Holding our hands out during Mass

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When we pray “Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.” do we beat our heart during each part?
 
Boulder257 said:
Interesting. I was unaware it was “required.” I was thumbing through my GIRM and could not find where this was stated. I know it is required that all concelebrants strike their breast, but not the laity.
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It’s in the order of the Mass. The GIRM doesn’t break down each prayer.

The order of the Mass has this:
A brief pause for silence follows. Then **all recite together **the formula of general confession:
I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned,7
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,
And, striking their breast, they say:
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
Then they continue:
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.
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The is the order for the new translation but the missalette we use has always indicated to strike your breast during the Confiteor.
 
nickybr38 said:
I just wish I had one other person with me to break the chain. Haha. As it is I’m not sure I’d have the courage to be the only break in the chain.
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They almost flipped out with just me. :mad:
About three folks in a row out of the loop (so to speak) and the chain gang crew would not easily be able to stretch their arms that far around front or back.😃

In all seriousness I stay away from that Mass as much as I can.
When for some reason, I have to go to Mass on Saturday evening , I stand in the back by the door.
Our Sunday Mass has it’s own issues, but that is another story for another time.
 
The Priest must do as the GIRM (General Instruction of the Roman Missal) states - which includes his gestures.

There is nothing in the GIRM for the people to mimic the Priest, who is persona Christi, by putting their arms up in the air.

Holding hands seems to come from the Protestant religions. As do some of the additional songs used.
 
codefro said:
When we pray “Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.” do we beat our heart during each part?
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Now that you mention it, I think there’s a part in the Leonine Prayers where we strike our breasts at the “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus/Have mercy on us” three times. But the Leonine Prayers are usually in the vernacular and aren’t considered part of the Mass.
 
roadsend said:
Yup. I have seen the *Human Chain Version *of the Hand Holding Ritual at the Saturday Mass in my parish.
When I refused to join in, they just moved on in and joined hands right in front if my face, like 3" in front of my face. They were visibly angry at me for not participating in their illicit ritual.
My diocese encourages the *Hand Holding Ritual *by frequently featuring photos of this activity in our diocesan newspaper.

It is hard for me to decide whether these rituals or the Eucharistic Minister Grip and Grin Ritual, conducted at or near the altar during the Agnus Dei or the Priest’s Communion, torques my jaws the most.
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I laughed so hard
 
Corki said:
So is bowing during the creed.
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I’ve read somewhere (where?!) that when we bow during the Creed we do a profound bow, which a bow from the waist, rather than just inclining the head. :confused:
 
I_Thirst said:
I’ve read somewhere (where?!) that when we bow during the Creed we do a profound bow, which a bow from the waist, rather than just inclining the head. :confused:
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The instuction simply says “all bow”. At our parish, that’s a bow from the waist. I have never seen a head bow for the words of incarnation. It seems that either people do a profound bow or don’t bow at all. Not that it isn’t done that way somewhere, just that I’ve never seen it.:rolleyes:
 
Corki said:
The instuction simply says “all bow”. At our parish, that’s a bow from the waist. I have never seen a head bow for the words of incarnation. It seems that either people do a profound bow or don’t bow at all. Not that it isn’t done that way somewhere, just that I’ve never seen it.:rolleyes:
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Most of what I’ve seen in the parishes around here is just an inclination of the head or nothing at all.

I think the reason that most folks don’t bow at all is that they are afraid of their sunglasses slipping off the top of their heads. 😃
 
I_Thirst said:
Most of what I’ve seen in the parishes around here is just an inclination of the head or nothing at all.

I think the reason that most folks don’t bow at all is that they are afraid of their sunglasses slipping off the top of their heads. 😃
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LOL. But one can bow from the waist without bowing the head with it. And some people with bad backs stand normally that way; what are they supposed to do?
 
I have also never quite understood the holding hands during the Our Father especially when in a few moments we are expected to shake the hand of the person standing next to us for the Sign of Peace.
 
