Holding hands during and after the “Our Father..”

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Might want to fix the spelling error in the second sentence. I hope no one is doing that!
 
Sorry, I am blaming it on the phone. That’s my story and I am sticking with it.
 
No worries. It gave me a good laugh. However, I might be cautious if you invited me to your parish. 😂
 
Why worry about such trivia? Let people praise God in their own way.
If you go to mass around the world, you will find a lot of customs that are unfamiliar. 🤟
 
This point has always seemed overstated to me. I have mainly been to mass in Europe, Mexico, and a few times in Singapore. The postures and such actually vary little. For example in Mexico many people stand after the Mystery of Faith, but that’s about it.
 
I understand. My question was specifically if that is allowed. So “No position is prescribed in the Roman Missal for an assembly gesture during the Lord’s Prayer”, I assume it’s ok for a parish’s congregation to spread out across aisles during the Our Father. Oh well, it has only happened to me a couple of times, and it’s not like if the answer was something different, I would do anything about it in the office chance it happens again. I never have been one to be some sort of liturgical police. I just saw the OP and it reminded me, so I was curious.

I know one person who has such a problem with sweaty hands and used to attend a parish were hand holding was pretty much expected, every week she would go to the back of church and stand by herself during the Our Father. Parishs like that are, thankfully, rare. My experience is, almost always, no one gives you a second glance if you don’t hold hands.
 
Gertabelle said:
Doesn’t matter how many times we rehash this topic here at CAF. Unless and until our bishops make a definitive statement, and our priests enforce said statement, all of this is just pointless discussion.
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You are so right! I don’t see what’s so difficult about clearing this up one way or the other – our previous bishop did away with kneeling after the Agnus Dei before receiving Communion, while the current bishop brought it back. He just issued instructions to the pastors let the the parishioners know that we would start doing that on a particular Sunday, and everyone did it. It seems to me that it would be just as easy to do something similar with the hand-holding if the bishops wanted to.

There was a statement on the USCCB website discouraging the practice some years back, but it has since disappeared. As Deacon Jeff noted, the site now just says that no position is prescribed.

My personal policy is that I never initiate hand-holding, but that it’s probably not that important that I avoid it. I keep my hands together as the prayer begins, but if someone really tries to hold my hand, I let them.
 
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In African countries they often have a dance for the opening procession.
 
Gestures, such as prayer hands during Our Father, and not copying the priest
 
Good distinction. There are MANY things which the GIRM doesn’t mention which would still be inappropriate.
 
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I live in the Philippines. People don’t hold hands then. They bow to one another.
Two weeks ago I was in Scandinavia. In Norway and Sweden at the parish masses where i was at the men shook hands and the women bowed to others.
Until 10 years ago, I lived in the United States. I didn’t like holding hands with those about(except for my wife) and am happy to have left masses where this practice prevailed. It really isn’t part of the mass but simply what some people like to do.
 
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From the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:
“42. … A common bodily posture, to be observed by all those taking part, is a sign of unity of the members of the Christian community gathered together for the Sacred Liturgy, for it expresses the intentions and spiritual attitude of the participants and also fosters them.”

From the Ceremonial of Bishops:
“104 Customarily in the Church a bishop or presbyter addresses prayers to God while standing with hands slightly raised and outstretched.”

“107 … Similarly, concelebrants and ministers keep their hands joined when walking from place to place or when standing, unless they are holding something.”

From the GIRM:
“237. Then the principal celebrant, with hands joined, says the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer. Next, with hands extended, he says the Lord’s Prayer itself together with the other concelebrants, who also pray with hands extended, and together with the people.”

[Excerpts from the English translation of Ceremonial of Bishops © 1989, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation and The Roman Missal (c) 2010 ICEL. All rights reserved.]
 
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Holding hands has gone on since 1965, and Rome may be a little slow on the uptake of some issues, but I serious doubt that in the ensuing 53 years that they were unaware of it, as it has been generating heat and discussions ever since. To which one can add that the GIRM has been revised a number of times as well as the issuance of letters correcting specific liturgical matters (such as fractionating the wine before consecration).

I for one am not going to hold my breath on the matter, given the multiple times the matter could have been addressed and clearly was not.
 
People shouldn’t be holding hands during the Our Father, in the first place.
 
Holding hands is a personal innovation, and a Protestant one at that, innovation in the Mass. Innovation should not be done to the Church’s Liturgies (Mass and Divine Office) as well as Rites. You can innovate all you want in your personal prayer life, but not in the Churches solemn liturgies and rites.

As for the Orans posture I hate to be the buzzkill for people who think it’s fun, but it is liturgical abuse and the Vatican has prohibited it. But most priests either don’t know (more likely) or don’t care.

Article 6§2
To promote the proper identity (of various roles) in this area, those abuses which are contrary to the provisions of canon 907 are to be eradicated. In eucharistic celebrations deacons and non-ordained members of the faithful may not pronounce prayers — e.g. especially the eucharistic prayer, with its concluding doxology — or any other parts of the liturgy reserved to the celebrant priest. Neither may deacons or non-ordained members of the faithful use gestures or actions which are proper to the same priest celebrant. It is a grave abuse for any member of the non-ordained faithful to “quasi preside” at the Mass while leaving only that minimal participation to the priest which is necessary to secure validity
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Source: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/p...ocuments/rc_con_interdic_doc_15081997_en.html

Stop holding hands during Our Father. Stop doing the Orans position during Mass. Keep Evangelical/Charasmatic influence OUT of the Catholic Church and keep the Catholic Church… Catholic!

As a convert from Methodism I am not sure why some people want to revert to our sect.
 
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Shasta-Rose said:
The majority of a big congregation standing there with their hands up in the air always puts me in mind of a bunch of primitives worshiping some sun god or such.
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To me, it resembles “doing the wave” at a college football game.
 
All these little things like holding hands or shaking hands, or other things are there to bring us together as brothers and sisters, and community.
We are there to praise and glorify God, and to love and serve one another as brothers and sisters!
Amen! 🙏🙏🙏
 
FrDavid96
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    September 25
Shasta-Rose:
The majority of a big congregation standing there with their hands up in the air always puts me in mind of a bunch of primitives worshiping some sun god or such.
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To me, it resembles “doing the wave” at a college football game.
 
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