Do you appreciate reverence and decorum in the celebration of the Mass

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Yes, I do.

There’s nothing I can do about the architecture of my church, it is what it is, but I can appreciate its simplicity and grandeur.
There’s nothing I can do about the songs chosen by the choirmaster but I can sing them (as cantor/choir member/parishioner) with all the beauty and reverence I can muster.
I very much appreciate the decorum of the priests who celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with great dedication, carefully saying the words as written with reverence and devotion. There’s nothing I can do about the priests who seem to rush or who skip or make up words but I can appreciate their capacity as priests and do my part to assist at mass with all the reverence I can offer.
There’s nothing I can do about restless altar servers but can appreciate their service, anyway.
There’s nothing I can do about those parishioners who leave Mass early but I give them the benefit of the doubt and pray for their life situations.

Yes, I appreciate reverence and decorum in the celebration of the Mass. Where I don’t find it I try to close my eyes and imagine the angels and saints present at Mass who are adoring and glorifying the Lord with us, despite the lack of our meager worldly trappings. It is, after all, the Mass.

Be at peace.
 
Because the Church, until very recent generations, used to place more emphasis on the presupposition that God desired certain objective elements to be present in proper worship. That view is less fashionable today. Most of the people I see posting about such things aren’t aware of the philosophical underpinnings of worship in the Catholic intellectual tradition.

And as with most things today, folks approach the Mass with the same aesthetic relativism they approach any other form of art.
 
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I am very lucky in that all three priests say Mass very reverently, but one in particular has a manner which never fails to remind me of the gravity of what I am experiencing, and I confess that I am always pleased when I see it is him presiding, and I say a little thank you to God for the extra blessing.
But I also thank God for the other priests and remind myself that what is objectively going on at Mass is not dependent on my personal preferences and it’s a good discipline in worship to focus on Christ in the Eucharist despite what I might consider reverence and decorum.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Do you honestly think anyone here is going to respond with “No, I’m fine with it being like a frat party at 1 am up there on the altar?”

Loaded questions ahoy…
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Nothing “loaded” about my question.

My pastor wouldn’t use your sarcastic words (nor would he confuse the sanctuary and the altar), but he would discount for example the importance of sacred silence and he would underscore his desire that people “feel at home” by feeling free to talk before Mass.
 
Duesenberg said:
My pastor wouldn’t use your sarcastic words (nor would he confuse the sanctuary and the altar), but he would discount for example the importance of sacred silence and he would underscore his desire that people “feel at home” by feeling free to talk before Mass.
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With all due respect, this sounds like an issue between you and your pastor. You’re going to get a variety of opinions here, but none of them would solve the issue for you, as we all know that pastors have a variety of opinions on this issue as well.
 
Please don’t try to derail the discussion.

Neither I nor anyone else equated reverence and decorum with “decorous.”
 
Duesenberg said:
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BayCityRickL:
seriously, I’m PTSD about people talking before Mass. Like the ladies behind me who were talking about their 4th of July parties and their new puppy --I walked out of church. what;s the point of being there?
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Have you considered wearing stereo or noise-cancelling headphones before Mass begins to block out the noise?
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Hmmm, I believe Solomonson used to wear them before mass. Although his pastor gave him dirty looks about it. He said he listened to Christian music before mass… 🤔
 
BenedicamDominum said:
Because the Church, until very recent generations, used to place more emphasis on the presupposition that God desired certain objective elements to be present in proper worship. That view is less fashionable today. Most of the people I see posting about such things aren’t aware of the philosophical underpinnings of worship in the Catholic intellectual tradition.

And as with most things today, folks approach the Mass with the same aesthetic relativism they approach any other form of art.
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I don’t believe that’s the case at all. I can think of many situations from funerals outside of the Church, to military ceremonies to graduation ceremonies that are so important, so special to people that they quite naturally and traditionally take on a feel of great reverence and decorum. At Mass, it’s not a matter of “God expects this.” It’s a matter of “I actually have some idea of the importance of what’s going on here, I’m fortunate my parents instilled a set of good manners in me, therefore I’m going to act with reverence and decorum at Mass.”
 
