This happened during mass and I was upset

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SunSeeker said:
Perhaps I was misunderstood, and maybe it was harsh to use the word “upstage”. I just think it’s an outlier to how most real cases occur. Call me doubting Thomas. I suppose I should not close my mind to the fact that it could have been real, but I feel like we should look at the probabilities. Seems more likely to me to be a mistake on this guys part than an actual spiritual encounter, which happens, though its rare. We’d need the means to examine this guys behavior before and after to see if there’s been a change in what he believed.

Real, or a call for attention, I still feel it’s worth a call to the priest. Mass etiquette would dictate do not act in a way that not everyone could reasonably act in. Imagine if everyone had started doing this (yelling, sobbing, moving about). The congregation would have been in chaos. If it was real, or a mental situation, the priest will handle quietly accordingly, but if it was chosen behavior on this man’s part, it’s not appropriate and should be stopped.
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All’s well. I agree with what you say. All I’ve been saying all along is that we should look at all possibilities and this deserves a call to the priest to see what was happening; and, trust me, not one of us here, I would believe,has not been a doubting Thomas at one time or another. I’m as guilty as the next. Yes, SS, if it was a chosen behavior it should be stopped.

Case in point (I have a few!): had a baritone; great, strong, voice. He would overpower everyone because he knew the pipes he had and IMHO, wanted everyone to know. After repeated attempts for him to blend with the others, he finally did, but quit soon thereafter, even with praise every week for doing a great job. He left our church for about a year. He came back and sat opposite the choir (congregation and choir sit semicircle around the Sanctuary) and week after week would belt out every song and acclamation and hold the last note at least 3 seconds after we stopped singing and playing. People complained. Finally, after weeks of this, our deacon walks over to the ambo for the Gospel Reading during the GA. We stopped and he continued to hold out the last note of the Alleluia, loud, strong and long. Everyone knew his name. The deacon turned to him (now on his side of the church) and said, “(insert name here), please stop, you are disturbing the sacredness of this Mass.” For the rest of the Mass he behaved. That was about 2 years ago; haven’t seen him since. There’s a bit more to this story, when he yelled at me in the church because he wanted to sing for the Triduum liturgies and he missed all the rehearsals and you know my answer which was calm and non-threatening!
 
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On other threads, as some of you know, I complain about the predominance of “emotional” religion taking over from logical, rational religion. This is a great example of the “emotional” extreme.
 
I wasn’t going to comment on this one - but what occurs to me is that they were all wearing their red shirts from the retreat. My observation would be that tips off they had something planned. Just my thought.
 
If it was a genuine display, and not from some who were anti Christian making a joke/mocking for their own amusement,then it seems concerning.

To me personally,I’d reserve anger for people who intentionally do something wrong/disrespect the mass.
In this situation,I’d be concerned rather than angry if they are sincere but ignorant.
 
@Reuben_J I think I should clarify what I meant to say by “I’ve seen this happening” - I 've seen the priest interrupting the sermon to calm some people who were talking between each other or otherwise disturbing the service. People claiming to be have a revelation or having a religious emotional outburst during liturgy - this I have never seen in real life. I am Eastern Orthodox. The only Protestant church I have ever been in was Anglican, in England, and it was the Easter service and most of the congregation was composed of elderly people who were singing Psalms and at the end they served us cookies.
On the internet I have seen neo-protestant congregations and shows were people claim to be in contact with the Holy Spirit and my opinion of it is that it is mass-hysteria created by people concentrating at the same time at the same thing and wanting it to be real so the all they are in synch and they lose control doing the same thing.
 
Ok. I got ya.

As I said, I don’t know the actual situation, thus my comment in my first post and the subsequent explanation,

In all account, what happened was not right. If it was staged with the collaboration with the priest, then I can understand why, though it was still not usual.

Yes, priests do try to put order in the mass, I often saw that happened.

As for being inspired by the Holy Spirit, which can happened, it is always under control. If it is important enough, the person can share it in an appropriate forum/gathering; not disrupting the mass, especially the consecration. So, we know what had happened was not quite right.

If the person is manifesting, meaning he is hyper emotional or oppressed by the Evil Spirit, then someone in their group should discreetly stop him or lead him away and minister to him.

Since the group was not orderly, perhaps the OP could have asked the priest as to who were they.

God bless.
 
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No, I haven’t called him. I kind of feel bad doing it really. Like everyone says, maybe he didn’t even realize how far this group was planning to take things. Maybe I’ll wait and see if it happens again? Give him the benefit of the doubt?
 
was it an ACTS retreat? Red shirts? Maybe they were just returning from the 4-day retreat and they were fired up, maybe a bit too much, we didn’t do that when we returned from our retreat, we were just dressed up in suits and we sang a song before Mass started.
 
I have no idea what kind of retreat it was, but yes! They had red shirts and black dress pants. One man had a black blazer over his red shirt and he seemed to be the head of the group. They did that too at the end of mass after they went up to the altar while we were all leaving. I’m they were just fired up like you say.
 
In general, priests assume if no one complains then everyone thought it was GREAT.
 
April29 said:
I noticed they didn’t have the Tabernacle in the Church. They keep the Blessed Sacrament in a separate room.
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A lot of churches have this, even though it’s not really supposed to be like that. Still, it’s not uncommon. The Church I grew up in had it in a separate chapel behind the altar. I wouldn’t worry about that part very much, though, that is actually fairly common in modern American parishes. (I’m assuming you’re American, I can’t speak for other countries.)
 
I think it’s much better to ask and get some actual answers then to keep “hoping” it doesn’t happen again. The priest really should know how much it disturbed you and your family. If he can provide clarity and comfort about the incident, I’m sure he would like the chance to do that.
 
This tops the visiting priest we had who would declare “The Lord is with you!” instead of “The Lord be with you.” and by a country mile
 
I saw some YouTube videos on the ACTS retreat, and they walk in and out of Mass holding each other by the shoulders, so maybe it was an ACTS retreat that got (very) out of hand. I can’t even imagine sitting through this to be honest.
 
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