Awkward moments during mass

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At Confirmation, one of the Altar servers couldn’t find the holder for the Bishops crook (what is that called), so he leaned it against the wall. BTW- it was beautiful with a carving of Our Lady and the Child Jesus. Well, just as the Bishop started the Homily, the crook fell over and snapped in half.

My older sister passed out, in the pews, in the middle of the consecration.

A man died once in the middle of the consecration (different parish)

An altar server sent face first down the Sanctuary steps (same parish as the one right above)

And the teen choir I sang with scared the Bishop when we started our death metal version of “Jesus Loves Me” (same Confirmation as when his crook got broken)
 
A little boy, about 6 years old, ran onto the altar just before the first elvation of the gifts. An usher herded the little boy back to his mommy. Father had to stop and laugh and he said “the Spirit is moving today!”. 😃

My older brother, about 14 at the time, was serving and accidentally washed Father’s hands with wine somehow. Father looked at him strangely and after a few seconds said “thank you, John, that was very special”.

I keep remembering things and editing. 😊 Our pastor is seriously about 4 ft 10. All of our deacons are easily over 6 feet tall. On the side of the church where I sit, you can’t always see Father over the altar. There was not deacon assisting last week, Father stood up, and it took the congregation on my side of the church a little while to realize it…normally we would have seen the huge deacon standing and stood up too.
 
PatienceAndLove said:
My older sister passed out, in the pews, in the middle of the consecration.
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Got her beat! 😉 I’ve passed out three times in church. I was finally diagnosed with a common syndrome that makes this happen when you stand up too fast. My cardiologist was a large (why are heart doctors always large?) Hindu gentleman and he rolled his eyes and asked if I was Catholic. He said it’s typically Catholics who find out they have this problem because of our Sunday calisthenics. 🙂 We had a good laugh.
 
CarolAnnSFO said:
At another Mass, part of the homily was about the Holy Spirit, and as Father began to talk about the Holy Spirit, a bat started flying around the church. This bat was really persistent, and started alternately dive-bombing the choir loft, the parishioners in the pews, and Father up on the altar. Every time Mr. Bat flew towards a group of parishioners, you’d see whole rows of them ducking (I was in the choir loft, and got a good view of the whole thing).
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That gives new meaning to the expression “bats in the belfry”. 😃
At still another Mass (daily Mass in my previous parish), it was a hot day, and the doors were open. A fly had perched on the edge of the chalice (after the consecration!), was apparently overcome, and fell into the Precious Blood. :eek: There was nothing for Father to do but fish it out and put it into a purificator. I’m not too sure what happened after that.
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Did Father start using a pall over his chalice after that incident?
 
Our pastor always forgets to say “men” in the Creed. :eek: (Sorry… wrong thread!)

One week our lector announced, “A reading from the book of Noah.” Immediately the church was filled with the sound of people rifling through the missal.
 
Dacinom said:
It was recently and the Knights of Columbus were processing into Mass wearing their full dress up garb.

My 4-year-old pointed at them and squealed loudly “look…PIRATES!”
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Was this at ARRRRRRRR Lady of Victory? Or was it Sacred Hearrrrrrrt?
 
I’ve had a few - one where a priest forgot a chunk of the Eucharistic Prayer and started at the wrong point. After some stunned silence from the Congregation he realised what he had done, went back and did the part that he’d missed. None of this was to do with the Consecration at least, so it didn’t affect the validity.

Another Mass, the priest (a different one) made the announcements after Communion as usual - then simply walked out without giving the final prayer or blessing! :eek:

Priests are human and have plenty of calls on their time apart from Mass, so there is bound to be the occasional honest mistake.
 
During my dad’s requiem Mass, the priest, his cousin had an embarrassing slip of the tongue. Instead of saying: Let us stand for the final commendation, he said, Let us stand for the final **condemnation! **
Greetings from Mary Ann

Our family’s website apostolate:

homestead.com/missionbell/index.html

(saints, devotional items, prayers, miracles, articles on autism, poems, panic attack management, educational items and more).

Novena to St Philomena the Wonder Worker for the healing of autism:

homestead.com/missionbell/novenaforautisticchildren.html

Each person (who has autism) whose name is sent to be included in this novena, will be prayed for regularly by a priest of Lourdes, France at the grotto. Only the first name of the person is needed for the purpose of this novena. Everyone is invited to send names: parents, grandparents, teachers, doctors, aunties, therapists etc.
 
At my Cathedral’s 100th aniversary Mass, right before dozens priests walked through the entrance, the fire alarm went off (for several minutes) because of all the incense. It was amusing, but also a little sad. There was really a great sense of reverence and awe behind the opening of the celebration Mass.
 
Well, this moment was both awkward and very sad. 😦

At a mass on our vacation (Easter Sunday), the priest was blessing everyone with holy water, and fell to the floor when he got to us. He had died of a heart attack. :cry
 
Sarabande said:
When I was an adult and cantoring, I had a phone that would sometimes turn back on if something touched it a certain way. I had left my phone up in the choir loft with the organist who was this little old lady and knew nothing about modern technology. During the homily, my phone went off. I knew it was mine because I had a Mozart piano concerto tune on it. The organist didn’t turn it off and I was all the way down the sanctuary. I just hoped to God that it would stop. It did. Then, it went off again during the Offertory hymn. This time, my husband (my then fiance) realized that it was my ring tone and ran up to the choir loft to turn it off again. I was soooooo embarrassed by this. The person who called? My mother - the one who knew that every Saturday I cantored at the same time. Oh well.
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I can top this.

