Applause after the last hymn...?

[PetraG]

So perhaps if you disapprove of applause, go hand the musician a twenty.

I don’t have a problem with that. It is a profession and it has historically been a paid position at churches.

I have been offered pay for some of the volunteer work I do. I don’t accept the money, but I don’t have any problem with the people who do the same work for pay, even if they do it for a non-profit.

My problem with applause at church has nothing to do with having a problem with applauding performiers or with performers who find applause gratifying. That’s OK. No, the only problem is that it is a setting that ought to be free of applause.

Applauding the homily or the excellence of how the prayers were offered would be out of place. Likewise, the music at Mass is prayer, not performance. It is OK to pay people who offer professional services to make it happen. People have to live. It is even OK to have some gathering to recognize volunteers and standing up to applaud them all. Have a gathering and applaud the priests–no problem! Showing appreciation is a good thing. It is just that the time immediately after Mass is for thanksgiving and the church itself is a sacred space for prayer. Applause for the musicians doesn’t respect that.

I know it is well-meant, and I don’t think appreciating musicians is out of place. I think it is the loss of appreciation for the time right after the conclusion of Mass and loss of appreciation of the reverence that a sacred space ought to be given that is the issue.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Argh, only on CAF would people argue against something good.

 

[PetraG]

Argh, only on CAF would people argue against something good.

Only on CAF would people differ over which practices are good and which are misguided even if well-meant?
(Really?)

 

[Phemie]

Phemie:

I don’t care for applause for the choir but it beats the singing of “Happy Birthday” and applause for the Birthday boy or girl (who usually qualify for senior citizens’ discounts) that we’ve been getting before the Prayer after Communion more and more often lately.

I really hope what you just wrote was NOT true… But… hmmm…

Oh it’s only too true. Happened two weeks ago and again this morning.

 

[Randolph]

Oh it’s only too true. Happened two weeks ago and again this morning.

May God have mercy on us on us and on the Church. The worship of God—our Father and Creator—has been impeded by the vanity of our own selves. There are plenty of places where applauses, congratulations and well wishes can take place. But during Mass is certainly not one of them.