Talking before Mass

[KP3243]

I think the Priest does not want Mary to be the primary focus of mass which is commendable

Saying a rosary before Mass would never make Mary the primary focus because the Mass has an order starting with a procession introductory rites and it never changes because Jesus is always the primary focus.

 

[R_C]

Some of us would resent the implication that our “chit-chat” isn’t a spiritual exercise. I consider my fellowship with other believers important - and sometimes before service is the best time for some good edifying conversation!

There is a proper time for everything, though. Even spiritual exercises and prayer may be improper in the wrong time or in the wrong place.

 

[VivienneJ]

We have more or less back-to-back Masses (6, 7, 8 and 9:30) and the Rosary is said before every Mass. The praying of the Rosary does not stop those who want to chit-chat from doing so, nor does it stop those who want to pray quietly themselves from doing that.

We do have a huge number of people at each Mass, and the people here speak very, very quickly, but starting the Rosary 45 minutes before Mass should give ample time to pray it well, and still allow 15 or 20 minutes for silent preparation or social interaction.

 

[DarkLight]

There is a proper time for everything, though. Even spiritual exercises and prayer may be improper in the wrong time or in the wrong place.

Right. My point was that before Mass isn’t necessarily an improper time for this sort of talk. The priest isn’t just flippantly dismissing a spiritual good for something worthless.

 

[Snowwhite16]

The world? Last time I checked, the light came to the world, but the world did not recognize it (Jn 3:19)…last time I checked, the world hated Christ (Jn 15:18), but He has overcome the world (Jn 16:33).

There is an appropriate place for everything. The Church is not a place to “catch up” with anybody! We are at the presence of Jesus Christ! We are in the Last Supper, we are on Calvary, behind the Blessed Virgin! It does not matter how things are today, or how much worse they will be tomorrow: we will not have another St. Paul to admonish us through another First Letter to the Corinthians!

It breaks my heart to realize how poor has preparation for the Holy Eucharist become…Just try reading the 4th Book of De Imitatione Christi, or the advice of St. Francis of Sales on “Introduction to the Devout Life”, and realize just what little respect we show towards this most sacred mystical union…! Yes, we forget that this is the mystical union between Christ the Bridegroom and the soul, His mystical spouse…that “the two shall become one flesh”…and even after Mass, when we are Holy Tabernacles, we immediately stand up and leave or start chatting or laughing…can you imagine if someone walks into the Perpetual Adoration chapel, takes the Tabernacle in his hands, and starts shaking it around and carrying it around while talking to others or laughing? Yet this is what we see in many places, most of the time…

Most young Catholics do like the traditional Mass, even the extraordinary form (“Latin mass”) which is slowly being offered again in some places thanks to our Holy Father issuing motu proprio the Summorum Pontificum, according to which:

My advice is to read those treatises on how to properly prepare for Holy Communion, and as for the prayers, greetings, etc. I can only offer the following excerpt from a letter of s. Padre Pio:

http://forums.catholic-questions.org/picture.php?albumid=2069&pictureid=13853

Thank you SO much for printing this. And here I thought that I was being a little, um old fashion.

I do not have a suggestion for the OP. We have a Wed night Rosery/Mass. Now about the bad manners of some folks at mass. My husband and I had to move because the women and her daughter behind us were hooting it up so loudly, I was shocked. I/we have always believed the time before mass is for prayer. Not for catching up on gossip and chit chatting with friends. That should be done outside before or after Mass.
JMO

 

[starsmurf]

We only have one Mass on Sundays I live in the country and we wouldn’t run over time because he doesn’t even start Mass until ten after 9 which now people have become used to and walk in at 9:05 or later.

That still doesn’t invalidate any of the other things I said.

Your priest hasn’t said no to the Rosary, simply asked that you be willing to have it earlier than you planned or after the Mass. Even the Carmelite nuns I know have the Rosary after Mass.