camels. The Church of England gives many directions in her rubrics as to the proper time of kneeling in prayer; but warns all worshippers, in the last rubric on the communion service, that by the posture prescribed for receiving the symbols, "no adoration is intended, or ought to be done, either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received, or unto any corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood." — Farrar, Eccl. Dictionary, s.v.; Buck, Theol. Dictionary, s.v. SEE KNEELING.