A: When asked your question, liturgist Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M., replied, “I would refer you to The Postures of the Assembly During the Eucharistic Prayer, by John K. Leonard and Nathan D. Mitchell (Liturgy Training Publications), regarding the practice of kneeling at prayer.
“Regarding kneelers as furniture, I would presume they were relatively late. Originally there were no pieces of furniture for the ‘circumstantes‘ (those standing about), simply a chair for the president. As a concession to the infirm, stone seats began to be attached to pillars, or to the walls. By the end of the 13th century many churches in England appear to have some wooden benches—often called pews.
“When kneelers began to be attached to the pews, I do not know. Pews become common as printing becomes more common and we pass from a manuscript culture [where books were rare and more often heard than read] to a print culture [with wide distribution of books]. People line up in pews in churches as words line up on a page.
“As public worship expresses who we are as a community in the presence of God, I find it interesting that Leonard and Mitchell say, ‘It is not for no reason that the Orthodox have been characterized as “the Church standing,” the Roman Catholics as “the Church kneeling” and the Protestants as “the Church sitting.”‘ “‘These basic bodily postures communicate a great deal about the self-identity of these Christian communions. Though none of these postures is exclusive to the Church that it characterizes, each one tells us something about basic attitudes: standing as praising God with upright bodies, kneeling as an act either of adoration or of penitence, and sitting as an act of receptivity, listening and participating in a common meal. Each posture certainly has its advantages, and each makes a great deal of difference in the self-understanding of the Church.'”