Postures and Gestures: POLL on their meaning, importance, spiritual value

  • Thread starter Thread starter WhiteDove
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Mom of 5:
I just don’t get it! Who cares what gestures we use. We are supposed to be in church to give homage to God. If someone watches me pray and does not agree how I do it, he/she should not be in church. Or, maybe we should have the church police who go around and tell us how to/not to hold our hands, join or not join hands, kneel or not kneel, close our eyes or keep them open. We are individuals praising Our Lord. As long as we praise in a way that is not distracting to others, I’m sure He approves. I pray all day every day. I offer up my day and all I do before I put my feet on the floor. So, doing laundry, scrubbing the bathroom sink or mowing the lawn are all prayers. Not is church, but I think that is o.k. too.

Love and peace
Click to expand...
The highlighted part of your quote is up to individual opinion.
How do you know what is distracting to others?
 
netmil(name removed by moderator):
I cannot believe that you got back here after being suspended and pulled posts from a closed thread. Amazing.

Rant all you like, I’m not even going to bother to read all the stuff you wrote. You seem to have a kind of obsesssion that I don’t care to deal with.
Click to expand...
…and you seem unable to see the error in ridiculing fellow Catholics

But i posted more for others reading than for you.

God bless you.
 
ps
…also one should not discuss the actions of moderators especially those actions of which one has no knowledge.
 
****** Weren’t the Pharisee good at elaborate posture and gestures ? I can see were it can lead to phonyism.

**
 
Diane, I think we can conclude that our gestures surely reflect our reverence. And when we begin to experience conversion and desire to learn more about our faith we adopt these postures and gestures that reflect our reverence.

I can see how you were drawn to the image of the beautifully reverent little girl. I can see equal reverence in someone praying with their hands held high, even though I choose not to do that.

True piety and reverence is radiant because it is loving and directed towards God. But I would advise being careful to look at people and think “I want to be like them.” I know from experience that judging someone elses spiritual depth based on how they appear can be dangerous. Sometimes people desperately need to appear “all together” because they may not actually be. It’s easy to control the externals with the hope that the interior will follow suit. I was a little disheartened once when I put too much stock in a person’s outward appearance of spirituality, only to find them the same mess as everyone
else. Be mindful of the need to look holy and concentrate on being holy, that’s the advice my pastor gave me. We’ve talked about the humility part before. I am so grateful for Our Lord’s mercy and so undeserving of it. I’m glad to hear you are still on fire. It’s like DOH, why did it take me so long to get it? I’m with you there. Love, Paula
40.png
Lux_et_veritas:
I really couldn’t vote because I couldn’t find an answer that fit my feelings on the subject.

I don’t know, for example, if it is written anywhere how one should enter and exit a pew, or how they should present themselves when walking past the center of the church (past the tabernacle). But I was put to shame by a girl maybe 10 or 11 years old. She walks through church quietly and slowly, and with a serene face that has a depth of concentration on it. As she enters the pew, she drops slowly and with great purpose and sincerity to genuflect, going to the ground. I could*** feel*** her reverence as she paid* respect*.

Note that reverence and respect are in the same sentence. One should pay due respect to the Lord and reverence happens. I see this kind of deep, purposeful and sincere genuflection in the churches with large orthodox catholic populations.

Is it being judgemental? I don’t think so. I know personally how often I’ve “limped” my way into the pew with a “hiya Lord” attitude (all in a split second before I went on to daydreaming as I waited for mass to begin). Then I would slouch directly into my seat without kneeling for even a brief moment to pay respect to our Lord. It didn’t do anything for* me*. Well, that little girl taught me a big lesson. It’s not about me, it’s about Him and he should get due respect so that reverence can happen. It took me just a few days to begin to have reverence after being respectful to the Lord.

I also believe in what a priest at a local parish said this past Sunday about genuflection and kneeling. He said that the knee is a sign of strength when straight, but a sign of humility when bent. The Lord looks for us to humble ourselves and we do this by kneeling before him.

I’m on board and my untrained knees and knee muscles are getting a real workout.

:bowdown:

Now maybe people show their reverence in different ways, but I’ll tell you that I’ve tried it all and nothing helps me to be reverent more than showing simple gestures of respect.
Click to expand...
 
40.png
PJR:
Diane, I think we can conclude that our gestures surely reflect our reverence. And when we begin to experience conversion and desire to learn more about our faith we adopt these postures and gestures that reflect our reverence.

I can see how you were drawn to the image of the beautifully reverent little girl. I can see equal reverence in someone praying with their hands held high, even though I choose not to do that.

True piety and reverence is radiant because it is loving and directed towards God. But I would advise being careful to look at people and think “I want to be like them.” I know from experience that judging someone elses spiritual depth based on how they appear can be dangerous. Sometimes people desperately need to appear “all together” because they may not actually be. It’s easy to control the externals with the hope that the interior will follow suit. I was a little disheartened once when I put too much stock in a person’s outward appearance of spirituality, only to find them the same mess as everyone
else. Be mindful of the need to look holy and concentrate on being holy, that’s the advice my pastor gave me. We’ve talked about the humility part before. I am so grateful for Our Lord’s mercy and so undeserving of it. I’m glad to hear you are still on fire. It’s like DOH, why did it take me so long to get it? I’m with you there. Love, Paula
Click to expand...
I appreciate what you are saying, but also note the last statement within my post which says.

Now maybe people show their reverence in different ways, but I’ll tell you that I’ve tried it all and nothing helps me to be reverent more than showing simple gestures of respect.

I simply provided a personal opinion of what worked and didn’t work for me, without stating that everyone else should do it. This is where I hope people will be careful. Are there others that this will work for, as it did for me? I believe so. Will it work for everyone? Probably not.

I think the Lord was trying to tell me about my overall irreverence and not anybody else’s the day that little girl struck me so profoundly. God talks to us in different ways and if He hadn’t intended for me to learn the lesson, I suspect I never would have gone through the thought process I had.
 
40.png
Mysty101:
ps
…also one should not discuss the actions of moderators especially those actions of which one has no knowledge.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you didn’t know that when you are suspended, it shows up under your name. It’s there for everyone to see. I’m sure that if the mods didn’t want one to know, it would not appear on every one of your posts.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top