Standing ovations and applause during the Mass

[StrawberryJam]

First of all, this is not my normal home parish I attend. I only go there to take a catholic friend there from time to time. So I have no reason to attend the Mass there ever. I go often to the one I attend.

I think Buffalo understands me more than the posters here do, and may understand why I did not find it an answer. I am glad on this single subject Buffalo and I agree on, and I think it helped having his voice on this matter for me to make the call not to go there again.

I will still continue to attend Mass at my much more local parish. This has not scandalized me but has been a lingering thing on my mind. I thought there would be a rubric or something that would not allow such a long musical presentation with the entire focus being a mother and daughter before the consecration and with all the weirdish atmosphere afterward in the midst of Mass. I found out that anything kinda goes in terms of music at Mass. Fine.

I forgot I was in a church when this was happening. It felt like a musical production. Mass seemed to be the smaller reason why people were even there. It was a hard act to follow I guess for all, since they were silent and quiet as a peep after that. I felt badly for the priest, because his homily was well thought out and put together, he gets no claps or applause. Must make him feel great.

 

[promethius]

Conversely to popular opinion, clapping was acceptable practice in some of Chrisendom, before being supressed…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applause

We have to understand the NATURE of clapping, however… clapping didn’t always mean “good job”, “congratulations on your performance”, and the like that we assign it today. Clapping meant, as it still does in military banquets, “assent” or “affirmation”. For example, if someone is speaking at a military banquet and I agree with their position, I rap my spoon on the table (we don’t slap our hands together since such would have been “vulgar” in 1800s courts) to show that I agree and affirm what has just been said or done.

In that sense, rapping one object on another or clapping USED to mean that one supported or threw in with what had just been said or done and so one might clap as a non-verbal amen. One might clap after a musical portion of mass, not as a congratulations to the musician, but as affirmation that you offer this song as well.

Was that the sense of clapping used in this parish? Probably not. Does it mean their understanding or appreciation of the liturgy is dead? Likewise probably not. They may simply be lacking in one area of catechesis. I think it’s shameful, though, that we judge them as harshly as we have off of the simple recounting of personal perception that we’ve seen here in the OP. We simply don’t know that the priest has NOT taught these people an OLLLLLLLD practice which is not explicitly denied by the church.

Perhaps, then, rather than treat this as an abuse, the OP should approach the priest and see if this is the understanding and this is not the case then he should point out the quote from the pope on the subject.

 

[StrawberryJam]

Conversely to popular opinion, clapping was acceptable practice in some of Chrisendom, before being supressed…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applause

We have to understand the NATURE of clapping, however… clapping didn’t always mean “good job”, “congratulations on your performance”, and the like that we assign it today. Clapping meant, as it still does in military banquets, “assent” or “affirmation”. For example, if someone is speaking at a military banquet and I agree with their position, I rap my spoon on the table (we don’t slap our hands together since such would have been “vulgar” in 1800s courts) to show that I agree and affirm what has just been said or done.

In that sense, rapping one object on another or clapping USED to mean that one supported or threw in with what had just been said or done and so one might clap as a non-verbal amen. One might clap after a musical portion of mass, not as a congratulations to the musician, but as affirmation that you offer this song as well.

Was that the sense of clapping used in this parish? Probably not. Does it mean their understanding or appreciation of the liturgy is dead? Likewise probably not. They may simply be lacking in one area of catechesis. I think it’s shameful, though, that we judge them as harshly as we have off of the simple recounting of personal perception that we’ve seen here in the OP. We simply don’t know that the priest has NOT taught these people an OLLLLLLLD practice which is not explicitly denied by the church.

Perhaps, then, rather than treat this as an abuse, the OP should approach the priest and see if this is the understanding and this is not the case then he should point out the quote from the pope on the subject.

I don’t think anyone has treated this situation as an abuse. Shameful? Sorry, I don’t understand what is shameful about asking if a rule was broken. That is the point of this sub forum after all.

 

[malphono]

I thought there would be a rubric or something that would not allow such a long musical presentation

Just speaking of the length of the presentation, PP S Pius X said in Tra Le Sollecitudini in 1903:

VII. The length of the liturgical chant
23. In general it must be considered a very grave abuse when the liturgy in ecclesiastical functions is made to appear secondary to and in a manner at the service of the music, for the music is merely a part of the liturgy and its humble handmaid.

 

[buffalo]

.

I think Buffalo understands me more than the posters here do, and may understand why I did not find it an answer. I am glad on this single subject Buffalo and I agree on, and I think it helped having his voice on this matter for me to make the call not to go there again.

Yeah we do. I took no offense.

 

[StrawberryJam]

Yeah we do. I took no offense.

Thank you for your understanding, I had a feeling you of all people would get it.

 

[promethius]

I don’t think anyone has treated this situation as an abuse. Shameful? Sorry, I don’t understand what is shameful about asking if a rule was broken. That is the point of this sub forum after all.

No, no one has claimed it as an overt abuse, but here we’ve seen how it must be tacky and disrespectful, it’s gotta be part of that “novus ordo” crowd, it must be that these people are elevating music above the liturgy, it must be dangerous to their ministry, they must have an “anything goes” attitude about the liturgy, and how weird it is that they pay a woman to be the music minister!

These are all judgements that none of us are qualified to make going off of the little information that has been presented and/or perceived. I would suggest the OPs best course of action would have been to ask the priest in question about the use of applause during the mass and why it isn’t supressed, rather than coming here to us to make judgements when we don’t have all the information.

 

[FatHead]

At my parish, we clap after the priest and alter servers, etc have left the church and the music has stopped. The clapping is for those who have played the organ, piano, or sang. It is our way of showing appreciation to them for doing that and saying “Good Job!!” I don’t think that there is anything wrong with that at all.

that doesnt make it any less wrong. “rolling the credits” and clapping as you mentioned is absolutely crazy and not good during mass it should never be done