Stopping side conversations during communion

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ElectricMayhem said:
At least they are there.
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I told my dentist hey, at least I brushed twice a day as he filled a few cavities too.

Maybe giving up flossing is next using your logic. Then not only will I be grateful at least I brushed twice a day, but my dentist will be grateful for the extra business too. Sounds good, win win right?

But- hey- who is grateful when someone cuts short worship to God… Lemme think…could it be SATAN?:confused:
 
Nice try…
My logic is that the grace of God and grace of the sacraments (although minimally attended) in their lives is better than nothing. And that grace is working when you sneer at them mentally for leaving early. How about smiling and saying thank you.
 
**1. Keep the room dimly lit until the procession. ** For some reason, people are reluctant to speak above a whisper in dark rooms. Do everything you can to transform the room into Sacred Space using dim lighting, partitions, whatever. If the Anaheim Convention Center Arena can be successfully transformed into worship space where silence is the norm for 40,000, so can your cafeteria.
  1. **Instruct ushers to approach people directly **(and politely) who might be talking or whispering and ask them to keep silent.
  2. **Post signs **at all of the entrances requesting silence.
  3. **Stop saying the rosary **and allow those who wish to collect themselves before mass the opportunity to bathe in the silence!
  4. **Lead by example **at all times.
If you can accomplish #1, you won’t need the rest.
 
I prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet 'round the rosary at our last Mass. By the time I was finished, the side chatter had ceased in the pews behind me. Either that, or I ceased to notice it. Focus your gaze on the crucifix and reflect on Christ’s passion if the chatter gets to you.
 
Indeed it is a nuisance to have people talking at Mass, especially at such a solemn time as Communion - whether it be in a great cathedral or a cafeteria. There have been some good suggestions, so I can’t really offer anything further, However in my parish church (I don’t actually attend Mass there), I know the priest will tell people to stop talking - and he doesn’t just make a general comment either, he will ask ‘those people down at the back of the church’ to stop talking. It keeps everyone else quiet then! However he isn’t totally intolerant of noise - he doesn’t make such a big deal over infants making noise as some other priests would. He says that we would expect noise from young children, but from adults it is unacceptable. When I heard that the priest was doing this I was delighted, but surprised because it is a more socially deprived parish where Mass attendance is already low, and I know some priests are afraid to speak out on certain things in case they lose some of the congregation. Quite rightly, this isn’t an issue for this priest!

I attend Mass in the cathedral as a choir memeber, and from the gallery I have a birds-eye view of proceedings downstairs. It amazes me how many people chat during the readings and consecration etc. I think how disrespectful it is - they are asked to give this one hour to the Lord on Sunday and they can’t do it. But I suppose there were only 167 other hours in the week to have their important conversation…😃
 
VAC said:
This topic has been mentioned in other threads.
I’m asking for specific ideas, tactful if possible:rolleyes:
We started reciting the rosary before every mass partly in an attempt to end all the yip yap. It isn’t working. The other week I was almost yelling the ‘Hail Mary’ into the microphone and folks were treating us like we were in the background. Our choir coordinater actually came over and turned me up louder.
Father did make an announcement before mass, politely asking them to be quiet, but this side noise is still happening.

We meet in a local high school cafeteria awaiting a building, and our sound equipment is portable and not the top of the line, but we can be heard well throughout the cafeteria once folks shut up.

CCD is every 2 weeks, so those masses are packed with 400+ people.(double the normal crowd) The noise before communion from the crowd is truly irreverant. As the choir leader, I’ve been given a good suggestion of having something instrumental played while the choir receives, Would it be liturgically incorrect of me to make an announcement to invite the people to sing with us or pray quietyl in the real presence???
Father has interrupted communion in the past to tell people to pipe down. I think our music helps drown out the side conversatoins, but they don’t really go away…If the meditation song ends early, they start right back up again.

OK, rant over for now… Ideas???
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Well, I wouldn’t say the Rosary before Mass to try and stop the chatter. Doing that is just as distracting as the chatter for people who are trying to say their personal prayers. I attended Mass once in a parish where a group of women was doing this before Mass and found it to be just as annoying as the chatter. Although it is not silence, I have noted that in our parish whenever the organist plays sacred hymns before Mass, the people are less inclined to talk, and at least you can pray more easily.

We had a Parochial Vicar for a few years that was absolutely intolerant of noise in the church (except for babies and small children) and of people leaving Mass early. He would just stop the Mass and ask them to quit talking, or would say goodbye out loud to the people who were leaving. I swear this man had eyes in the back of his head. He also made it clear from the pulpit that he would not tolerate talking and people leaving right after Communion. A lot of people did not like this, but his Masses were well attended because he was a brilliant homilist and his Masses were very reverent. And he was a really great priest. But if you went to one of his Masses, you better behave yourself. Or be embarrassed. I think the fact that he was consistent in not allowing such behavior is what did the trick. And our Pastor did not interfere with his ways.

I also know one Pastor in a nearby parish who just plain announces every Sunday that the people of St. ----'s parish DO NOT leave Mass early. Period. And they don’t.

Perhaps a direct, consistent approach from the priest is what is needed. But it doesn’t come overnight. And it has to be enforced. But how many priests are willing to do this?
 
It was our priest’s request to have the Rosary before every mass. It isn’t going away.
 
