Wedding mass with protestants

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AmandaCatherine

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I am trying to plan how to deal with the issue of non-Catholics at a Catholic wedding mass. I am a convert, so most of my relatives are protestant, and some of them are rather anti-Catholic. I was wondering what are some ways to ease the situation. Should I find some mass guides to hand out at the mass? Can the priest make an announcement about only Catholics receiving the Eucharist? I was planning to include some information in the program somehow. Has anyone had the same issue at a wedding mass? How did you deal with it?

Thank you!
 
if either the bride or groom is a non-Catholic, you will probably be discouraged from having a Mass, simply to avoid the issue of communion and the diluting of the sign when half the people cannot receive. If you are both Catholics, and anticipate a lot of anti-Catholic reaction, or simply confusion, there is a pamphlet from Our Sunday Visitor on Mass etiquette for visitors, costs about 12 cents a copy in bulk. It gives a good, brief explanation of what is going on for non-Catholics
 
If you had a Mass then a Mass guide would be a great opportunity to explain to them what goes on in Mass as well as guidelines for Communion.
 
The PRIEST should explain very vividly and clearly to the attendees that Communion is only for baptized Catholics and that others may come up and receive a blessing if they walk up with arms folded (and then SHOW THEM this posture).

A wedding mass was the FIRST mass I ever attended, and this is exactly what the priest did. I didn’t need to understand what was happening before hand, it was explained.

-Michael
 
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puzzleannie:
if either the bride or groom is a non-Catholic, you will probably be discouraged from having a Mass, simply to avoid the issue of communion and the diluting of the sign when half the people cannot receive. If you are both Catholics, and anticipate a lot of anti-Catholic reaction, or simply confusion, there is a pamphlet from Our Sunday Visitor on Mass etiquette for visitors, costs about 12 cents a copy in bulk. It gives a good, brief explanation of what is going on for non-Catholics
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We are both Catholic–he is a cradle Catholic and I became one a little over a year ago. My mom and 3 sisters have also become Catholic, but no one else on my side of the family is, except one uncle who is a lapsed Catholic, and is in an invalid marriage. Even though a large portion of the people will not be able to receive, the mass is very important to my fiance and I, and I would not consider getting married without one.

I will check out the pamphlets! That sounds like what I need. I can give them out with the programs. The very anti-Catholics likely won’t come, when they see from the invitation that it is a Catholic wedding, but the other relatives are more of the confused category, and I want them to have an idea of what is going on.

Thank you!

🙂
 
There was no way I was not going to have a Nuptial Mass. Aside from the importance of the triple reception of sacraments in 18 hours (we asked our priest to be available for Confession prior to the rehearsal the night before), I also felt that our wedding could possibly be a chance to evangelize our non-Catholic friends and family.

So we printed a very thorough booklet, with every single word of the Mass in it, including “sit”, “kneel”, “stand” directions, and also had the USCCB Guidelines for the reception of Communion in the booklet:

usccb.org/liturgy/current/intercom.shtml

We had also considered mentioning that all who were not receiving were welcome to come forward with their arms crossed over their chest to receive a blessing.

If you PM me, I think I might actually be able to send you our booklet as an attachment.

Btw, I always tried to avoid referring to the booklets as “programs.” To me, “programs” made it sound like our wedding Mass was a broadway show! 😃 Sounds trivial, I know, but you never know…
 
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AmandaCatherine:
We are both Catholic–he is a cradle Catholic and I became one a little over a year ago. My mom and 3 sisters have also become Catholic, but no one else on my side of the family is, except one uncle who is a lapsed Catholic, and is in an invalid marriage. Even though a large portion of the people will not be able to receive, the mass is very important to my fiance and I, and I would not consider getting married without one.

I will check out the pamphlets! That sounds like what I need. I can give them out with the programs. The very anti-Catholics likely won’t come, when they see from the invitation that it is a Catholic wedding, but the other relatives are more of the confused category, and I want them to have an idea of what is going on.

