Rosary before Mass truncated

[zab]

paperwight,
I will say, that when I read my post after I had posted it, it did not sound the way that I had intended it, that is in quoting that Guitar had “a bit of an attitude about that” the phrase seemed to be reflecting on my first sentence, “You don’t know me any more than I know you.” That was not how I intended it to be interpreted but I wrongfully asumed that the reader would understand what I was intending to say. So your accusation of my “twisting Guitar’s words” was not true. I wasn’t twisting words, but I did make an error in getting my point across due to improper sentence structure. Regarding your request that I "read Guitar’s account of the incident again quietly and carefully and then read (my) replies. Then feel ashamed." I might ask that you do the same. But again, you can believe whatever you want. It doesn’t make it true.

 

[zab]

A few people in our parish pray the rosary before Sunday mass. I have been joining them for months. The size of the group varies from six to several dozen from week to week. Yesterday, the woman who usually leads the rosary was unable to be there, so one of the ladies asked me to lead the rosary. As we were getting to the final Glory Be and the Hail Holy Queen, one of the the lectors entered, went to the pulpit and just started reading the pre-mass announcements and the pages for the day’s readings and asking who was a visitor. This was done with a microphone, so there was no possibility to continue reciting the rosary to the end. I completed it silently.

There was at least one or two minutes after his announcements before the bell rang and mass was started. This is the second time this has happened that I am aware of, although I don’t know if it was the same lector. The last time was a few weeks ago when an elderly lady was leading and it left her upset and practically in tears. It would have taken a maximum of 30 seconds for us to finish the two prayers. A quick assessment by the lector would have determined that the mass would not be late in starting by allowing us (probably a dozen parishoners) to finish. I had to remind myself that I had just been to confession, but I had to gulp down my irritation…

Since we have a very small church and the narthex opens onto it with 6 doors, it is often very noisy with people socializing pre-mass. Often people are coming into the church, where people are obviously involved in reverent prayer, and shouting out a hearty greeting or worse. Mass often enough starts late, and much noise is made getting the faithful into the church as if it were the second half of a broadway show or something. I’m much less calm about this now than I was yesterday. Your thoughts or comments please.

Getting back on track to the request of the OP for thoughts and comments on her situation, I will begin by saying, blessed is the parish that has true devotion to our Blessed Mother. This true devotion should lead to a strong devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. A small group of devoted people can turn a parish around. I have witnessed this. In the past 28 years, we have gone from a moderate parish that was practically run by liberal feminists, to a traditional parish that is the envy of the Archdiocese. This parish has always had a strong core memebership in the Legion of Mary even during those difficult years. The moderate pastor allowed Perpetual Adoration to begin in this parish. And those two strong devotions led to a real transformation in this parish. I would advise the OP to be patient with all of the distractions and to persevere in your devotion to the Blessed Mother. If the rosary group is not beginning their prayers at least 30 minutes before Mass, this is something to be concerned about and may need to be changed. Also, you may need to bring up any problems to the attention of your pastor.

And with this, I will bow out of commenting further on this thread.

 

[peary1]

A few people in our parish pray the rosary before Sunday mass. I have been joining them for months. The size of the group varies from six to several dozen from week to week. Yesterday, the woman who usually leads the rosary was unable to be there, so one of the ladies asked me to lead the rosary. As we were getting to the final Glory Be and the Hail Holy Queen, one of the the lectors entered, went to the pulpit and just started reading the pre-mass announcements and the pages for the day’s readings and asking who was a visitor. This was done with a microphone, so there was no possibility to continue reciting the rosary to the end. I completed it silently.

There was at least one or two minutes after his announcements before the bell rang and mass was started. This is the second time this has happened that I am aware of, although I don’t know if it was the same lector. The last time was a few weeks ago when an elderly lady was leading and it left her upset and practically in tears. It would have taken a maximum of 30 seconds for us to finish the two prayers. A quick assessment by the lector would have determined that the mass would not be late in starting by allowing us (probably a dozen parishoners) to finish. I had to remind myself that I had just been to confession, but I had to gulp down my irritation…

Since we have a very small church and the narthex opens onto it with 6 doors, it is often very noisy with people socializing pre-mass. Often people are coming into the church, where people are obviously involved in reverent prayer, and shouting out a hearty greeting or worse. Mass often enough starts late, and much noise is made getting the faithful into the church as if it were the second half of a broadway show or something. I’m much less calm about this now than I was yesterday. Your thoughts or comments please.

These lectors sound rude, crude, ignorant and have no sensitivity to the spiritual needs of others. They are up there to make themselves important. That being said, why hasn’t anything been brought up to the priest who says the Mass? This is an important issue. What he will probably tell you is that your group should start the Rosary earlier so that you can end earlier. I’d say ten minutes is a good bet to keep the peace. I don’t think a lector is going to come out ten minutes beforehand and do what he or she has been doing. If it DOES happen, then you know he or she is doing it on purpose and I would demand a meeting and an apology.