Where do you sit in church, and why?

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We have two deacons in our parish, and, when either of us are preaching, the other has a ‘weekend off’, which means that I can sit with my wife (if she is not the cantor for the Mass, or singing in the choir), or my extended family. We regularly sit in the second row (not pews, but connected chairs) on either side. My grandfather always sits in the second row of the left side facing the altar, and so we sit there with him when we are attending the same Mass.

Occasionally, we will sit with a particular family or friends of ours, usually in one of the first thru the tenth rows.
 
I sit about halfway back on the left side of the church. You see our new church is one of those half circles, and the Tabernacle is in the wall between the church and the chapel behind the seats on the right. When I sit on the left, the Alter and the Tabernacle are both in front of me. I like to put Christ front and center.
 
When our children were young we always sat in the back to be less of a distraction. Now that there older we sit four rolls from the front, I’v also been a lector for ten years.
 
If we’re at Saturday evening mass (my son is often scheduled to serve on Saturdays; otherwise, we attend on Sunday morning), then front row, right side. This is our favorite spot for 2 reasons: first, it is closest to the tabernacle, which is located in the front right corner of the church. Secondly, the front row became my first choice when my kids were small because I found that they behaved much better if they could see what was going on. If we are at Sunday morning mass, we sit on the second row on the front right side, out of deference to a precious elderly lady who receives communion from her position in the pew because of a disability. She is always accompanied by her adult daughter and another lady, so there isn’t room for me to sit on that row with kids in tow.
 
I tend to sit on the right side about 6 pews back to right around the middle.

I have been sitting in this area for as long as I can remember, since I was a kid. So naturally I gravitate to here. Any place else makes me feel strange eheheh
Here is an attempt to explain my church and where I sit:

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(Mind you, the pews go back farther but this is my very crude attempt at expalining my church. The center line going down should be viewed as the main aisle. The left and right lines going down with spaces are smaller aisles)
 
I sit right-center, around the middle.
I have something happening in my life right now (waiting for decision on fiance’s annulment) and I don’t feel comfortable sitting closer for some reason. 😦
I would like to sit a little more towards the front, but it doesn’t seem right at the present time.

BTW, I slide over for people if they want to get in the pew even if I am there first and they are late. I think it’s a little goofy to have people crawling over me… 😉
 
For funerals, weddings and other uncrowded events, to the left and rear.

For crowded services, on the right 3 or 4 pews from the front, only in a church with side doors. I wouldn’t attend at all in a church which didn’t have side doors, I like to be close enough to see and hear, yet still close to the door.
 
Right front, 1 row back by the organ. I love to sing but sometimes sing too loud, the organ drownes me out.:rotfl: .

If I’m at a church where the tabernacle is not centered, I like to sit on the side He is on. :love: !

-Tex
Into one hymn, yourselves unite, stars, earth and sea; and the Incomprehensible Devine Mercy, in concert praise, charmingly. Amen. -St. Faustina
Click to expand...
 
The Tabernacle in my parish is on a left side altar. I sit in front of the 12th Station of the Cross, directly in front of the Tabernacle … (something my Dad taught me over 30 year ago.) I try to find this “seat” in every church I visit. If there are no Stations of the Cross in the church, I sit where I can be most reminded of our Lord’s Passion.

In His Peace!🙂
 
I sit up front, as close as possible, to the altar. Less distractions that way, so I’m not tempted to look at others around me or let my mind drift. If you have trouble at Mass staying focused, give it a shot.
 
I always sit right up front. usually in the middle of a gigantic pew so no one has to climb over me. I like being able to see everything at the altar, which in my cathedral parish is still a bit removed. Being one of the first to receive Holy Communion also gives me extra time to make my thanksgiving after receiving.
 
When I am at the Cathedral, which is most of the time, I prefer just north-west of the altar, at the end of the seating about three ranks back. This is almost directly across the sanctuary from the cathedra. Occasionally, when +Timothy or +Richard isn’t the celebrant, I’ll take an equivalent spot on the southwest, next to the cathedra across from the presider’s seat.

