Dance and song on the apse - cute or ...?

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nickybr38

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So I attended a neighboring (two hours away) parish for Mass this Sunday and for First Communion they had the First Communicants get up on the apse (in front of the altar) and do a little song and dance. This happened after the procession to the altar but prior to the point where the priest greets the congregation.

I’m not looking for abuses or freaking out, I just thought it was a little odd. I’ve never seen anything like it!

Does your parish do this with the kids for First Communion or is this particular parish just special? 😜
 
I’ve never seen that done before. Many parishes have their own types of local traditions that spring up over the years that they like to do. It does seem a little odd to me personally, but at least it was before the opening greeting and prayer.
 
I’d just politely ignore it and not go back to the parish.
 
nickybr38 said:
So I attended a neighboring (two hours away) parish for Mass this Sunday and for First Communion they had the First Communicants get up on the apse (in front of the altar) and do a little song and dance. This happened after the procession to the altar but prior to the point where the priest greets the congregation.

I’m not looking for abuses or freaking out, I just thought it was a little odd. I’ve never seen anything like it!

Does your parish do this with the kids for First Communion or is this particular parish just special? 😜
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Oh, man…:nope::nope:

The church isn’t a place for a performance!!! These are SACRAMENTS not a school play!!!

:eek::eek::mad:
 
🙂 Kind of nice to know others would find this a bit odd. I’m still curious to know if other parishes do this as a kind of local custom.
 
Joe_5859 said:
Oh, I’m sure there are. 😛
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Sometimes I hope that it’s only parishes in my area that are so uniquely… divergent from the norm. Other times I hope that others are just as lost (because then we’re not alone at least!).

I’m actually thinking of moving to Eastern Catholicism. I think it might suit me better. 🙂 Didn’t even know that was an option (didn’t realize we HAD eastern rites up here) until recently and now I’m very excited to learn it is!
 
nickybr38 said:
Sometimes I hope that it’s only parishes in my area that are so uniquely… divergent from the norm. Other times I hope that others are just as lost (because then we’re not alone at least!).

I’m actually thinking of moving to Eastern Catholicism. I think it might suit me better. 🙂 Didn’t even know that was an option (didn’t realize we HAD eastern rites up here) until recently and now I’m very excited to learn it is!
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From what I understand, there is no need for you to switch rites to start attending an Eastern Catholic parish. So I believe the only thing you would have to do is to go there. I just mention this because I’ve heard people before who think they have to go through some process to change rites before they can join an Eastern Catholic parish.
 
This type of practice seems to take the focus off of the sacrement and put in on individuals. I am sure they can find another time to do this sort of thing, but during the mass seems innapropriate.
 
nickybr38 said:
So I attended a neighboring (two hours away) parish for Mass this Sunday and for First Communion they had the First Communicants get up on the apse (in front of the altar) and do a little song and dance. This happened after the procession to the altar but prior to the point where the priest greets the congregation.

I’m not looking for abuses or freaking out, I just thought it was a little odd. I’ve never seen anything like it!

Does your parish do this with the kids for First Communion or is this particular parish just special? 😜
Click to expand...
Never seen it done, at any Mass, and it would particularly annoy me if it was done at a First Communion Mass. Its not a broadway play, and it would certainly take the emphasis off the Eucharist, in my opinion.
 
nickybr38 said:
So I attended a neighboring (two hours away) parish for Mass this Sunday and for First Communion they had the First Communicants get up on the apse (in front of the altar) and do a little song and dance. This happened after the procession to the altar but prior to the point where the priest greets the congregation.

I’m not looking for abuses or freaking out, I just thought it was a little odd. I’ve never seen anything like it!

Does your parish do this with the kids for First Communion or is this particular parish just special? 😜
Click to expand...
Are you sure it was a dance? At all my three their in first communions the children at the end of Mass lined up in front and did a song together, my daughter’s class did a song with sign language as part of it. So they sang the song as they did the sign language. It is just a nice ending to a very special Mass and time for all. Sound like it was before the Mass and probably only done because it was a first communion Mass. I think we can share and enjoy this special time with our children.
 
PatriceA said:
Never seen it done, at any Mass, and it would particularly annoy me if it was done at a First Communion Mass. Its not a broadway play, and it would certainly take the emphasis off the Eucharist, in my opinion.
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Reread OP’s first post, this was done before Mass, before the priest came in and the Mass started and it is not done as some of the other implied to be a broadway play, good heavens, it is just a little special time for the children, nothing wrong with doing a song either before or after to celebrate a special occasion.
 
robwar said:
Reread OP’s first post, this was done before Mass, before the priest came in and the Mass started and it is not done as some of the other implied to be a broadway play, good heavens, it is just a little special time for the children, nothing wrong with doing a song either before or after to celebrate a special occasion.
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She said it was after the procession but before the greeting. I’m not sure if that qualifies as before Mass or not. I could see it both ways.

I’m trying to remember now. I’m sure there have been times where I’ve seen groups of kids go up and sing a song with little hand gestures and the like. I cannot recall the exact context, though.
 
robwar said:
Reread OP’s first post, this was done before Mass, before the priest came in and the Mass started and it is not done as some of the other implied to be a broadway play, good heavens, it is just a little special time for the children, nothing wrong with doing a song either before or after to celebrate a special occasion.
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It was done after the procession, so in effect, after Mass had begun.
 
Boulder257 said:
It was done after the procession, so in effect, after Mass had begun.
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are we splitting hairs here? So children who are receiving first communion as a group, dressed nicely and specially for this sacrament can’t sing a song? I think sometimes there just is too much obsession with Mass violations and we through out the baby with the bath water. This wasn’t done to be a broadway show, this isn’t a focus on the individual and not the importance of the sacrament, children singing a special song to highlight their first communion as a group. Now really, what is wrong with that?
 
robwar said:
are we splitting hairs here? So children who are receiving first communion as a group, dressed nicely and specially for this sacrament can’t sing a song? I think sometimes there just is too much obsession with Mass violations and we through out the baby with the bath water. This wasn’t done to be a broadway show, this isn’t a focus on the individual and not the importance of the sacrament, children singing a special song to highlight their first communion as a group. Now really, what is wrong with that?
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To be fair, the OP’s stated purpose wasn’t to look for abuses or cry foul. She seemed more interested in knowing if anyone had a similar experience.
 
Joe_5859 said:
To be fair, the OP’s stated purpose wasn’t to look for abuses or cry foul. She seemed more interested in knowing if anyone had a similar experience.
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My response was more with some of the other posters. I think I did answer the question in what I did say in that all 3 of my children did do a group song either at the beginning or end of Mass with my daughter’s class doing sign language which made me ask if this was some kind of sign language and not a dance. My question was not answered yet.
 
robwar said:
My response was more with some of the other posters. I think I did answer the question in what I did say in that all 3 of my children did do a group song either at the beginning or end of Mass with my daughter’s class doing sign language which made me ask if this was some kind of sign language and not a dance. My question was not answered yet.
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Ah yes, I see that now. It would make more sense if it was a sign language / hand gestures type of thing rather than a full blown “dance”.
 
robwar said:
Are you sure it was a dance? At all my three their in first communions the children at the end of Mass lined up in front and did a song together, my daughter’s class did a song with sign language as part of it. So they sang the song as they did the sign language. It is just a nice ending to a very special Mass and time for all. Sound like it was before the Mass and probably only done because it was a first communion Mass. I think we can share and enjoy this special time with our children.
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It has been years, and we are living in another state, but back when my son made his, they also did sign language.

Now, they did it in the middle of Mass, for the Lord’s Prayer. But on the up side, it wasn’t dance, just sign language.
 
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