Thank you!

🙂
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Don’t forget about them making a spiritual Communion.
 
Printing up a little pamphlet is a great idea. You may want to look at Jimmy Akins booklet Mass Appeal : The ABC’s of Worship to see if that has what you’d like to say. Also there is usually a message to non Catholics about why they can’t receive in the missalettes found in most churches.
 
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AmandaCatherine:
I am trying to plan how to deal with the issue of non-Catholics at a Catholic wedding mass. I am a convert, so most of my relatives are protestant, and some of them are rather anti-Catholic. I was wondering what are some ways to ease the situation. Should I find some mass guides to hand out at the mass? Can the priest make an announcement about only Catholics receiving the Eucharist? I was planning to include some information in the program somehow. Has anyone had the same issue at a wedding mass? How did you deal with it?
Thank you!
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To avoid any confusion or hurt feelings, we did not have a mass at our wedding.

Congratulations of your upcomming marriage.
 
I have no idea how you might handle it; face to face might be the best way, but if you have some relatives and/or friends who are fairly anit-Catholic, you might let them know that they are important to you, and that if they were more comfortable attending only the reception, that their presence is very important to you and you would not be offended if they did not attend the Mass.

It would need to be very carefully said so that they do not turn it around as if you were excluding them; but sometimes permission is important.
 
Have a TLM wedding mass as my wife and i did-only the Bride and Groom are alowed to receive during the ceremony, the way it really should be. How many people when they go to a communion or a wedding have not been in a church for probably 5 or 10 years and still go up and receive as the Priest, at my nephews communion (Novus Ordo), when I confronted him later on said "he didnt think it was a “big deal” and didnt want to turn people off from possibly coming back to church. So our Lords body is a barganing chip and we will now accept anything just to keep the pews 50% filled.

TLM is the way to go

Good luck
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AmandaCatherine:
I am trying to plan how to deal with the issue of non-Catholics at a Catholic wedding mass. I am a convert, so most of my relatives are protestant, and some of them are rather anti-Catholic. I was wondering what are some ways to ease the situation. Should I find some mass guides to hand out at the mass? Can the priest make an announcement about only Catholics receiving the Eucharist? I was planning to include some information in the program somehow. Has anyone had the same issue at a wedding mass? How did you deal with it?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
 
My husband’s niece was married at a Nuptial Mass and the groom and his family did not receive Communion.

Can someone please explain to me how a Nuptial Mass can be said when one party is not Catholic?

Thanks.
 
SouthCoast said:
The PRIEST should explain very vividly and clearly to the attendees that Communion is only for baptized Catholics and that others may come up and receive a blessing if they walk up with arms folded (and then SHOW THEM this posture).

A wedding mass was the FIRST mass I ever attended, and this is exactly what the priest did. I didn’t need to understand what was happening before hand, it was explained.

-Michael
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StephanieC said:
There was no way I was not going to have a Nuptial Mass. Aside from the importance of the triple reception of sacraments in 18 hours (we asked our priest to be available for Confession prior to the rehearsal the night before), I also felt that our wedding could possibly be a chance to evangelize our non-Catholic friends and family.

So we printed a very thorough booklet, with every single word of the Mass in it, including “sit”, “kneel”, “stand” directions, and also had the USCCB Guidelines for the reception of Communion in the booklet:

usccb.org/liturgy/current/intercom.shtml

We had also considered mentioning that all who were not receiving were welcome to come forward with their arms crossed over their chest to receive a blessing.

If you PM me, I think I might actually be able to send you our booklet as an attachment.

Btw, I always tried to avoid referring to the booklets as “programs.” To me, “programs” made it sound like our wedding Mass was a broadway show! 😃 Sounds trivial, I know, but you never know…
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Good idea…

…except perhaps the coming-forward-for-a-blessing part.

I’m surprised there were not any other comments on the blessings.
 
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