I think holding hands during the Lords Prayer or hands outstreched started with the Charismatic movement.
I don’t do it but most everyone does. The school children do it and my daughter takes it personal when I don’t hold her hand. 😦

Guess I’m a rebel.
🙂
 
I do not hold my hand palm up when I pray.
I fold them.

I also do not join in the hand-holding for the Our Father.
For one thing, I am afraid of people’s perfumes, lotions, etc because of my MCS.
Secondly, it just doesn’t feel right.

So if I’m standing next to you and don’t hold your hand, please don’t get upset 🙂 😛
 
liturgyluver said:
In the UK, I have only seen it done during the “Our Father”. I really dislike it and have no idea when this practice began, but it seems to have crept in in the last 10 or so years, and now more of the congregation do it, than don’t.😦
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A priest in my Parish loves to hold hands with the altar girls and boys. and so does everybody. i dont hold no one hands and dont like such. this is all part of the man invention and creation to replace the beautiful in teh Church. you know like they replaced the statues with plants and so forth. this is all part of, emphasize on man and not on God.
Of course, i can see by his actions that he a people pleaser. he makes everybody clap for the singers who love to be the center of the attention with their ugly music. it just amazes me. it makes me wanting to leave the Mass as faster as i can. it is very sad.
 
Corki said:
For the record, striking your breast during the Confiteor IS required by the rubrics. So is bowing during the creed.
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Oddly enough, in my diocese, every OF Mass (aside from Miles Iesu) the laity do both the orans position and the hand-holding, but NOT the striking of the breast.

As soon as I found out that we weren’t supposed to orans and hold hands, I stopped doing it. Unfortunately, the priests & laity don’t care enough to stop doing it.

Semi-side note: We had a priest come in to our parish (from out of state), and all he did was quote the church documents on the matter of things like this, as well as music, and confession, and he ended up getting his faculties removed in our diocese.

It’s sad when good, faithful priests get persecuted due to the power and influence of bad priests. 😦
 
I hear you, E.E.N.S. Almost same thing happened in my (former) diocese. Like many dioceses in the States it tends to be very liberal-leaning. Except in my case (I went to a university parish) the parish priest was also not only the liturgist for the diocese but also beloved by (almost) all our community. He did things, ahem, a little strangely and his “boss” turned a blind eye to pretty much all of it. He allowed non-Catholics to receive (myself included before I clued into the fact that he was in the wrong, not I). Even before I was seriously discerning Catholicism, I KNEW that non-Catholics don’t receive. I can remember one time in particular during Daily Mass at Communion time, arms crossed as I knew I should (let’s not get into the whole you shouldn’t do that then argument), he blessed me, but afterwards he gave me a mild talking to that I can receive. Uhhh, no Fr. M. He is a total extrovert but also very much a people-pleaser. After reading “Goodbye Good Men” (an excellent book, BTW), I can now understand how he got through the seminary, and others more orthodox do not. I went to WYD '08 in Sydney, and the main priest that led us is Opus Dei, which is known to be pretty orthodox. Last I heard (and this was some years ago and in a small town) he was having some major issues with his flock. Incredibly nice man and very insightful, but people just didn’t like his style. I suspect (and he was ordained the same year as the other priest), he just scraped by because of his orthodoxy.
 
pollycarp said:
I sit in the back of my local church, and it looks like all the people up front are saying “I dunno!”. 🤷

🤷🤷🤷
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Hey, listen…they’re holding up the air. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.
 
Annie_Santiago said:
I do not hold my hand palm up when I pray.
I fold them.

I also do not join in the hand-holding for the Our Father.
For one thing, I am afraid of people’s perfumes, lotions, etc because of my MCS.
Secondly, it just doesn’t feel right.

So if I’m standing next to you and don’t hold your hand, please don’t get upset 🙂 😛
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Not a problem. I don’t hold hands either. Holding hands with total strangers is um, odd. And who knows when they picked their nose/teeth/something else last. Just sayin’. Instead, I put my hands in my pockets and smile. 😃
 
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