Interruptions in Mass?

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Actaeon said:
Oh yes, happens all the time… especially with altar servers around incense! I’ve seen that one, where the altar server carrying the incense more or less passes out (or at least falls to the ground disoriented).
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And yet another…during the Stations of the Cross one year, one of the altar servers passed out and he was carrying a candle. Parishioners who were closest to him had to rush over so his cassock didn’t catch on fire.

A couple of others who have fainted during Mass, or seizures (that one got the ambulance there)…

Once, there was a really strong storm that took the power out right after the opening prayer. Father continued Mass in the dark and the lights came back on during the communion hymn.

Finally, at a weekend Mass during the consecration, a (mentally-ill, I think) man screamed while the altar bells were being rung…it was a weird “Aaaiiieee!” scream he did three times. He did it again during the consecration of the Precious Blood. Everyone else was silent. Father continued on like nothing ever happened…
 
One of the strangest things in my parish was about 10 years ago, a middle-aged man started coming to Mass. Regularly as clockwork, every Mass he came to, he would collapse part-way through and have to be carried out. I was talking to my Pastor one day and the Pastor told me that this guy claimed to have been involved heavily with the occult and attending Mass made him ill to the point where he collapsed every time he came.

We also had a parishioner who had a mental illness. He was actually a very devout and very intelligent man - he’d been to the Sourbonne in his youth before his illness became more pronounced. One of his ideosyncracies was that he would make the responses slightly out of synch with everybody else, very loudly and in a slightly “dramatic” voice.
 
I went to mass during a hurricane and it was myself another another man with his son. While the choir was singing the sanctus the power went off and the organ stopped working so the choir improvised and the priest said " at least i have candles" then right after communion the power went came back

It was an interesting mass
 
Way back when I was an altar boy, I accidentally kicked the bells across the altar!

They were a group of 4 bells and I kicked them when I was in motion to do something or other. They turned up on edge and rolled like a wheel about 50 feet. Must have been hilarious to watch of course…
 
Actaeon said:
Oh yes, happens all the time… especially with altar servers around incense! I’ve seen that one, where the altar server carrying the incense more or less passes out (or at least falls to the ground disoriented).

As to altar servers, I need to add another one… I was a server as a child, and for an Easter Vigil, the server next to me bowed while holding the bottle of Chrism… and bowed just enough that rather large glass lid came off and smashed on the brick floor of the sanctuary… right in front of the bishop… and in plain sight of the packed to the walls parish…
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Well, I guess Midnight Mass I got myself a good healthy dose of incense when the priest did the Altar and swallowed it and choked as one does when on the Altar. My eyes ran and all with it… I avoided that one since. Not so funny when the priest waved me away next day when trying to present him with the wine and he wasn’t ready though he sincerly apologised as soon as service was over but anyone watching would have seen the confusion over my face as he waved me away. Christmas Day Mass

Talking of Altar funnies in that sense reminded me of just over a year ago and this priest was new and everyone in the vestry said they weren’t there next week leaving just me and him who was new. Of course, he didnt know what I knew or didn’t know and I had only been serving a year and jobs dont get passed round. So my reaction was :eek: and was instantly gabbling away to him. But on that Sunday morning when was just the Priest and I, I did everything okay but when the priest gingerly putting the incense into the thruible the incense boat crashed to the floor and in his words, an almighty crash. If I had been less new per se, I would have had the insight to hold the incense boat for him as he scoop it out. But hadn’t done. He turned and grinned at me because I hadn’t actually noticed till he did. I simply left it rather than fussed with it all because thought that get more in the way and think that was appreciated at the time. Though it sounded loud enough, the rest of the congregation wasn’t aware of anything when I casually was asking about. Thankfully I’ve not been the only one since. I was terrified all that week before because he was new to us and didn’t know him in sense of personality that well though friendly enough and luckily I was on holiday in the week so was able to put the fear of that Sunday out of my mind per se. I kept telling me, that he won’t bite he has a daughter he’s just as understanding etc. Not daring to go down the route of what a daughter has to do with the fact he won’t bite me… If only, I knew now what I knew then of him because now I share anything with him, literally and that one week I was terrified at what he might be like…

Our choir funnies are when we drop books over the edge of organ loft. Usually leaflets thankfully and they land on the congregation below.That causes us a few chuckles. Easily pleased we are. I do both by the way, singing and serving. Or when the organist makes a few errors or occasionally when the organ plays on its own because of the wind direction across the pipes stuff. I once passed someone a gingin sweet, boiled sweet ginger flavour when the sermon had just started as usual, and they really didn’t like the taste… :rolleyes: Not that the congregation were aware of that since we are up in the organ loft. Good home for little funnies as one sees things at times and sometimes more than you want to when weddings are in and couples touch and squeeze each other up from behind forgetting that we can see everything going off :eek:
 
Speaking of sound systems. Ours started “receiving” signals from an evangelical church down the street, usually during Father’s homily. So we had dual homilies or one without benefit of enhanced sound until it got fixed All dealt with it with good humor 🙂
 
Several years ago, I was attending Mass at an old Gothic-style church that didn’t have air-conditioning. It was a little stuffy, so the ushers had opened the doors for some air. A cat wandered in from outside and was totally transfixed by the Liturgy of the Word. It sat in the side aisle for several minutes listening, then began wandering up toward the front of the church curiously.