And if someone’s parents raised them to act a certain way, then that’s what they should do.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
With all due respect, this sounds like an issue between you and your pastor. You’re going to get a variety of opinions here, but none of them would solve the issue for you, as we all know that pastors have a variety of opinions on this issue as well.
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You denigrated this thread for no reason. Go review your reply. It was sarcastic and it added absolutely no no value to this thread.

When I say the pastor of my parish does “discount for example the importance of sacred silence and he underscores his desire that people “feel at home” by feeling free to talk before Mass”, that’s not an attack on him. It’s not a judgement. It’s repeating what I have heard him say on more than one occasion. Those are his beliefs/desires and I don’t think they are rare by any means.
 
Duesenberg said:
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Tis_Bearself:
With all due respect, this sounds like an issue between you and your pastor. You’re going to get a variety of opinions here, but none of them would solve the issue for you, as we all know that pastors have a variety of opinions on this issue as well.
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You denigrated this thread for no reason. Go review your reply. It was sarcastic and it added absolutely no no value to this thread.

When I say the pastor of my parish does “discount for example the importance of sacred silence and he underscores his desire that people “feel at home” by feeling free to talk before Mass”, that’s not an attack on him. It’s not a judgement. It’s repeating what I have heard him say on more than one occasion. Those are his beliefs/desires and I don’t think they are rare by any means.
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Whaaat?
No denigration. No sarcasm.
When you begin a thread, not everyone is always going to agree with you.
 
Am I missing something here? Who is Solomonson and why all the references to this individual?
 
Duesenberg said:
You denigrated this thread for no reason. Go review your reply. It was sarcastic and it added absolutely no no value to this thread.
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The comments in each thread must be looked at in the context of CAF. It’s public, so to speak; it has rules, which are still being developed; and it’s moderated.

I wonder how you can be indignate about someone you think has denigrated this thread (big deal), but when you are denigrating your own pastor’s Mass… you seem to think that this very thread is an appropriate place to do so. 🤔
 
Reverence and decorum are what my wife and I witnessed at the first Mass we attended 8 years ago. It was simply beautiful. We arrived half an hour early, and we saw people sitting quietly and reverently, some were knelt in prayer, virtually no conversations were happening among the people arriving. I know this isn’t always the case, but that Sunday it was, and it made an impression. What stood out to us most was the unity and reverence, especially when communion was distributed. It was very apparent that we were in a holy place.
 
I haven’t read all the posts yet.

Today we had Annointing Mass,

In the Church hall. Not in the Church! Old wooden tables for the Altar and holding things. I mean they were prob antiques, not Versailles type antiques, more your colonial Australia gold field tent type antiques, but I had to dust a lot of dust off them.
We had 2 Priests, singers, badly working mics ( battery fails), old people, really old people, really young people, we did not kneel in Mass ( due to the oldies) so no one toppled over,

We had soup quietly simmering away in the back of the hall, tables set up behind the Mass goers for lunch,

It was a great Annointing Mass. Reverance and Decorum , the laying on of hands for the Holy Spirit, the Annointing for Jesus.

Then we fed everyone a 3 course lunch funded by the parish, with part of the meals supplied by the pub over the road.

Perfect. Oh and then we packed up the leftovers for parishioners who wanted them ( mainly bachelor farmers and aged women who lived through Europe in WW2

3 Priests arrived for lunch and seemed to delight in the cakes! 🍰
 
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Today I really appreciated the reverence and decorum in our Mass and it seemed many other people did, too. There was one fellow, a teen I think, but I didn’t really look–who laughed a couple of times. Not sure at what, but I just prayed for him and all the people there, enjoying all the cooperation that went into putting it all together… the music, the readings, the sermon and the actual celebration of the Holy Eucharist… It’s beautiful even in our little mission church! Thank you, Lord, for loving us so much that you want to be part of our lives and have us be part of YOURS!
 
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