Is clapping to the music at Mass appropriate?

[Angela77]

See poll.

 

[ProVobis]

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Spanish Mass without clapping.

Different way of participation, I guess.

 

[youngsterat16]

This is my opinion and in some instances i say maybe. It really depends. Defintely not during Mass itself but like the closing hymns i think it depends. If the music and singing and clapping is being rtreated as if its like a concert than my opinion is no because due to reverence and respect of it being during a sacred time in His dwelling place. but i think if its just clapping benig its just a song that just makes people clap to the beat sort of thing i think its okay. As long as the music isnt being treated like a concert. This is just my opinion though. This goes for the opening hymn too. *

 

[Jim91]

0.o some1 voted no

I personally see no problem with clapping to the music at Mass.

 

[mdgspencer]

I don’t think the music at mass should be considered a performance, and that we should clap over enjoyment over it. The music like everything at music is for worship. I think applause is a mistake (though no grave error.)

 

[Benedict_Option]

Clapping is probably acceptable in a Spanish Mass or in Africa or something. They have different liturgical norms.

For people in America and Europe, I would think that clapping should be discouraged. In our culture clapping is not reverent and it is not how we approach God. In South America and Africa they approach God in different ways. And the Church therefore allows them to have different liturgy so that their cultures are reflected in it. Still… those are the traditional ways they approach God, so it is nonetheless reverent.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

Whether it’s a cultural thing or because you’re moved by the Spirit to praise and worship in that way, I see nothing wrong with clapping to the music.

This is very different than “applause”, which has been frowned upon within the Mass by many.

It’s all about the focus, of course. Psalm 47 says all people should clap their hands and sing loud songs of joy to the Lord; Scripture never mentions treating worship as a concert/entertainment, which I would agree with others is inappropriate.

 

[Petaro]

What is your mass? A music camp or the ever eternal sacrifice of Our Lord at Calvary and His precious presence in the Eurcharist? Better to bow one’s head in adoration rather than clapping like a teenager at the beat in some obscene primeval passion.

 

[pianistclare]

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Spanish Mass without clapping.

Different way of participation, I guess.

Yup. Our priest often processes in clapping to the always festive music. The Anglo mass, never.
Different culture.
As a choir director in the past, priests would often have me put " no clapping" notices in but the bulletin, but that was in the form of applause, not clapping with the music.
Big difference.

 

[Neofight]

What is your mass? A music camp or the ever eternal sacrifice of Our Lord at Calvary and His precious presence in the Eurcharist? Better to bow one’s head in adoration rather than clapping like a teenager at the beat in some obscene primeval passion.

yeah, the nerve of those people who were hooting and hollering when he came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to enter into his passion!

 

[Mintaka]

When Jesus was walking along the street, receiving the secular plaudits of a Davidic king, He did things differently than when He was in the Temple, worshipping and discussing Torah.

Similarly, the Psalms talking about people dancing and clapping their hands were talking about specific liturgical processions, either out in the fields or in the streets of Jerusalem. At those times you were ordered to either rejoice in the prescribed manners, or stay home; people in mourning for their dead were not allowed to come.

Similarly, on Purim, adult Jewish people were ordered to rejoice and to drink wine to the point of getting drunk; and it was traditionally very hard to get excused from it, even if you didn’t drink or didn’t like wine.

People being ordered to get drunk on Purim doesn’t mean that Christians are ordered to get drunk on Purim. It certainly does not mean that everybody who goes to Mass, on every occasion, has to be chugging wine out in the pews, wearing Purim masks and costumes, and saying uncomplimentary things about Haman.

Clapping or not clapping is not in the rubrics of the Mass, in any Rite I know about. (Except in places where clapping is used to represent the sound of the earthquake on Good Friday, instead of using wooden clappers or noisemakers or the dropping of pebbles on metal or the dropping of choir hymnals.)

Therefore it is up to the bishops and priests to regulate clapping, and for the laity to clap or not clap as they see fit (or can persuade each other to see fit).

