Posture at Mass

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yellow8yellowM

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At my parish
  1. Nearly everybody extends their arms (half-orans?) every time they say “And with your spirit.”
  2. Nearly everybody does half-orans and orans during the “Lift up your hearts” prayer.
  3. About half of the laity holds hands during the Our Father prayer.
  4. All of my extended family does these things.
Would it be better for me to just go along with things even though it is not the proper liturgical posture, or would it be better to just follow the crowd until our pastor directs us to do things differently?
 
yellow8yellowM said:
At my parish
  1. Nearly everybody extends their arms (half-orans?) every time they say “And with your spirit.”
  2. Nearly everybody does half-orans and orans during the “Lift up your hearts” prayer.
  3. About half of the laity holds hands during the Our Father prayer.
  4. All of my extended family does these things.
Would it be better for me to just go along with things even though it is not the proper liturgical posture, or would it be better to just follow the crowd until our pastor directs us to do things differently?
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Do as your pastor says. It is his job to direct you to God.

It’s difficult when everyone is doing something else but if your pastor took the time to mention it then it is important to him. Really and truly, the only time during the mass for you to acknowledge others is during the sign of peace.
 
ARGH! I can’t STAND this! many people do this at my parish as well. as a convert, it makes me feel as if i am back at a protestant church. ick… lol
 
Most of the parishioners in my chuch add the orans posture, the “half-orans” gesture when they say “And with your spirit,” and of course the hand-holding. I just keep my hands clasped loosely in front of me. I don’t think its obvious, and it shouldn’t give any offense. If someone is nudging me to grab their hand during the Our Father, I’ll hold hands with them rather than give the appearance of spurning them, but otherwise I just do what I’m comfortable doing.
 
datritle said:
ARGH! I can’t STAND this! many people do this at my parish as well. as a convert, it makes me feel as if i am back at a protestant church. ick… lol
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My sentiments, too! Give me back the CATHOLIC MASS, please, I am not fond of the Protestant-style service. In fact, it has kept me away from Church longer than I am going to admit.
 
To datritle:

What is wrong with a Protestant Church? And you are a K of C. Shame. May parents (God Rest Their Souls) taught me to respect other religions and I still do.
 
superamazingman said:
It’s not the one, true, church. That’s all.
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Well, more to the point, many Protestant (and Evangelical) ecclesial communities (not Churches) have a structure in place where it is permitted for the hoi polloi to invent and dictate liturgical innovations. In these ecclesial communities there is a cacophony, a Babel, of praxis, not to mention doctrine, that reflects the anarchic and decentralized structures of, what, 30,000 denominations?

Whereas the Catholic Church is one, holy, and apostolic. We have one hierarchy and one Vicar of Christ. Liturgical innovations are either deemed organic and codified, or frowned upon and reprobated, according to their appropriateness. Our liturgical books are regulated centrally and promulgated universally so that we may have unity of worship throughout the world.

Now, I don’t know which way the Church will come down on hand gestures such as this. It has really never regulated gestures to a great extent. In all probability, she will never rule on something so trivial as this. For the foreseeable future, this remains a personal preference, and one which I do not prefer. I personally mimic the altar servers, who stand reverently with hands joined in front of them. I adopt this posture unless I am holding something, like a hymnal, which in the choir, I often am doing.

The half-orans and orans postures are very low on my list of things that annoy me about liturgy. They are a personal choice, unregulated by the current books. I feel that if I just leave those people alone, the custom may die out soon, due to the post-Vatican II Biological Solution working its magic. If it were important or useful, then it would be catching on and becoming more popular, rather than less.
 
Piwowar said:
To datritle:

What is wrong with a Protestant Church? And you are a K of C. Shame. May parents (God Rest Their Souls) taught me to respect other religions and I still do.
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They don’t have the fullness of Truth.

Anyway, the orans posture during Mass is specific to the priest, not the laity, not the deacon, etc.

Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean one should join in.
 
yellow8yellowM said:
At my parish
  1. Nearly everybody extends their arms (half-orans?) every time they say “And with your spirit.”
  2. Nearly everybody does half-orans and orans during the “Lift up your hearts” prayer.
  3. About half of the laity holds hands during the Our Father prayer.
  4. All of my extended family does these things.
Would it be better for me to just go along with things even though it is not the proper liturgical posture, or would it be better to just follow the crowd until our pastor directs us to do things differently?
Click to expand...
The Priest leads the congregation. Confront Him if he’s not make any submission on that yet. Sometimes, it’s difficult to change. I think that’s why they possibly do not bother themselves to say so.

At my parish it has been announced several times yet most people still do.
A generation may come when these may not be found anymore. Though it may be difficult for some to do away with that, it can be possible.

You can however start going away from the norm of your lay faithfuls and do what you know is right. You may not know that you have some role models who are looking up to you. They may confront you and you can explain.

YOU CAN MAKE A CHANGE!
👍
 
There were quite a few people who did these things at our parish over the past few years, but the practice has (thankfully) fallen off a lot in the past year or so. Now only a few people still do it. I don’t believe their intent is to be disrespectful, so I try not to judge them for it, but I also try to follow the proper liturgical posture myself, whether or not those around me do.

I usually just close my eyes (and fold my hands) during the Our Father, so that other people’s hand-holding doesn’t distract me (and it helps keep other people from trying to hold my hand, too, as a side benefit).

However, when we are at a non-Catholic’s home, and they hold hands to pray before the meal, we will hold hands so as not to offend the hosts (though I do still make the Sign of the Cross at the end). When they come to our house, we take the lead and fold our hands in prayer before anybody starts holding hands, but some people do it anyway, perhaps because it feels weird to them not to do what has become habit when praying?

I’ve only had one person ask me why I don’t hold hands during the Our Father; however, if a lot of people in your parish do it, you may have some who question you about it. Be prepared to have a gentle explanation to give them. 😉
 
halleone said:
My sentiments, too! Give me back the CATHOLIC MASS, please, I am not fond of the Protestant-style service. In fact, it has kept me away from Church longer than I am going to admit.
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I think it’s unfortunate that postures you find pleasing seem of more importance to you than the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
 
universityprof said:
I believe the correct thing to do is to respect other faith traditions too. Treat them with the same respect as you would catholocism.
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While it is fine and laudable to respect other faiths, we do not have to accept them as true or equal to the True Faith. As above, I have tried to be respectful, but at the same time, outlined the differences which set us apart liturgically from the separated brethren.
 
Elizium23 said:
While it is fine and laudable to respect other faiths, we do not have to accept them as true or equal to the True Faith. As above, I have tried to be respectful, but at the same time, outlined the differences which set us apart liturgically from the separated brethren.
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Your point is well taken. However, as a catholic, I’m not going to say that the faith tradition that another human begin belongs to is not a true faith. To them it may very well be. Just a friendly observation, I believe we get ourselves into trouble when we take on such a seemingly pompous attitude. Peace be with you.
 
yellow8yellowM said:
At my parish
  1. Nearly everybody extends their arms (half-orans?) every time they say “And with your spirit.”
  2. Nearly everybody does half-orans and orans during the “Lift up your hearts” prayer.
  3. About half of the laity holds hands during the Our Father prayer.
  4. All of my extended family does these things.
Would it be better for me to just go along with things even though it is not the proper liturgical posture, or would it be better to just follow the crowd until our pastor directs us to do things differently?
Click to expand...
Since there has been no clear directive as shown from the USCCB website:

"Many Catholics are in the habit of holding their hands in the “Orans” posture during the Lord’s prayer along with the celebrant. Some do this on their own as a private devotional posture while some congregations make it a general practice for their communities.

Is this practice permissible under the current rubrics, either as a private practice not something adopted by a particular parish as a communal gesture?

No position is prescribed in the present Sacramentary for an assembly gesture during the Lord’s Prayer."

It is up to you how to respond. It is a personal preference, but I would advise you or anyone not to make assumptions on the sprituality of your fellow parishoners. Your pastor is not obligated to direct the congregation one way or the other.
 
universityprof said:
I believe the correct thing to do is to respect other faith traditions too. Treat them with the same respect as you would catholocism.
Click to expand...
No, we shouldn’t. Ours is the one true faith, and their’s is not. It’s that simple.
 
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