CB_Catholic said:
Well, I wouldn’t say the Rosary before Mass to try and stop the chatter. Doing that is just as distracting as the chatter for people who are trying to say their personal prayers. I attended Mass once in a parish where a group of women was doing this before Mass and found it to be just as annoying as the chatter.
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You mean I’m not the only one bothered by this?

Most days I walk and I pray 20 decades of the rosary while I walk. Later in the day I attend the 5:30pm mass, but I stopped going early because of the rosary being recited when I want to just bathe in silence before mass. Now I get there at 5:28pm. After mass, they say Evening Prayer.

What ever happened to SILENCE! and respect for others trying to prepare themselves for mass or just wanting peace and quiet?
 
This was an issue in one of my old parishes. The priest was young and the nicest guy in the world. Could hardly imagine him admonishing anyone, which maybe contributed to the issue. It was a very small chapel (not really a church at all).

One day during his homily he said something like: “You know we are blessed to have such a nice place to celebrate Mass. Its small but it suits our needs. And we are lucky that the acoustics are so good. I know that you can all hear everything I say, even when I am at the altar without the microphone. And you know what, I can hear everything all of you say, too. I know which one of you is reminding his wife to get something at the store, and who is worrying about who will pick up the kids from soccer, and I wish we could focus on what we are here to do and worry about those things later.”

You could hear a pin drop during Mass for the rest of time I attended there!
 
Coincidentally, there were some leaflets left in the church the other day which contained extracts from Rev. Martin Von Cochem’s book ‘The Incredible Catholic Mass’. The copies were taken from a chapter entitled ‘The Reverence with which we ought to hear Holy Mass’. I may start another thread on the chapter, but here is some of what he has written in relation to talking at Mass:

“Some persons are so shameless as to…talk or laugh while the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, before which the Angels fall prostrate upon their faces, is being offered. To these Christ might well address the words He spoke to those who bought and sold in the temple: 'My house is the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves (Lk. 19:46)…If He drove the Jews with scourges out of the temple, how much the more do Christians deserve a like treatment who profane His holy house with idle chatter, inquisitive glances…”

He continues: “…If it is sinful to look about oneself out of curiosity, how very wrong it must be to talk in church and at the time of Mass. It is much easier to restrain one’s tongue than one’s eyes, and on that account, it is more wrong to speak in church than to let one’s eyes wander; besides, not only is it a greater offense against God, but it…disturbs others at their prayers…Let us remember our Lord’s words :‘I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgement’ (Mt. 12:36). If we shall have to give an account of every idle word…how severely will the Just Judge punish the idle words spoken at Mass-time, whereby we have shown such want of respect for His service!”

I think these are very pertinent observations, although there are some parts of the chapter that I would differ slightly with (but that’s for another day & another thread!). Perhaps if priests were to mirror these observations that Rev. Van Cochem has made there would be less talking - I think it would be more effective than simply saying ‘Be quiet, please’. I would always have done my best not to be distracted in any way during Mass, but after reading how the author relates the topic to Christs words and reactions to those who disrespected the house of God, I will certainly try all the more to be more concerned with what’s going on at the altar…
 
Just to clarify…
  1. The “noise” before Eucharist is not organ, choir, or children. Imagine you are at a crowded auditorium before a speech. As the speaker tries to quiet everyone, you become aware that everyone talking quietly adds up to a dull roar. This is the irreverent noise VAC is talking about. As a member of the choir, I sit in front facing everyone and it is quite obvious that all but the first few rows are paying absolutely no attention as they chat amongst themselves. The children are not the problem.
  2. Fr. wants the Rosary before Mass. He has wanted a Rosary for some time and when people became too disruptive standing around in little groups chatting away until the entrance hymn, he decided to put it before Mass to encourage people to at least recognize that we are there for prayer. It may not be perfect, but in its absence, you’d think we were there for bingo night.
  3. Fr. has been bolder than many priests I have encountered. He has been known to pause during the distribution of Eucharist to chastise these chatters. It’s the Eucharist for crying out loud. He has spoken about attire, reverence, tardiness, etc. The tardiness is a particularly bad problem. There have been Masses where there were only 20 or so people at the start of Mass, but the room was full by the homily. They were not just a minute or two late. They are perpetually 15+ minutes late on a weekly basis.
We can only blame it on the cafeteria for so long.
 
Thanks Dranzal for backing me up here.

This morning I took the advice of the poster who said, “You have the microphone, USE IT” Obtaining permission from no one I altered the opening announcement:
“Welcome to ___ church. This is our children’s mass. We expect fidgety children and baby noises, but please limit your side conversations to emergencies, especially during communion… Fr… ___ will be celebrating the mass of the first Sunday of Advent. Special intentions for this mass are ___. please silence your cellphones, stand and sing with us…”
We had our keyboard player start playing the communion song as soon as the priest received communion. As soon as the choir returned from receiving, we started singing the song. This did help cut down the chit chat or possibly drowned it out from where I was sitting.
What I heard today was mostly baby noises, and not side conversations. Unless someone pulls me aside and tells me not to do this again, I’ll do it next week when we have the 400+ crowd.

I’m not sure if I overstepped my limits as a lay volunteer, but if I did I’ll hear about it soon enough:D
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