Telling the priest he made a mistake

[Joe_5859]

One way of highlighting an area in which you believe a mistake is being made - without nitpicking - could be to respectfully ask a question about that part of the mass? As in Father, I’ve noticed in the past that sometimes there is an alleluia said at this point, sometimes not…is that because of the liturgical season or ???

As long as it’s being asked with respect and curiosity, I’ve found a question can either a) cause the person to become aware of their mistake and self-correct it, or b) can actually lead me to discover the error was my own and I was mistaken about the matter. (Haven’t spoken to a priest about a liturgical situation, but have run into this in everyday life situations.)

I think that’s a good way to bring these things up. It works well with my wife. Far too often what I thought was a mistake was actually my mistake. Asking questions is a much less confrontational way to deal with issues that arise.

 

[floresco]

I can see how it would be easy to phrase my example as a question. Probably most things could be. I agree that is far less likely to be misunderstood as picky or confrontational.

 

[robwar]

At the place I attend Mass most often, we have a wonderful priest who has recently learned to celebrate the EF Mass. I like and admire this priest a lot, but I notice occasional minor mistakes. That is only to be expected, since he is still new to saying this form of Mass. I am undecided about whether I should point these out to him. On the one hand, getting feedback will help him to improve. On the other hand, I am concerned about discouraging him.

Here is an example. Yesterday he left out an “alleluia” that should have been inserted because it is Easter Season. Obviously this is quite minor, but if I were in his position I would want to do every detail correctly.

Do people have experiences or ideas about this?

This is why priests are not flocking to do EF Masses, there are too many critics out there that want to nick pick. You are not an liturgical expert and have no business pointing out mistakes (or mistakes as you think you see them). Let it go and leave it alone.

 

[floresco]

This is why priests are not flocking to do EF Masses, there are too many critics out there that want to nick pick. You are not an liturgical expert and have no business pointing out mistakes (or mistakes as you think you see them). Let it go and leave it alone.

While I am not an expert, I have been attending the EF longer than the priest has. It is quite possible there are things that I know about it that he does not.

 

[corsair]

We are fortunate in that our head Altar boy knows more about the EF Mass than either of our two priests (they alternate saying the Mass). The lad is on very good terms with both priests and they ask for feed back from him.

Sometimes its tough not to say something when I see a mistake but the Altar boy handles it better than I could.

 

[robwar]

While I am not an expert, I have been attending the EF longer than the priest has. It is quite possible there are things that I know about it that he does not.

i understand that and I think your attitude is to be helpful not harmful. Still, making mistakes and then having Catholics even with the best intentions and meaning is why priests are not flocking to do EF Masses among other reasons of time and lack of priests. Sometimes we become legends in our own minds, we have been or seen Masses and think we know more.
Even with a little knowledge about the liturgy, one shouldn’t think they can go correct a priest trying to learn the new rubrics of the EF Mass. If many people like you came to him to correct him is doing this, I think instead of encouraging more EF Masses. Why bother in his mind to do this because there are too many “liturgy experts” ready to bounce on anything going wrong.

 

[malphono]

I can see how it would be easy to phrase my example as a question. Probably most things could be. I agree that is far less likely to be misunderstood as picky or confrontational.

FWLIW, it seems to me that this would be the best and most constructive approach.

i understand that and I think your attitude is to be helpful not harmful. Still, making mistakes and then having Catholics even with the best intentions and meaning is why priests are not flocking to do EF Masses among other reasons of time and lack of priests. Sometimes we become legends in our own minds, we have been or seen Masses and think we know more.
Even with a little knowledge about the liturgy, one shouldn’t think they can go correct a priest trying to learn the new rubrics of the EF Mass. If many people like you came to him to correct him is doing this, I think instead of encouraging more EF Masses. Why bother in his mind to do this because there are too many “liturgy experts” ready to bounce on anything going wrong.

It really depends on how it’s handled. Sure, if someone starts to nit-pick with a priest with whom he’s not a personal friend, it could well be discouraging. But if one were to make it a constructive question, it should be received as such without the taint of criticism. IOW, doing it the right way would be encouraging, as it shows that at least some people are interested.

A few years back I had an experience with a self-proclaimed “MC” who thought he knew everything there was to know about the Usus Antiquior, and was forever quoting Archdale King, etc, ad nauseam. Whatever it was (and I don’t recall the specifics at the moment), it was a small matter and the young pastor (a personal friend of mine, who actually taught himself the Usus Antiquior) wasn’t sure, but took the trouble to look into it. As it happened, I was right and the pastor and I had a good laugh. The self-styled “MC” was livid, but that’s another story.

