Priest in the congregation?

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Thank you, Father. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a priest in the pew not concelebrating and my memory was foggy on what I had seen and been told.
 
We often get Priests and retired Bishops in the Congregation. They do what the Laity do. We also get Priests and Bishops concelebrating, but always with the clergy leading the celebration.
We also get visitors from out of town / country/ etc that bring their own customs to the Mass.
We get clergy dressed in all manner of clothing, from traditional to casual, as with religious men and women.
I admit , sometimes I look twice.
 
When I went to mass daily, I found my self mouthing and in my head saying the prayers at consecration. It was hard to stop say and just listen. I feel that it was to do with attending Mass daily and knowing the words of by heart. This may be the case for this gentleman too.
 
TheMortenBay said:
If I were a visiting priest, I think I’d just aks the pastor to concelebrate in advance. He might even be able to put the visitor to use handing out communing or saying part of the prayers. 😉
I don’t think it’s proper to concelebrate from the pews without proper vestments anyway.
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Sometimes the visiting priest may not be aware sufficiently in advance to be able to contact the celebrating priest. Maybe the visiting priest also intentionally wanted to see things from a normal parishioner’s perspective, maybe looking at what other priests were doing to get ideas for his own parish.
 
OurLadyofSorrows said:
We often get Priests and retired Bishops in the Congregation. They do what the Laity do. We also get Priests and Bishops concelebrating, but always with the clergy leading the celebration.
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Isn’t a bishop, even if retired, still properly a bishop?

And shouldn’t, if there is a bishop among the co-celebrating priests, the bishop be the main celbrant?
 
Cirdan_XII said:
Isn’t a bishop, even if retired, still properly a bishop?

And shouldn’t, if there is a bishop among the co-celebrating priests, the bishop be the main celbrant?
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This really is above my pay scale as the literature I read, and the past threads on CAF seem to indicate it is not defined.

It does raise on question. When the Pope, Pope Francis is celebrating Mass, does the Pope Emeritus concelebrate or sit in the crowd, do the Cardinals concelebrate or sit in the crowd , either in the Sanctuary or in some sort of formation in front of the laity.
 
This is my opinion for what it’s worth. When you live every day of your life in God’s hands, a person at mass saying ‘this is my body which is given up for you’, he could sincerely mean that indeed, his body is given for the service of God for the salvation of souls by offering every pain, sorrow, and trouble in his life. If St Francis was sitting beside us, saying those prayers, I’d be good with that. The surrender of the human will to the Divine will.
 
BigRon said:
I have that with someone in Mass and he says it very loudly, he also wears trousers and jumper with mates written all over it and brings his dog.
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What is a “jumper with mates written all over it”? Is this some kind of Australian thing?

If I had to guess, it sounds like the man OP is describing, is some kind of charismatic, enthusiast, or possibly just an extremely demonstrative, expressive person who thinks this is a proper mode of prayer for a layman in a congregation.

I once knew someone (and he was a bit, ahem, strange) who attended an SSPX chapel and read every word of the liturgy — including, if I recall correctly, the consecration (!) — in Latin, very softly, to himself, you could see his lips moving very, very slightly. Nobody ever said anything to him about it. He was not a priest — just kind of a piece of work. This fact was well-known to everyone.
 
TheHolyTrinity said:
When I went to mass daily, I found my self mouthing and in my head saying the prayers at consecration
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That’s not an issue. Since the words are spoken out loud, it’s only natural to learn them an think them. The man in the OP was described as extending his hands (as if to consecrate or concelebrate).
Cirdan_XII said:
Sometimes the visiting priest may not be aware sufficiently in advance to be able to contact the celebrating priest
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No reason to be concelebrating from the pews, though. A priest can be in attendance without concelebrating or without sitting in choir.
 
BigRon said:
What is a “jumper with mates written all over it”?
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OK, I see. The priest needs to take him aside after Mass and explain to him that wearing clothing with condom logos on it, creates scandal for the faithful and is irreverent. I would hope that he doesn’t go up and receive communion wearing this sweater.

And I thought the guy at my old parish wearing the T-shirt advertising a strip club was over the line…
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I mouth the priests words very slightly. At first it was my way of following along, now it’s a habit. (Ha! “Habit” religious joke)
I do not do the orans posture like most do. No sign of peace or hand-holding either. I am an eccentric reclusive hermit by nature, and do not plan to change. I go for the mass, not to be social and “touchy-feely”.
God knows my heart.
Dominus vobiscum
 
Cirdan_XII said:
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OurLadyofSorrows:
We often get Priests and retired Bishops in the Congregation. They do what the Laity do. We also get Priests and Bishops concelebrating, but always with the clergy leading the celebration.
Click to expand...
Isn’t a bishop, even if retired, still properly a bishop?

And shouldn’t, if there is a bishop among the co-celebrating priests, the bishop be the main celbrant?
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While a bishop in attendance SHOULD be the main celebrant when vesting, a bishop may sit in choir.

In otherwords, a bishop should not concelebrate unless another bishop is the main celebrant. But there is no reason why a bishop can’t sit in choir.

However, I’m sure there are exceptions that we are unfamiliar with (esp if the bishop is traveling on personal business, not church business)
 
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I sure hope the man in the OP is not a priest, because he should know better than to do that!

Every once in a while I hear someone whispering the words of Consecration near me. I don’t look around to see who it is, and I try to tune it out. But you can’t just make yourself not hear something, and the brain is naturally going to focus on something that’s out of place. People need to realize how distracting and inconsiderate that behavior is.

I do “think along” a lot of the words of the Eucharistic prayer with the priest, but I’m very careful not to mouth them.
 
Wow. In my jr. high school, the teachers would instruct students, while pointing at the shirt “Turn it inside out.”
Im smelling troll on the person though. The part harder to grasp is that they memorized the mass in latin, and recite it loudly just to troll. Then accept communion. Seems like more effort than a typical rabble-rouser would take. Still trying to figure this one out.
Dominus vobiscum
 
Agnus-Dei said:
Wow. In my jr. high school, the teachers would instruct students, while pointing at the shirt “Turn it inside out.”
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Honestly its bright red. I don’t think anyone can say anything to him, take the house of commons as an example, the rules state everyone should be dressed in a certain manner and t-shirts with slogans are banned but women have been known to wear them and they aren’t kicked out but I’m sure a man would be. The guy might say he isn’t coming to church if he couldn’t wear it and make the priest feel bad.
 
Duty for an usher perhaps? I don’t know. Usually I do not pay attention to what people wear. The thing that distracts me more is the noisy children at times. Going to mass blindfolded, and with ear plugs wouldn’t work out well.
Dominus vobiscum
 
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