At that point, an usher saw the cat and started trying to catch it. Father was at the ambo reading the Gospel or delivering his homily when the cat darted away from the usher and ran up the stairs to the ambo. The cat ran up from the side, so Father didn’t notice at first, but then the cat started batting at his vestments (I guess they looked like good cat toys, swaying in the breeze?), and Father was so startled that he nearly jumped out of the ambo.
 
Usher would have been wise to ignore the cat therefore by the sounds of it. Someone cat friendly would have got her out of church so she wouldnt starve when closed.
 
I’m sure the usher was thinking the same thing in retrospect… 🙂 In the usher’s defense, who knows where the cat would have gone since it had already started wandering up the aisle – you’d hate to see it jump on the altar or something like that!
 
Once as we were lining up for the processional, Father whispers to me, “if you hear any screaming during Mass, there’s a squirrel in the church.” Apparently there was quite an uproar during the prior Mass.

Another Sunday we had a sparrow visit for the whole day. And he bathed in the Baptismal font.
 
hannajomar said:
Once as we were lining up for the processional, Father whispers to me, “if you hear any screaming during Mass, there’s a squirrel in the church.” Apparently there was quite an uproar during the prior Mass.

Another Sunday we had a sparrow visit for the whole day. And he bathed himself in the Holy Water font.
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👍

Cool.
 
AnastasiaRomano said:
I’m sure the usher was thinking the same thing in retrospect… 🙂 In the usher’s defense, who knows where the cat would have gone since it had already started wandering up the aisle – you’d hate to see it jump on the altar or something like that!
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Actually I wouldn’t hate it at all if the cat got onto the Altar because we are all Gods’ creatures… The cat wouldn’t get up onto the Altar Table certainly in our church as the Servers would be quick if the cat lept onto that- I am one of them so would be watching but onto the Altar I’d be fine about it being there. Birds have been in the sanctuary before now much to their distress. So whats different about a cat. Apart from it distracting the congregation somewhat.

What I would hate is seeing the cat in distress and that be the only reason to make sure he hadn’t trapped himself anywhere, keep a distant eye on it. But most would react like the Usher and follow around after the cat am sure…🙂
 
When I was in grad school, my parish was the Cathedral, so often I’d come for Sunday Mass and the Bishop would be the celebrant and/or there would be some special celebration that I didn’t know was happening ahead of time. One Sunday, I forget why, there were a lot of Protestants at Mass. During the bishop’s homily, a man r’ose his hand and then started waving his arms around. At first, I figured he just might not understand the liturgy (I’ve been to Protestant worship services that involve Q and A), but eventually he stood up and yelled, "Father, I demand you let me speak! "

The bishop, who had been completely ignoring him up to this point, said, “Son, this is a celebration of the Holy Eucharist,” and then went right back to his homily as two big, burly ushers literally lifted the guy up and carried him out. I had never seen him before, but I guess he had been causing trouble for a few weeks. Never saw him after that, either.

At every parish I’ve belonged to there has been at least one clearly mentally ill person, but as a PP noted they are usually harmless and just distracting until you figure out their “deal.” One guy wore a sweatshirt that had “Jesus” sewn on it. He thought he was a reincarnation of Jesus, but you wouldn’t know that unless you talked to him. He was homeless and our priest was the only minister in town who hadn’t kicked him out. The priest felt badly for him and had managed to teach him not to receive communion. He usually sat through Mass and pointed at himself (or the letters on his shirt) every time Jesus was mentioned.
 
Please keep the stories coming. I guess I haven’t been Catholic long enough to have any stories like these to share.
 
I must say that, as the instigator of this thread, I’m quite pleased to see so many people with interesting stories! Having had a few “interesting” experiences in Church over the years I was starting to wonder if I was the type who attracted trouble, at least now I know it’s not just me. 😃
 
Jeanne_S said:
A few years ago,a toddler in front of me,standing with his mother as she waited to receive the Eucharist,reached into the chalice,as the EM bent down to bless him. He grabbed a fistful of hosts,clenched his fist:It was pretty touch and go for a few seconds as the EU tried to pry open his fist!:eek::eek:
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“I will not let thee go except thou bless me.”
 
silicasandra said:
At every parish I’ve belonged to there has been at least one clearly mentally ill person, but as a PP noted they are usually harmless and just distracting until you figure out their “deal.” One guy wore a sweatshirt that had “Jesus” sewn on it. He thought he was a reincarnation of Jesus, but you wouldn’t know that unless you talked to him. He was homeless and our priest was the only minister in town who hadn’t kicked him out. The priest felt badly for him and had managed to teach him not to receive communion. He usually sat through Mass and pointed at himself (or the letters on his shirt) every time Jesus was mentioned.
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“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’”
 
I would like to ask, apart from whether he been baptised and confirmed, why was he taught not to receive communion?
 
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