Raising hands in mass

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From the article linked above:
Thus, if neither the bishops’ conference nor the Holy See has seen fit to prescribe any posture for the recitation of the Our Father, it hardly behooves any lesser authority to impose a novel gesture not required by liturgical law and expect the faithful to follow their decrees.
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Exactly. Holding hands during the Lord’s Prayer or raising hands during the same is neither prescribed nor proscribed. It is to be neither insisted upon nor forbidden, especially by self-appointed liturgy cops, who certainly qualify as a “lesser authority.”

If you want to hold hands during the Lord’s Prayer, do so. If you don’t, don’t. Above all, don’t make what the person next to you is doing the focus of the liturgy.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
Some like the hand-holding. That’s fine with me. They can have it.

Actually at certain churches I’ve visited, they all hold hands and I don’t mind because it seems the people really want to stand united.

In a typical church, some do, some don’t. That way I have a decision process whether to join hands or not because I don’t want to offend, neither presume, or to lead others or be led by others when at Mass. This is a stupid thought exercise to go through during Mass. It’s like we’re going to sing two different songs; pick one and go. It creates spiritual cacaphony.

So it isn’t whether we hold hands, just that I hate the issue of whether I hold hands to be the most distracting and annoying part.

Some might say, “get over it.” To them, I ask if they saw recent articles that suggest in the flu season especially with the immunization shortage, that we might “exercise discretion” about the handshake of peace. Really now, what kind of guidance is that? Are we dispensing with it or not? Again, I don’t care what we do as long as somebody just says what it is we’re doing and we don’t play social mind games during church.

Alan
 
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TheGarg:
Until I hear my priest, bishop or the Pope say “Don’t Hold hands during the Our Father”, I guess I will gladly do it…I have heard nothing but personal opinions as of yet though…
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Holding hands during the Our Father is very popular in southern Florida and is even encouraged by most priests.
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betra2000:
… nobody in our Church has ever said anything negative about it. I am surprised by your reaction to this. We feel closer to our neighbor and none of us feel “silly” about it at all.
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I feel uncomfortable holding hands with strangers during the Our Father so I didn’t do it and just folded my hands in prayer. Then when it came time for the sign of peace, those next to me refused to shake my hand and offer me the sign of peace. This has happened numerous times.
 
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AlanFromWichita:
Some like the hand-holding. That’s fine with me. They can have it.

Actually at certain churches I’ve visited, they all hold hands and I don’t mind because it seems the people really want to stand united.

In a typical church, some do, some don’t. That way I have a decision process whether to join hands or not because I don’t want to offend, neither presume, or to lead others or be led by others when at Mass. This is a stupid thought exercise to go through during Mass. It’s like we’re going to sing two different songs; pick one and go. It creates spiritual cacaphony.

So it isn’t whether we hold hands, just that I hate the issue of whether I hold hands to be the most distracting and annoying part.

Some might say, “get over it.” To them, I ask if they saw recent articles that suggest in the flu season especially with the immunization shortage, that we might “exercise discretion” about the handshake of peace. Really now, what kind of guidance is that? Are we dispensing with it or not? Again, I don’t care what we do as long as somebody just says what it is we’re doing and we don’t play social mind games during church.

Alan
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Dear Alan,
You echo my sentiments. I’m not a rabid anti-handholder, but in the situation you present of a mixed parish, it reminds me of being asked if I want paper or plastic. I have to gauge the person next to me as far as their wishes. It’s distracting.
 
I posted this originally because I have not heard of a good reason for it. There are only a few that I notice that do it in my parish (of several thousand) but in other parishes it seems to be more common. I orignally posted this in the “ask an apologist” forum and received the following answer;

The answer was…The fourth time is the charm. Yours is the first question to be answered on the Forum in 2005! The General Instruction of the Roman Missal does not proscribe the raising of hands by the faithful at Mass. It does proscribe such at certain times by the priest.

In certain dioceses the bishop has ordered the faithful to raise their hands during the “Our Father” in an effort to break the habit of their joining each other’s hands for that prayer.

Protestants do not have a corner on the gesture. When Benedictine Monks make their profession of vows, they raise their hands in such a way—and have done so long before Luther ever came on the scene.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.

A couple of thoughts about it though…Does not proscribe mentioned in the answer mean that if it is not proscribed, it is wrong?

My main concern is to not change what the church teaches. As little as this issue sounds, isn’t change how Protestants started?

Maybe it is simply not a big deal, but I really would like to get to the official reference if there is a clear one and am not sure where to go.

Thanks,
Dave
 
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dmelosi:
…My main concern is to not change what the church teaches. As little as this issue sounds,** isn’t change how Protestants started**?..
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:hmmm: I find this very interesting because while in my morning reflection time it popped into my head that the Catholic Church does not have to change. I’m all for Ecumenism…in that “That they all may be one” but I was a Protestant and became a Catholic…so why do we adopt Protestant practices? So something to really think about here… really didn’t hit me before this morning… Some discernment here…anyone?
Annunciata:)
 
I agree with you on the church does not need to change. I also had thought that the practice originated from protestants, but the reply by Fr Vincent Serpa indicates that it is a Catholic one.

