Hi,
You will see the priest raising his hands at certain times during the Mass because such is proscribed by the liturgy. Liturgy is the Church’s official public worship of God and is not private prayer. So Catholics ordinarily don’t express themselves by the way they happen to feel as they might in private.
Liturgy is not meant to stifle the way we feel, but to help us recognize that the Lord is beyond our ability to fully fathom His love and to humbly acknowledge His goodness as a community gathered before Him. It’s all about Him.
Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