 

[christofirst]

If the music is really rousing, maybe we can stamp our feet and tap out a rhythm on the back of the pew.

 

[pianistclare]

(Except in places where clapping is used to represent the sound of the earthquake on Good Friday, instead of using wooden clappers or noisemakers or the dropping of pebbles on metal or the dropping of choir hymnals.)

Where is this done???

 

[John_Lazarus]

What if the hymn is “Clap Your Hands All Ye People”?

 

[Bballer32]

I would say that the culture would determine the instance.

At a Spanish mass, I would say in some instances it is ok.

At an African Mass, I would say in some instances it is ok.

In an American, European, Russian, etc., I would say no.

American and European culture is different and has never been all clap happy with music until the 1970s. So, just because some other cultural Masses are allowed to do it doesn’t mean that all Masses are allowed to do it.

 

[Bballer32]

Whether it’s a cultural thing or because you’re moved by the Spirit to praise and worship in that way, I see nothing wrong with clapping to the music.

This is very different than “applause”, which has been frowned upon within the Mass by many.

It’s all about the focus, of course. Psalm 47 says all people should clap their hands and sing loud songs of joy to the Lord; Scripture never mentions treating worship as a concert/entertainment, which I would agree with others is inappropriate.

Good point. However, Psalm 47 talks about times outside of the Liturgical Norms of the Jewish ceremonies.

 

[Bballer32]

yeah, the nerve of those people who were hooting and hollering when he came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to enter into his passion!

Still not a liturgical instance. There was no clapping or hooting and hollering at the Last Supper or at the Crucifixion on Calvary, which are the two instances in Christ’s life that the Mass is mostly Based upon.

You make a good point, but it’s in the wrong context to be used for an argument of this subject.

 

[Bballer32]

Where is this done???

This is actually done at the end of Tenebrae during Holy Week. The Priest/Presider takes the last candle and processes out of the room or church with it, and the people start to pound their feet and the pews to symbolize the earth quake after the Crucifixion and then the Pries/Presider comes back in with the Candle and all the noise ceases. The Candle is set back on the altar as a symbol of the resurrection of the Light.

Here’s a quote from the Catholic Answers Encyclopedia: catholic.com/encyclopedia/tenebrae

The noise made at the end of Tenebrae undoubtedly had its origin in the signal given by the master of ceremonies for the return of the ministers to the sacristy. A number of the earlier Ceremoniales and Ordines are explicit on the point. But at a later date others lent their aid in making this knocking. For example Patricius Piccolomini says: “The prayer being ended the master of ceremonies begins to beat with his hand upon the altar step or upon some bench, and all to some extent make a noise and clatter”. This was afterwards symbolically interpreted to represent the convulsion of nature which followed the death of Jesus Christ.

Tenebrae is beautiful and I hope more churches continue to bring this practice back!

 

[RCbkr]

There doesn’t have to be applause for Mass music to be considered a performance. Pretty much all feast days and at many other “regular” Masses at my church finds the choir (sometimes just the paid professionals in it) singing the liturgy with the congregation just listening. As someone who likes to sing, it does feel strange and sometimes annoying when I stand in silence while being serenaded with the Kyrie, Gloria, and Agnus Dei. Beautiful as it is being performed, I’d still rather be singing my own prayers.

 

[pianistclare]

This is actually done at the end of Tenebrae during Holy Week. The Priest/Presider takes the last candle and processes out of the room or church with it, and the people start to pound their feet and the pews to symbolize the earth quake after the Crucifixion and then the Pries/Presider comes back in with the Candle and all the noise ceases. The Candle is set back on the altar as a symbol of the resurrection of the Light.

Here’s a quote from the Catholic Answers Encyclopedia: catholic.com/encyclopedia/tenebrae

Tenebrae is beautiful and I hope more churches continue to bring this practice back!

I’ve been to lots of Tenebrae services (never n a Catholic church though) and they don’t do that.