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Callmemaybe
Guest
Good advice!
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Callmemaybe
Guest
Good article! Some parishes do let people who aren’t Catholic receive a blessing during communion. When I met w/ the pastor at the rectory shortly after beginning to attend mass he invited me to come up and get a blessing, with my arms crossed over my chest, a sign saying you are not able/ready yet to receive I enjoy doing this and being in the presence of the host and chalice, and being blessed by name (it’s a small parish). I prayed kneeling the first 2 masses before Fr. told me I could go up. It doesn’t hurt to ask.I went online and did a search about what to expect on a first visit to a Catholic Church.
Here’s one response:
catholicmissionleaflets.org/leafapp.htm
Good luck!
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Alen
Guest
**
The Lord’s Prayer is followed by the Sign of the Peace. The priest will say “let us offer each other the sign of Christ’s peace.”
I will probably catch hell for saying this, but here it goes anyway. I don’t only feel creeped out by this part of the holy mass, but when I think about it I have serious doubts that this is a good thing. It is fait accomplis I suppose, and yet it seems diabolical under the guise of a wonderful thing (and some are quite attached to this ‘sign of peace’).
Christ said something like, “I leave you peace, My peace I give you, NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES…” So therefore, why must we offer each other the (obviously worldly) sign of peace? Celebrants are not on par with Christ and have not yet received Him via holy communion, and so, have no authority to offer such a sign. As it abruptly distracts attention from the great trans-substantiation, the holy sacrifice, to this social-centered phenomenon, it diminishes that which is the mass’ very essence and purpose. Moreover, after the various emotional reactions of celebrants to the ‘sign,’ few indeed are now properly disposed to receive Jesus in the holy Eucharist. This ‘sign’ seems rather like a monkey-wrench tossed into the mass to disrupt its essence (cleverly disguised as a social thing of much beauty), to decisively unhinge it. Those who see the mass mainly in social terms will not think so. But if the Catholic mass is still (and always) about Jesus’ great sacrifice, relived for our sakes… then it seems this is not a joyful sign of peace, but a sad sign.
Ought not this Vatican II item to have been placed into the discard, along with 60s bell-bottom trousers and peace-pendants? Where did I read Jesus saying, “in those days people will say, ‘peace, peace’ …but there is no peace.” Someone out there will know. Could it have been this very thing that Christ was referring to? Well then… Peace!*
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