First time experience at an older church

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fastenatingguy

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Today I went to mass for the first time at a nearby parish. I entered and went to a pew. When I arrived there was no kneeler. So I looked around and found none anywhere.

I don’t think this is typical of the Chicago Archdiocese. I’ve attended masses at about 40 parishes. This was a first for me. Anyone else?

This church was built pre VII.
 
fastenatingguy said:
Today I went to mass for the first time at a nearby parish. I entered and went to a pew. When I arrived there was no kneeler. So I looked around and found none anywhere.

I don’t think this is typical of the Chicago Archdiocese. I’ve attended masses at about 40 parishes. This was a first for me. Anyone else?

This church was built pre VII.
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The floor is there to kneel on…
 
Our church in the Richmond VA diocese had the removed…the mass is sit or stand. The pews are a little too close together for kneeling!
 
I would ask at the parish why this is. In some churches I have encountered without kneelers, this was done purposefully, and most people stand during the consecration, as in the Eastern Churches. This is, however, contrary to the teachings of the Latin rite Church.
 
I’ve encountered a few places with no kneelers. For this, and times when my physical condition prevents me from kneeling, I sit and bow my head low usually resting it on top of my folded hands on the top of the pew in front of me when possible. I always found standing at the consecration odd. Even as a kid before the 2011 missal revisions.
 
I was able to visit many churches and Basilicas in Italy and very few of them have kneelers. Most don’t have pews in the Nave at all. Just chairs. Most of the side chapels do have pews & kneelers but I’m uncertain of how often Mass is celebrated in those chapels.
 
One must remember that just because they are familiar with Mass being celebrated one particular way doesn’t mean that it is like that everywhere.
 
There are churches out there without kneelers. If there are pews but no kneelers, it might have been an issue of cost, pew spacing (since kneelers take up space), or simply what the people who made up the original parish were used to. As someone stated, many older European churches do not have kneelers.

You are free to kneel on the floor or else just stand through the parts where one would otherwise kneel (as they do at the more “modern” churches where there might be portable chairs instead of pews).
 
Horton said:
I was able to visit many churches and Basilicas in Italy and very few of them have kneelers. Most don’t have pews in the Nave at all. Just chairs. Most of the side chapels do have pews & kneelers but I’m uncertain of how often Mass is celebrated in those chapels.
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As I understand it, Catholics traditionally used to stand through the Mass in a big open space and the pews only started coming in after the Protestant Reformation. Protestants had pews because the main idea for them was for attendees to sit and listen to the sermons. Catholics then started adding pews to their churches as well. Cathedrals without pews were probably built before the pew concept took hold.
 
Tim_D said:
One must remember that just because they are familiar with Mass being celebrated one particular way doesn’t mean that it is like that everywhere.
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True, just a surprise, that’s all.
 
fastenatingguy said:
True, just a surprise, that’s all.
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Honestly, I’d rather stand than kneel. While some of the kneelers are very comfortable just as many of the others feel like a torture device from years gone by. It makes it hard to concentrate on the Mass when one is constantly shifting to find a spot that isn’t uncomfortable.
 
fastenatingguy said:
Today I went to mass for the first time at a nearby parish. I entered and went to a pew. When I arrived there was no kneeler. So I looked around and found none anywhere.

I don’t think this is typical of the Chicago Archdiocese. I’ve attended masses at about 40 parishes. This was a first for me. Anyone else?

This church was built pre VII.
Click to expand...
Which parish? Could it be a parish belonging to some order, used by an Eastern Catholic community, or something outside the ordinary?
 
Tim_D said:
Honestly, I’d rather stand than kneel. While some of the kneelers are very comfortable just as many of the others feel like a torture device from years gone by. It makes it hard to concentrate on the Mass when one is constantly shifting to find a spot that isn’t uncomfortable.
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Kneeling cause me pain also but I do it anyway at the appropriate times during Mass, while praying the rosary, or any time spent in adoration. Whatever pain or discomfort I experience is nothing compared to the suffering of our Lord on the cross. I also offer it up for people who suffer far more than I do.
 
The old, old churches didn’t have pews at all.

In New York City, the St. John the Divine Episcopal Cathedral has the goal of building the edifice making as authentic of a medieval cathedral as they can. No pews, they had folding chairs when I was there in the nave.

Pews are a “recent” innovation, not that recent, I guess, but the old old school was no pews.
 
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