Sign Of Peace

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How do they give the sign of peace in your church? Do they shake hands in a solemn manner?
 
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geojack:
How do they give the sign of peace in your church? Do they shake hands in a solemn manner?
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In the Latin parish the most common sign is a handshake. In my Melkite parish it’s a kiss on both cheeks.

Deacon Ed
 
Families or persons of a sufficient degree of familiarity may also exchange an embrace, kiss, or some similar sign if they so choose. Persons too far away from each other to exchange any of these signs may acknowledge one another through some sort of gesture. A spoken greeting, such as “Peace be with you” is usually also said.
 
Joseph Bilodeau:
Families or persons of a sufficient degree of familiarity may also exchange an embrace, kiss, or some similar sign if they so choose. Persons too far away from each other to exchange any of these signs may acknowledge one another through some sort of gesture. A spoken greeting, such as “Peace be with you” is usually also said.
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Ditto on this.
 
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geojack:
How do they give the sign of peace in your church? Do they shake hands in a solemn manner?
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Big smiles and genuine “Peace be With You”.
We don’t socialize in our main so if you want to connect with your friend, this is the time to do it.
 
I will hug the family member(s) next to me, shake the hand of a person close by or family member and smile and nod at people to far to do either.
 
I attend a Novus Ordo Mass on most Sunday’s and we the people in the church do not exchange the Sign of Peace. The priest does tell us “Peace be with you”. We respond with “And also with you.” Then we move on to the Agnus Dei.

Larry
 
We join our hands and bow first to the altar, and then to the right and left saying “Peace be with you”. Another variant is people clasping hands then kissing them(the hands).
 
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geojack:
How do they give the sign of peace in your church? Do they shake hands in a solemn manner?
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We bow, but then I’m in Japan.
Gearoidin
 
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Gearoidin:
We bow, but then I’m in Japan.
Gearoidin
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I have to ask, do you hold hands for the Our Father?

(and can you ship me merchandise from the Studio Ghibli Museum gift shop in Toyko? Just kidding!)
 
hug and kiss whomever, shake hands with whomever, make the peace sign across the church if I see a friend too far away.

BTW: Yes we hold hands during the Our Father. We are a very touchy feelie parish. I love it!!
 
Shows that there is a great misunderstanding of the sign of peace.

It’s a liturgical moment, not Social Hour at Parish X. It’s a sober, solemn moment and there should be no difference between the sign offered to family members and the sign offered to strangers.

I wish priests made an effort to explain that.
 
Larry_B said:
I attend a Novus Ordo Mass on most Sunday’s and we the people in the church do not exchange the Sign of Peace. The priest does tell us “Peace be with you”. We respond with “And also with you.” Then we move on to the Agnus Dei.

Larry
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imho you are very lucky, I so wish this was the norm as I believe it used to be.

The handshake thing, which is the norm here in the UK just feels all wrong to me. I’m afraid I just can’t stand it and dread it at each Mass I attend.

It feels artificial and forced and redundant (being compelled to greet people and “exchange the peace” with them neither makes me more nor less peaceable to my neighbour), and it awkwardly breaks up the rhythm of the Mass and causes the lead into the Agnus Dei to be a bit of an undignified scramble as people return to order after all the hearty goodwill stuff.

You can’t get away with just ignoring it because even if you do people seem to misinterpret and see you as somebody in need of “reaching out to”.

I suppose if you ignored it repeatedly people would get the message but then they would misunderstand and think that you were being hostile, when its not that at all.

I try to sit at the back away from other people, but its a fairly well attended church so there are always people within striking distance.

So I end up, as I suspect a lot of people do, going along with it so as not to create a problem.

I’m fairly open minded about much of the “spirit of V2” stuff, but I really do find this practice uncomfortable.

I’m aware of the “its not about me” consideration, which is why I just do it I suppose, but I do find that this practice in fact does break up my focus away from contemplating the re-presentation of the Sacrifice.
 
The exchange of peace is also done in other Rites as well. It tells us that it is something important in the Liturgy.
 
The wife and I just put 5 to 5 and pray. Most folks around us know that we prefer not to participate. we also kneel after the Agnus Dei and for Communion.
 
We’re also a “touchy feely” parish. Smiles, hugs to those you know, handshakes to those you don’t.

My husband and I have developed a tradition of the only “public” display of affection we make. He, while shaking my hand and saying “Peace be with you” also kisses me on the forehead.

I’ve made some great friends after Mass with people who sat near me during the Passing of the Peace.

On a side note, you should see it in our choir loft (hidden in a loft at the back of the nave). The only way to get all the hands shaken is to basically make a line like you’d see the players using in their “congrats” after the game to the other team. We line up and go in a huge circle shaking the hand of the person across from you until you get back to where you started. 😃
 
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