Is hand holding during the Our Father practiced outside the United States?

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It is interesting that no one here is advocating for the hands up like the priest position (but not holding hands).

In non English speaking countries this is regularly seen and the Pope has deemed it licit for all of Italy at least.

:eek:
 
Jon_S said:
It is interesting that no one here is advocating for the hands up like the priest position (but not holding hands).

In non English speaking countries this is regularly seen and the Pope has deemed it licit for all of Italy at least.

:eek:
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Source?
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
Source?
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zenit.org/en/articles/holding-hands-at-the-our-father
A different case is the practice in which some people adopt the “orantes” posture during the Our Father, praying like the priest, with hands extended.
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In some countries, Italy, for example, the Holy See has granted the bishops’ request to allow anyone who wishes to adopt this posture during the Our Father. Usually about a third to one-half of the assembled faithful choose to do so.
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Despite appearances, this gesture is not, strictly speaking, a case of the laity trying to usurp priestly functions.
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The Our Father is the prayer of the entire assembly and not a priestly or presidential prayer. In fact, it is perhaps the only case when the rubrics direct the priest to pray with arms extended in a prayer that he does not say alone or only with other priests. Therefore, in the case of the Our Father, the orantes posture expresses the prayer directed to God by his children.
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The U.S. bishops’ conference debated a proposal by some bishops to allow the use of the orantes posture while discussing the “American Adaptations to the General Instruction to the Roman Missal” last year. Some bishops even argued that it was the best way of ridding the country of holding hands. The proposal failed to garner the required two-thirds majority of votes, however, and was dropped from the agenda.
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Book_Worm said:
We’re all members of the Body of Christ but heaven forbid we should actually touch one another’s body in a warm and friendly gesture. I can only imagine God’s horror at witnessing such a sign of our communal faith.

I know that some people are uncomfortable with the practice, but to insult those who do it is, to me, egregiously lacking in charity.
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Jon_S said:
Why people are so angered by the body of Christ holding hands in unity standing as one body in prayer is absolutely beyond me.

As a former evangelical, I was used to the individualism, and it was seeing a parish of a thousand brothers and sisters in Christ standing in unison as one body physically holding hands, praying that really showed me there was something majestic, beautiful, and different about Catholicism.

It’s sad to me that there are parishes where people cringe at the thought of another human being sitting next to them.
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One body, really? Seems a little hypocritical (not by you), since we’re okay with segregating communities by language and culture.

That said, I did see some attempt at unity when everyone joined hands and arms in singing “We shall overcome” during the 60’s. But that was among different cultures.
 
ProVobis said:
One body, really? Seems a little hypocritical (not by you), since we’re okay with segregating communities by language and culture.

That said, I did see some attempt at unity when everyone joined hands and arms in singing “We shall overcome” during the 60’s.
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I’m not sure what you mean ?

Many parishes in my area have masses in many different languages in the same parish.

My diocese has a huge Vietnamese and Spanish speaking community. At the chrism mass with the bishop we had singing and reading/ speaking in five languages if you include Latin. All in one mass.

It was fantastic and a beautiful display of the universal church across the globe.
 
Jon_S said:
At the chrism mass with the bishop we had singing and reading/ speaking in five languages if you include Latin. All in one mass.
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And without the bishop or Pope, how often do you see this?
 
ProVobis said:
And without the bishop or Pope, how often do you see this?
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In my parish it is one language. Several neighboring parishes have multiple languages in a single parish.

I have attended several Spanish and Vietnamese masses due to time and location and was quite welcomed and quite happy to do so.

All that said, my parish is full of a wide variety of cultures.
 
Book_Worm said:
So, into which category would you put this practic, speaking insultingly, treating harmfully or offensively, committing sexual assault?
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Am not sure where exactly invasion of space comes into play. Am still thinking on that.
 
RosslynV said:
Didn’t want to discuss the merits of this act in this thread just the prevalence.
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I’m not a moderator (and aren’t you glad?), but let’s honor the requests of the original poster, even if there weren’t a forum rule about staying on-topic within a thread and starting new threads for other topics. Too often in my searches, I’ve opened what looked like threads about bread, fish, and eggs, and instead I was given a lot of posts about stones, snakes, and scorpions.

Now back to the subject!
 
I think some churches in Canada do it also. I didn’t see anyone holding hands when I visited Vienna, Prague and Poland a few years ago.
 
I’ve was very blessed with travel opportunities when I was younger.

I’ve been to Mass in Ireland, the UK, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Canada.

The only place I saw handholding was in Mexico.
 
RosslynV said:
I’m wondering if this is primarily an American phenomenon.
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No .

They did it during the Mass on Holy Thursday at which Pope Francis was the leading celebrant .

I don’t see why people have problems with it .
 
I personally don’t see anything wrong with either way.

The prayer says “OUR” Father, not MY Father. If you are charitable in your prayers, which we are supposed to be, then what’s the beef?

Remember the old saying…“A family that prays together, stays together” Would anyone here honestly REFUSED to hold the hands of a small child during this prayer.

the OUR Father does NOT mean just you, it means us…no matter who that “US” happens to be…Get over it.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
Who is “they”?

Video?
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“They” are they who are holding hands during the Lord’s Prayer .

Yes it’s on video . I first watched the Mass on video on the French Catholic TV service KTO , and it is also on the vatican video .
 
petronus said:
“They” are they who are holding hands during the Lord’s Prayer .

Yes it’s on video . I first watched the Mass on video on the French Catholic TV service KTO , and it is also on the vatican video .
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Italians? Americans? Asians? I still do not know who “they” is.

Is there a place I can watch the video showing the hand holding? There is a difference on who the they is. I doubt it was the priests. I suspect it was tourists in which case it very well could have been americans. I don’t know but I think a couple of Americans are in Rome during Holy week and leading up to DMS and the canonizations.🤷

When I was in Rome you could spot an american right away. They were the ones holding hands during the our father and receiving in the hand.😉

Just walk up to them after Mass and in English ask what state they are from. It was comforting to hear English!
 
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