 

[OraLabora]

Even in the OF, in a Benedictine monastery (where the liturgy is a bit more elaborate than in your average parish), there are mistakes. More than once I caught out a priest or lector using the reading from the wrong year; once even the priest doing the homily was caught off guard because the acolyte doing the first reading took the wrong one and it had been part of his homily; he had to start off with “well, the reading we were SUPPOSED to hear today…”.

I’ve heard the schola start on a chant with different monks starting a different chant because… the year happened to be one where the chant had to be taken from another day and one or two of the monks were literally, on the wrong page

Then there’s the “A” word during lent " Alle…oops".

Then there’s smart-alec me in my early oblate-in-training years: “hey they’re not supposed to chant the Te Deum during Lent”. Well, true, not on Sundays, but yes, on feasts…

Or: “they took the wrong readings for today…” then realizing, oops… the monastery doesn’t move Ascension to Sunday, they celebrate it on Thursday, that’s why the readings don’t correspond to my Magnificat".

In short we’d better be sure we’re right when we point out mistakes.

I’ll never forget once when at Vigils the monk reading the long bible reading took the reading from the wrong year. I asked the oblate director later “why did Father L. take the reading for year I when we’re in year II?”. The answer caught me a bit off guard: “because Father L made a mistake…”. You mean monks aren’t perfect? No fuss, no muss, just an admission of humanity. Boy that was embarrassing. For me

Personally I’d let it slide, unless it was a whopper and came up regularly. I’ve learned to laugh off the monks’ little bloopers, in fact it makes them feel more human, more approachable.

 

[agnes_therese]

At the place I attend Mass most often, we have a wonderful priest who has recently learned to celebrate the EF Mass. I like and admire this priest a lot, but I notice occasional minor mistakes. That is only to be expected, since he is still new to saying this form of Mass. I am undecided about whether I should point these out to him. On the one hand, getting feedback will help him to improve. On the other hand, I am concerned about discouraging him.

Here is an example. Yesterday he left out an “alleluia” that should have been inserted because it is Easter Season. Obviously this is quite minor, but if I were in his position I would want to do every detail correctly.

Do people have experiences or ideas about this?

Since it only happened the one time, I would assume it was an accident. Priests are human, too.

 

[ProVobis]

Here is an example. Yesterday he left out an “alleluia” that should have been inserted because it is Easter Season. Obviously this is quite minor, but if I were in his position I would want to do every detail correctly.

Maybe next week he’ll insert an extra “alleluia” to make up for it.

 

[dixieagle]

I’ve heard it said that one of the biggest reasons priests hesitate to say the EF Mass is that they fear being nit-picked to death over every minor foible.

I would also be afraid about discouraging him. Let it go. Give thanks to God that he is willing to learn this form of the Mass and celebrate it for you.

This is sensible and charitable.

I wouldn’t begin to think of correcting a minor mistake made by an earnest priest.

 

[Sacredheart1208]

We had a man from our parish read the entire gospel…that was pretty interesting. You think someone would know it was the gospel when you start out “a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark…” He was embarrassed but we only have like 10 people who go to daily mass so everyone was super kind to him.

Also we had a new priest forget the homily! No one told him he did and the next day he remembered, all I am saying is that people make mistakes and I’m sure they will correct themselves.

For example one day I started saying “Take this…” When the priest was consecrating the Host…thankfully I only pepped out two words…

But I didn’t do it the next time

 

[Baelor]

We had a man from our parish read the entire gospel…that was pretty interesting. You think someone would know it was the gospel when you start out “a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark…” He was embarrassed but we only have like 10 people who go to daily mass so everyone was super kind to him.

Also we had a new priest forget the homily! No one told him he did and the next day he remembered, all I am saying is that people make mistakes and I’m sure they will correct themselves.

For example one day I started saying “Take this…” When the priest was consecrating the Host…thankfully I only pepped out two words…

But I didn’t do it the next time

The priest did not stop him from reading the Gospel?

Also, if the priest forgot his homily during a Daily Mass, it is actually fine – the homily is optional at DM anyway.

 

[Sacredheart1208]

I think the priest pointed it out after awhile…but still!

I didn’t know that! Thanks for letting me know, I am just so used to hearing a homily every day that it caught me off guard!

 

[CB_Catholic]

I was at a Mass once where there was a distraction and the priest forgot the Consecration! He caught it quickly, though, and said “Oh, I forgot to consecrate the Body and Blood of Our Lord!” He was so embarrassed and unnerved.

Now that is what I call major.