S
Sarabande
Guest
I was visiting my inlaws in Florida for the Christmas holidays. Since our flight was scheduled on a Sunday afternoon, we decided to attend mass at the cathedral near the airport. We read about the historical cathedral in the paper and thought it would be a better mass than the parish at my in-laws which they have complained about since moving to Florida.
Prior to mass, the cantor asked everyone to stand up, shake hands and introduce ourselves with each other. They apparently do this at my inlaws’ parish as well. My husband and I were praying at the time and felt very uncomfortable doing this (I’m not an outgoing person in that regard and we never do this in any of our parishes up north), so we continued praying. That was fine. No one seemed to notice us anyway. It was the kind of parish that held hands during the Our Father, but they weren’t pushy, so we didn’t feel uncomfortable not holding hands.
What struck all of us as strange was how the mass was started. Everyone was still talking and cavorting from the introduction thing. The two priests, altar servers, lector had made their way to the back of the church. The presiding priest did a blessing on the families of two babies who were going to be baptised during the mass. They then began to process up the aisle, singing a Gloria which I believe was either by Alstott or Haugen. I can’t remember which one, but it was definitely a strange time to sing the Gloria. While everyone was singing, they came up to the altar, then to their seats. He then proceeded with the rest of the mass.
The rest of the mass was going along ok, but when the priest was ready to do the baptisms, he was interrupted by another family who were also going to have their baby baptised but after the mass. They apparently were confused. What struck us strange was that other people in the congregation were trying to get the priest’s attention to talk to the other family. So he had to stop what he was doing, walk over to the family, then come back to the font and said, “Now, where was I?” which made some people in the congregation laugh.
When the mass was ended, they did some announcements, then the priest got up and had everyone applaud everyone in the cathedral for different things - being new to the parish, being a visitor, being a person attending mass there because they were going to see the games, etc. It was continuous applause about 8 times.
It was just so strange to my husband and I. How correct was this? Is this how it is in Florida parishes? My inlaws told us that it’s like that at their parish as well down there, but it was a lot better than what went on in their parish. It seemed too irreverent to us, but if this is allowed I guess we can’t really think anything of it. I tried my best to just pray and focus, which was a real challenge because this woman in front of me continued to play with her palm pilot throughout the entire mass and every time I opened my eyes, the blue light from the pilot was flashing me. (I’m not blaming the cathedral for her behaviour.) We’ve all lived up in the north East Coast and/or Chicago areas and never experienced anything like this, so this was very new.
Prior to mass, the cantor asked everyone to stand up, shake hands and introduce ourselves with each other. They apparently do this at my inlaws’ parish as well. My husband and I were praying at the time and felt very uncomfortable doing this (I’m not an outgoing person in that regard and we never do this in any of our parishes up north), so we continued praying. That was fine. No one seemed to notice us anyway. It was the kind of parish that held hands during the Our Father, but they weren’t pushy, so we didn’t feel uncomfortable not holding hands.
What struck all of us as strange was how the mass was started. Everyone was still talking and cavorting from the introduction thing. The two priests, altar servers, lector had made their way to the back of the church. The presiding priest did a blessing on the families of two babies who were going to be baptised during the mass. They then began to process up the aisle, singing a Gloria which I believe was either by Alstott or Haugen. I can’t remember which one, but it was definitely a strange time to sing the Gloria. While everyone was singing, they came up to the altar, then to their seats. He then proceeded with the rest of the mass.
The rest of the mass was going along ok, but when the priest was ready to do the baptisms, he was interrupted by another family who were also going to have their baby baptised but after the mass. They apparently were confused. What struck us strange was that other people in the congregation were trying to get the priest’s attention to talk to the other family. So he had to stop what he was doing, walk over to the family, then come back to the font and said, “Now, where was I?” which made some people in the congregation laugh.
When the mass was ended, they did some announcements, then the priest got up and had everyone applaud everyone in the cathedral for different things - being new to the parish, being a visitor, being a person attending mass there because they were going to see the games, etc. It was continuous applause about 8 times.
It was just so strange to my husband and I. How correct was this? Is this how it is in Florida parishes? My inlaws told us that it’s like that at their parish as well down there, but it was a lot better than what went on in their parish. It seemed too irreverent to us, but if this is allowed I guess we can’t really think anything of it. I tried my best to just pray and focus, which was a real challenge because this woman in front of me continued to play with her palm pilot throughout the entire mass and every time I opened my eyes, the blue light from the pilot was flashing me. (I’m not blaming the cathedral for her behaviour.) We’ve all lived up in the north East Coast and/or Chicago areas and never experienced anything like this, so this was very new.