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BenWinter

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Hello kind members! My family and I recently joined the Catholic Church (May of 2014). We’re so happy to be part of the communion of saints, but there are still many things we’re learning “by osmosis.” Most of these things are cultural in nature.

Here’s my question: during the Good Friday mass at our parish this year (in Saint Louis, MO) the priest was giving the homily and we were sitting in the back (we have one-year-old twin daughters). All of the sudden, a whole family of people comes in and sits in the row behind us. It was a Dad, a Mom, and they adult daughters. They made a lot of noise because they each was holding an ornate rosary. They sat behind us for just under ten minutes, and I heard them moving the rosary beads–so they were praying the rosary. Then they all got up and left the building before the homily ended.

I’m really just wondering: is there a practice of going from parish to parish saying the rosary during Holy Week? Or is this just a family who has a spirituality where they come to Mass only briefly to be in the presence of the community while praying during Good Friday? Or is it something else? I wasn’t bothered by it; I’m genuinely curious!

Happy Feast of Saint Anselm to you all. =)
 
BenWinter said:
I’m really just wondering: is there a practice of going from parish to parish saying the rosary during Holy Week? Or is this just a family who has a spirituality where they come to Mass only briefly to be in the presence of the community while praying during Good Friday? Or is it something else? I wasn’t bothered by it; I’m genuinely curious!
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Hmm… that’s odd! I’ve never heard of such a thing on Good Friday before!
 
Sometimes these things are just cultural (or even just family traditions). In a parish I used to attend we would often have Traveller families turning up after the Liturgy who would spend 10 minutes or so in Church and then head off.

There could be other reasons too - maybe as a family they were due to be somewhere but wanted to perform an act of devotion and only had time to pay a quick visit.

Good Friday is not a Holy Day of Obligation so it may just be a pious custom they have.
 
AngelusDomini said:
Sometimes these things are just cultural (or even just family traditions). In a parish I used to attend we would often have Traveller families turning up after the Liturgy who would spend 10 minutes or so in Church and then head off.

There could be other reasons too - maybe as a family they were due to be somewhere but wanted to perform an act of devotion and only had time to pay a quick visit.

Good Friday is not a Holy Day of Obligation so it may just be a pious custom they have.
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That’s very helpful! Thanks to you and everyone else; and sorry I called it Mass that was a big mistake 😊
 
Back in the day, people would frequently pray the Rosary during Mass because the entire Mass was in Latin. There were, indeed, books with the Latin text and an English translation, but some prayers were said by the priest alone (they are called the Secret) and were not in the text. People prayed the Rosary as a way to focus, I believe.
 
His_helpmeet said:
Back in the day, people would frequently pray the Rosary during Mass because the entire Mass was in Latin. There were, indeed, books with the Latin text and an English translation, but some prayers were said by the priest alone (they are called the Secret) and were not in the text. People prayed the Rosary as a way to focus, I believe.
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That is correct; and one of the purposes of ringing the bells during the words of institution was to alert the faithful to raise their eyes from prayer to gaze upon the Lord!
 
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