MERGED: Standing during the concecration/Priest make me stand?

[OraLabora]

You realize quite rightfully that is is better to kneel then. If it is against your conscience to stand, you ought to leave the choir or the parish, which ever works for you. You are involved in an old story everyone has to face during their life, whether conform with whatever others desire for you to do, or instead to do what is right. It is better to please God than men.

Well that’s a tough one to sort out, whether in this instance by disobeying the priest we are disobeying God, or not. God says to honour our parents, and a priest is in a way a spiritual parent. On the other hand the disciplines concerning posture for worship, etc., are man-made; in some rites and geographic locations there are differences. For instance in French Canada we only kneel at the consecration; in the US it is more typical to kneel through the entire eucharistic prayer until the great Amen. These are clearly then not God-given rules, but interpretations by men on how we can best worship God.

To me, inner disposition to God is far more important than outer appearance, and humility trumps stubborn pride any day. Anything that shouts “look at me, I’m more reverent than you are” is highly suspicious and reminds me a lot of the Pharisee and the publican.

 

[Crumpy]

If it is possible for you, go to another parish and see if the Mass customs are comfortable for you.

I don’t like the idea that local bishop’s guidelines overrule the GIRM, for example. What game are they playing?

A past bishop we had authorized each priest to interpret the rules his own way. That was a loophole, of course, for chaos. That bishop was a loophole bishop, always looking for a loophole.

The very grave irony to me is that giving the parishes discretion like this is merely subjecting the people to another rule, another hard and fast rule – that changed weekly and changed simply to keep everybody from doing anything mechanically – keep everybody distracted, by the way, to lose the focus on prayer and worship.

In my former parish, the rule was to stand throughout the entire Eucharistic prayer. I don’t think it had a theoretical, theological, or moral significance, it merely forced everyone to be more awake during the Mass. You let all these people kneel down – for so long a time – and they aren’t even looking at the priest.

Again, that was that former bishop. He considered himself an excelent liturgist, He even
videotaped Masses to coach each priest on how to get people more involved. It was his personal crusade. 60 minutes of Mass had only 1 minute of active participation. He tried to play the system for all it was worth.

Later, we had people who dressed the altar during Mass, just to get the priest to stand off to the side or sit for a minute or two, while the linens were spread out. You know how silly THAT gets, when they start fussing about an inch here or there, and even this simple thing gets dragged out.

And, then, AFTER communion, the troops came up to wrap up the linens, and again there was a lot of inch-this-way-inch-that-way fussing about folding of the linens.

For the sake of “participation” the focus was shifted away from God.

I heard that this bishop had a six-minute rule for homilies. He was micromanaging that much. The weather report on TV is longer than that.

there are nutty priests, and you have to recognize when you’re being played. What canon law actually says is that you are not restricted to physical parish boundaries anymore – no parish “owns” you. You can go where you want.

 

[mdgspencer]

I don’t recall anything in Church teaching where it says that we are to obey our priest, let alone obey our priest in whatever he may say about the liturgy or the faith. I agree that we should respect our priest–but to obey him in whatever he says? Perhaps you can provide a link to the Catholic source of your conviction that we owe such obedience to our priest. Our priest, our president, or our mayor are authority figures but not our actual father. The priest should be heard if he provides the actual teaching of the Church. But the priest’s opinions have no particular authority, as far as I can see .
Perhaps some of our difference comes from the fact you are unaware that the law of the Church calls on Catholics of the Latin rite in the United States to kneel during the eucharistic prayer. Of course this may be different in other places as Quebec, where then it would be perfectly all-right to do otherwise.
Society will have great problems if people feel free to reject civil law. The same thing goes for the Church when it comes to Church law.

Well that’s a tough one to sort out, whether in this instance by disobeying the priest we are disobeying God, or not. God says to honour our parents, and a priest is in a way a spiritual parent. On the other hand the disciplines concerning posture for worship, etc., are man-made; in some rites and geographic locations there are differences. For instance in French Canada we only kneel at the consecration; in the US it is more typical to kneel through the entire eucharistic prayer until the great Amen. These are clearly then not God-given rules, but interpretations by men on how we can best worship God.

To me, inner disposition to God is far more important than outer appearance, and humility trumps stubborn pride any day. Anything that shouts “look at me, I’m more reverent than you are” is highly suspicious and reminds me a lot of the Pharisee and the publican.

 

[astroboy024]

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth Phillipians 2:10.

If hearing his name we shall kneel, then during the consecration and onward… Jesus is Physically present. How do you think we should behave? with more or less reverence?

 

[ConstantineTG]

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth Phillipians 2:10.

If hearing his name we shall kneel, then during the consecration and onward… Jesus is Physically present. How do you think we should behave? with more or less reverence?

It says every knee shall bow, not kneel. Do you think the Jews and Greeks in the first century kneels? This has to be the most misquoted verse by traditionalists.

 

[ANNE_2]

OP - talk to the Priest. If that does not work, contact the Diocese Bishop.

All Priests are required to adhere to GIRM (General Instruction of the Roman Missal) as stated by an earlier poster.
It is considered an abuse of the Litergy if they do not follow the “Roman Missal” and “GIRM”.

It is not anyone’s personal opinion that determines what is and is not done at Mass.

Effective Nov 27, 2011, the “Roman Missal, Third Edition” will go into effect.

 

[astroboy024]

It says every knee shall bow, not kneel. Do you think the Jews and Greeks in the first century kneels? This has to be the most misquoted verse by traditionalists.

You clearly missed the entire point. BOW at HIS NAME being spoken!!

In the true presence of Christ at mass, (not just his name being spoken) do you think you should be bowing or standing or kneeling?

Its better to err on the side of reverence in the presence of God rather then stand before him and treat it as if your just listening to your national anthem.