What is so wrong about praying with hands extended?

[sriemann]

I have for many years prayed and responded during Mass by extending my hands out open with palms up. We pray the Our Father holding hands and, when we get to the doxology, we raise our hands to heaven. We were stopped by the deacon one Sunday and told that we should not be doing that. Why?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Because such gestures are not in the rubrics of the Mass authoritatively promulgated by the Church. They are additions that were illegitimately imposed upon Catholic congregations by people acting on their own initiative who thought them “a good idea.” If your parish’s clergy are now trying to educate the congregation in the correct gestures expected of them during the Mass, that is wonderful and I hope that you will give your full cooperation.