I’m also a cantor, and one Sunday (shortly after acquiring my first cell phone) I had forgotten to turn off the ringer on my phone. It’s entirely possible that I had forgotten I even had the phone in my purse. Anyway, it wasn’t a problem until that silent period in between the second reading and the Gospel Acclamation. Then, of course, my friend decided to give me a ring. The microphone in front of me picked up the ring and broadcast it over the speakers. The antenna snagged something in my purse and I couldn’t get it out, so I ended up just tossing the entire purse behind the organ console to get it away from the mike (narrowly missing our music director, who was laughing so hard that he nearly fell off the organ bench). The priest turned around and gave me an amazingly scolding look, and refused to stand up for the Gospel acclamation until the phone stopped ringing. Of course I had been praying that he would stand up so that the organ would cover the noise. Fortunately, the congregation couldn’t tell where the phone was, due to the microphone and speakers. My husband came up to meet me after Mass and asked “Did you hear that loud phone about halfway through? Who would be that rude?” 😊

I have not forgotten since to either put the phone on manner mode (vibrate) or to just turn the darn thing off. I prefer the former because I tend to forget to power the phone back on and we don’t have a home landline phone. A couple of weeks ago I discovered the hazards of manner mode. A vibrating cell phone in a purse, set on a wooden riser, will cause the entire riser to vibrate. And yes, I learned this the hard way. (Turns out the caller was the same friend who had inadvertently caused the first phone incident.)

I would leave the stupid thing in the car, if it hadn’t been used once during Mass to call an ambulance for a collapsed parishoner. I was the only one in the choir with a powered-on cell phone, and one of our basses collapsed during the Eucharistic prayer. Fortunately he was fine, and did not have a heart attack as we had originally thought. I was never so glad to have a cell phone on me as I was that morning. The ambulance was picking him up before the end of Communion.
 
I’m not Catholic yet, so I always find the Eucharist just a bit awkward. I have to file out to let everyone in my row get in line, then return to my seat and kneel. Then I have to time it just right so I can walk to the other end and let the people in my row back in. 😃

On top of that, I always wonder if the people will assume I’m Catholic and think, “Hmm, I wonder what mortal sin he’s committed.”
 
Savio said:
I’m not Catholic yet, so I always find the Eucharist just a bit awkward. I have to file out to let everyone in my row get in line, then return to my seat and kneel. Then I have to time it just right so I can walk to the other end and let the people in my row back in. 😃

On top of that, I always wonder if the people will assume I’m Catholic and think, “Hmm, I wonder what mortal sin he’s committed.”
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Ugh. I second that. Today was especially awkward as there was only one other person in the pew and I was in the very middle. So I had to slide all the way down and wait for the person to stop kneeling and come out so I could go back and kneel. Guess there really isn’t a graceful way to do it. Can’t wait until this isn’t a problem anymore!
🙂
 
seaching20 said:
Ugh. I second that. Today was especially awkward as there was only one other person in the pew and I was in the very middle. So I had to slide all the way down and wait for the person to stop kneeling and come out so I could go back and kneel. Guess there really isn’t a graceful way to do it. Can’t wait until this isn’t a problem anymore!
🙂
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Also looking forward to when it’s not a problem anymore, but that won’t be until Easter. I’m thinking I might start sitting on the end so I only have to get up once.
 
:rotfl: Oh…SeekerJen, I so feel your pain!!! I’d be totally embarrassed as well. You did totally top me. 🙂

I have since bought a phone that won’t turn on on it’s own.

I forgot to mention this one… A couple of Sundays ago, we had a visiting Franciscan friar who gave the homily and also was asking for help in his missions in South American. During the homily there was this huge crash of lightning outside, the lights dimmed and flickered, then our pipe organ (this is in a Cathedral) suddenly went haywire. Every single key on the organ played at once. It was like the voice of God speaking - really amazing hearing that from a real pipe organ. The organist had to quickly run over and turn off the organ, practically tripping over himself in the choir loft. I had to cantor a capella the rest of the mass. The friar at first tried to continue as if nothing happened, but so many people were trying to hold back laughter, including me. He eventually stopped and said, “Now, that was a nice dramatic effect to my homily.” The congregation let out a little laughter and it cured us.

They thankfully got the organ up and running again by the time I had to come back and cantor for the 5:00.
 
christcnection1 said:
At my Cathedral’s 100th aniversary Mass, right before dozens priests walked through the entrance, the fire alarm went off (for several minutes) because of all the incense. It was amusing, but also a little sad. There was really a great sense of reverence and awe behind the opening of the celebration Mass.
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This happenned at a Mass I went to not too long ago. One scoop of incense too many. It was a beautiful TLM high mass, and the alarm didn’t stop going off until half-way through the epistle. The priest and choir didn’t skip a beat though (and that alarm was LOUD) even while the fire truck, horns blaring, pulled up. I really do have to wonder what the firemen were thinking seeing all those people there not moving an inch even though for all they knew the church could be burning to a crisp.
 
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