Congregation raising right arms

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Petergee

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Is it correct, when the priest is giving a blessing during a Mass or other liturgy, for the congregation to imitate the priest’s gesture and raise their right arms, palm forward, towards the person or object which is being blessed?

I have always thought that this is at least litrgically inappropriate during a liturgy, as it is the priest who gives the blessing, and we join ourselves to it by our “Amen” at the end. However even a priest who is somewhat of a stickler for the liturgical rules, invites the congregation to do this.

I know “we are all priests” in a sense, but this doesn’t feel right to me. Apart from anything else, when a whole crowd of people do this it looks disturbingly like a Nazi salute.
 
There has been some debates about this on here before, and I’m sure that someone can give you a proper answer, but I hate it when my pastor invites us to do it. I can’t help but think of the nazis whenever we do it. No offense to anyone, but it just does not look right.
 
I pray that someone can define this as wrong. The shifting towards the actions of mega none traditional None Catholic Churches concerns me greatly. I can not explain how much this troubles me.
If I wanted to be a part of the clone of raising arms, rock n roll band music, rude and loud church goers, follow the bouncing ball hymns on a huge wide screen I would have gone down the street to the local mega pretend to be a Minister church. They are a dime a dozen and on every corner where I live in the south.

What is going on with everyone these days? I continue my long long journey with the RCIA and now more of this? I was drawn to the Catholic Church but not drawn to any of this mega nondeominational stuff. THIS IS HOW they act.

Someone someone anyone please tell me it will stop.
 
Snowwhite16 said:
I pray that someone can define this as wrong. The shifting towards the actions of mega none traditional None Catholic Churches concerns me greatly. I can not explain how much this troubles me.
If I wanted to be a part of the clone of raising arms, rock n roll band music, rude and loud church goers, follow the bouncing ball hymns on a huge wide screen I would have gone down the street to the local mega pretend to be a Minister church. They are a dime a dozen and on every corner where I live in the south.

What is going on with everyone these days? I continue my long long journey with the RCIA and now more of this? I was drawn to the Catholic Church but not drawn to any of this mega nondeominational stuff. THIS IS HOW they act.

Someone someone anyone please tell me it will stop.
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Calm down. What the OP described is not the arm and hand-raising typical of charismatic and Pentecostal and mega church services, and is not accompanied by what you describe above. The posture is a blessing posture, where a blessing is directed toward the person . Now I don’t know how liturgically correct it is, (although rarely my conservative Pastor will ask us to do this), but it is not the same as the Orans prayer position, or the arm-raising.

And by the way, the lifting of the hands to God in prayer, known as the Orans position is as old as the OT. It is an ancient and venerable prayer posture, not an outgrowth of megachurches. It just is not commonly used in Catholic and mainline Protestant churches today except during the Lord’s Prayer at Mass in some churches and is not usually accompanied by loud music and waving arms at this time.

As far as the charismatic services, well, you do not have to have anything to do with them at all if you choose so try not to get so upset. People worship God in different ways, but you can feel free to worship Him in yours.
 
You can say it’s wrong because it is not prescribed in the liturgical books. At best it is confusing and misleading to the people, and at worst it reflects deeply flawed theology about ordination, sacramentality, and the power to give invocative and constitutive blessings.

I refuse to do this when priests instruct the people at mass to do so. That’s because at the liturgy, I am doing my job as a lay person. The priest is supposed to be doing his job. His job is to “say the black and do the red” as it is printed in the Missal. I am not going to cooperate with any silliness by making gestures that I am not asked by the Church to do.

😃
 
Snowwhite16 said:
I pray that someone can define this as wrong. The shifting towards the actions of mega none traditional None Catholic Churches concerns me greatly. I can not explain how much this troubles me.
If I wanted to be a part of the clone of raising arms, rock n roll band music, rude and loud church goers, follow the bouncing ball hymns on a huge wide screen I would have gone down the street to the local mega pretend to be a Minister church. They are a dime a dozen and on every corner where I live in the south.

What is going on with everyone these days? I continue my long long journey with the RCIA and now more of this? I was drawn to the Catholic Church but not drawn to any of this mega nondeominational stuff. THIS IS HOW they act.

Someone someone anyone please tell me it will stop.
Click to expand...
Also, don’t worry - this will eventually disappear. It’s already getting more and more infrequent as Catholics (including young priests) develop a healthier sense of the integrity of their own Catholic tradition (i.e. not “traditions” made up by lay liturgists in the 70s). ;):p:D
 
The Book of Blessings apparently says that when a priest gives ablessing he gives it with hand/s outstretched but when a layperson gives a blesssing (which it implies is only done in the absence of a priest) he does so with hands joined. So I conclude from that that laypeople should not imitate the priest’s gesture as if they were giving the blessing as liturgical equals with the priest. But I was thrown by the fact that our PP who is generally a stickler for doing things the liturgically correct way, actually has twice recently invited the congregation to do this.
 
Leon_Bloy said:
You can say it’s wrong because it is not prescribed in the liturgical books. At best it is confusing and misleading to the people, and at worst it reflects deeply flawed theology about ordination, sacramentality, and the power to give invocative and constitutive blessings.

I refuse to do this when priests instruct the people at mass to do so. That’s because at the liturgy, I am doing my job as a lay person. The priest is supposed to be doing his job. His job is to “say the black and do the red” as it is printed in the Missal. I am not going to cooperate with any silliness by making gestures that I am not asked by the Church to do.

😃
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👍 I too refuse to do it.
 
Leon_Bloy said:
Also, don’t worry - this will eventually disappear. It’s already getting more and more infrequent as Catholics (including young priests) develop a healthier sense of the integrity of their own Catholic tradition (i.e. not “traditions” made up by lay liturgists in the 70s). ;):p:D
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“A healthier sense of the integrity of their own Catholic Tradition”…nice…

And thank you.
 
Would holding hands together be part of that too???

I dont do that like everyone else does. I searched and searched for facts to back up that holding hands during Our Father.
 
Snowwhite16 said:
Would holding hands together be part of that too???

I dont do that like everyone else does. I searched and searched for facts to back up that holding hands during Our Father.
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That’s one many people have strong feelings about. You are right - there is no prescription for handholding during the Our Father. I have noticed this disappearing lately, though (which is good).

These things are mostly just cheezy '70s practices. :grouphug:
 
Leon_Bloy said:
That’s one many people have strong feelings about. You are right - there is no prescription for handholding during the Our Father. I have noticed this disappearing lately, though (which is good).

These things are mostly just cheezy '70s practices. :grouphug:
Click to expand...
👍
 
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