Mostly, this is for totally practical ressons — I cannot stand for any significant length of time without pain, and usually attend using a wheelchair; I need to be very near the front to have any hope of seeing anything, and I also understand speech better when I can see the face of the speaker. I’m not in the first row because the width of my chair at that point would obstruct traffic at communion; the Cathedral is arranged “ad altare dei” with seating on all four sides, and the aisles from the altar get wider as they go outward, and three rows back is far enough that I’m not being tripped over by the communion procession, but still forward enough to not have a pillar between me and the ambo, also forward enough that I can go to communion with the first-row people, or the celebrant can easily come to me, depending. And, west rather than east, because west is “front” for the corona and crucifix, to which I am much attached.

At my other parish, they have an extra-wide pew for walker and wheelchair users at the front of the west transcept [the side with the Tabernacle], but my chair is slightly too wide to manuever there, so I park at the “back” of that section of seating [being transcept, that’s actually only about 1/3 the way to the back of the church] where they’ve taken out half of a pew but left the hymnal racks for scooter and oversize wheelchair parking.

karen marie
 
My husband, with whom I live non-sexually as afffectionate sister, is non-Catholic. He chose where we sat initially, which is about 6 pews back on the right side halfway between the Eucharistic adoration chapel and the main altar. Our church was originally a long narrow biulding and when they added on they modified it’s design to be more like a cross shape and moved the main altar in the center of the cross. Another addition opened up the areas under the arms of the cross, but the placement of the pews still reflects the shape of the cross.
My husband loves to join in the all the prayers, including the Creed, I have heard him saying prayers, especially the Hail Mary, when he doesn’t realize I can hear him.
The music people (which includes a “sort of rock group with drummer” at one mass and a “folk type singer” at another mass, an organist and/or pianist with or without full choir at another mass) occupies the upper stem of the cross behind the crucifix of the main altar.
The adoration chapel occupies about half of the right arm. During Mass a door is closed over the exposed Eucharist on the chapel side, and opened on the church side.

I do beleive that children should be able to see the Mass, and that the enclosed cry room should be moved from way back in the farthest corner from the tabrenacle to the left arm of the cross.
I have to tell a story about when my son was 3 and misbehaving in church. I warned him to stop kicking the pew with his new shoes or I would take him outside to spank him. BangBangBang! I carried his squirming screaming self from the front pew all the way to the back of church , while he screamed “No Mommy don’t spank me with the hair brush!” to the delight of the entire farm-country congregation.
That particular ‘church’ spanking also taught me something: To never threaten a punishment that you didn’t originally intend to carry through. Normally I would have said something like " I will take away your brand new shoes, if you don’t stop kicking." but that time I snapped because I was embarrassed by what I perceived OTHER people were thinking. God entrusted him to me, to teach him that church is a pleasant place to be to see and learn something good.
A 3 yr old can learn that the little black balls on the lines in the song book means sounds, and they mean we sing higher and lower. He can follow along with his finger, IF you take the time to show him. He can see the numbers on the board and ‘help’ find the number in the song book.
You do not even have to know how to read music.
My naturally curious 3 yr old became, in grade school, and high school and college, first chair in band and orchestra and symphony, playing piano, clarinet, flute, trombone, sax and baritone, and at age 28 plays bass guitar in his own Christian rock group. Theresa
 
LOL, that sounds like it might qualify as “My most embarrassing moment”, LOL. Good thing no one turned you into CPS! LOL!

My little girl Alise, who is now 8, nursed until she was almost 2. She was a very demanding nurser, and I never could get her to be discreet like I could the other 5. I remember sitting in the church and having her yell “nurse, nurse!”, pulling at my shirt! Ugh, that was awful, my husband had died when she was 16 months old, I had no support system, and there I was, sitting as far back in the church as I could with this toddler demanding to nurse in church, and totally hating church! I finally just quit going to church for about a year, it was too difficult.
 
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