Thanks,
Dave
 
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JMJ_Pinoy:
We have joined and raised hands during the Our Father at every Mass I have attended. Then we shake hands and say to each other “Peace Be With You.” Is there anything wrong with this? :confused:
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Same at our parish. It doesn’t feel like sin!
 
you know, the holding hands with a family member at the “Our Father” is one thing… grabbing some strangers hand is altogether something different…at least for me 👍
 
When I started considering joining the Catholic Church I begain attending a parish where there was hand-holding & raising. I couldn’t stand it. I felt the focus should be primarily on Christ. Feeling someone else’s sweaty palms was so distracting I couldn’t concentrate on the prayer. I kept thinking I couldn’t wait 'til the end of mass to get to my car and break out the Hand-i-Wipes. I realize that may sound uncharitable, but the insistant hand-holders seemed rather uncharitable to me. I wanted to get away from all Protestant-like practices so eventually I found a more traditional parish where there is no hand-holding.
 
I personally don’t care where it originated. Protestants aren’t satanists, and their churches tend to be more community oriented, something which most Catholic parishes could do well to emulate. But, I don’t think forced touching is a good way to build a community. Everyone has different boundries and comfort levels about touching, and the safest course is to not force your own touchy feeliness on another.
 
No one meant to say that protestants were satanists, not even close to that. The thought process was to stick with firm beliefs and teachings, don’t interpret based on how you feel. That is the reason protestants originally broke with the Catholic church, thus enabling the “believe what you feel” movement.
 
people in my parish generally follow the perfectly permissable practice of joining hands during the Lord’s Prayer. We were never instricted to do so. It is an organic development arising out of the commmunity. At first mostly families began the practice but soon thereafter people began to feel were as Catholics are a family.
 
As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a life or death issue. The church is facing much greater problems than this one. For instance, what about the fact that no one takes the sacraments seriously anymore? How many people are going for communion without having gone to confession? How many folks have very serious differences with Church teaching, but are trying to change the Church from within? What about the lack of vocations, the priest shortage, etc? And don’t you dare say that it all starts with handholding, I won’t buy that one for a milisecond.

Probably the deep feelings over this issue are only a manifestation over bigger ones, IMO.
 
As people are on their journey and are studying the faith. I don’t understand why you feel that because of other bigger problems in the church, it is wrong to talk about other smaller issues. Sure seems like that is what you meant.

I am not saying that holding hands and raising hands are right or wrong, I am just trying to get to the bottom of this single issue and the official church teaching.
 
When I go to weekday Mass ( at 8 AM) there maybe 80 to 100 people there. I choose to sit apart so I don’t have to be prompted to hold hands. I don’t hold hands at home when I start my nightly prayers with the Our Father, so why should we do it at Mass? I truely do not know how this got started.

There are a few Protestant habits that have crept into the clebration of the Mass, projecting the words of a song up on a wall and singing by the layity are two. I don’t like it.
 
Read this! Below is a link to a good article on the history of liturgists bringing in the orans posture for the faithful (unauthorized by the Holy See of course). This orans posture for the laity during the Our Father was submitted in the draft of the Sacramentary (by the US Bishops to the Holy See) - guess what? It was REJECTED! As they usually do the bishops jumped the gun and began implementing it thinking it would be approved, but it wasn’t. They even posted on the USCCB website as though it was approved but eventually, slowwwly, removed it without ever noting that they were wrong.

So here now we have the remnants of those who not knowingly just do it for “taste” rather than finding out why. I just tell my children, when they ask why people do this, that they just don’t know what the Church teaches and maybe one day their learn.

Here is the link to the document explaining the history of the laity and the orans:
adoremus.org/1103OransPosture.html
 
You’re kidding, some Catholic churches are projecting the words to a song? How incredibly tacky!

I have to admit, the Protestants have been the forerunners in bringing cheesy pop-culture, state of the art Martha Stewart style decorating, and high tech power point multimedia crappola into the churches.
 
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WhiteDove:
As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a life or death issue. The church is facing much greater problems than this one. For instance, what about the fact that no one takes the sacraments seriously anymore? How many people are going for communion without having gone to confession? How many folks have very serious differences with Church teaching, but are trying to change the Church from within? What about the lack of vocations, the priest shortage, etc? And don’t you dare say that it all starts with handholding, I won’t buy that one for a milisecond.

Probably the deep feelings over this issue are only a manifestation over bigger ones, IMO.
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I hear this one all the time and I think it’s just an excuse for people to do what they want. When I hear this I think of Jesus’ words: “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.” ~ (Luke 16:10)
 
I was raised Lutheran and attended Catholic church very frequently. Admittedly, I haven’t been to either in a while, but I have never experienced the hand-holding phenomena. Maybe it is because we are cold, Germans and Scandinavians up here in Wisconsin. I think the idea of being a family is nice, but I can’t help being a non-touchy, feely kind of person. This is cultural.

I have Jewish friends who always kiss on the cheek when greeting you. I think it may also be done in certain parts of the country. I don’t like it at all. I feel very uncomfortable with it since I am not used to it. I guess I need my space.
 
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