Why did people start holding hands during the Our Father?

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Tantum_ergo said:
Who started this practice? Nobody knows. Theories range from Charismatic Catholics to “the Protestant influence” to “the lemming effect” to “it’s a beautiful gesture of love and my family has been doing it since before I was born”. . .in essence, ask 100 people this and you’ll get at least 1000 different answers for possibilities but. . .nobody really knows.

For what reasons? Again, nobody knows. Some do it because they love the feeling; some do it because they feel they’ll ‘stand out’ if they don’t, some do it because they grew up with it, some do it because they had NEVER done it and they love the novelty, some do it because ‘everybody does it’ and some because ‘nobody does it and I like to rock the boat’, some do it for the feeling of 'we are ALL Church", others do it because it makes them uncomfortable and they think that being uncomfortable is somehow being more Christ like, some do it without thinking much about it or anything else at all. . . ask 100 people why they do it and as above, get at least 1000 different answers depending on the person. . .
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I don’t think it’s anything to do with the protestant influence as protestants - well Anglicans and Lutherans anyway - certainly don’t do it. It is - in the UK at least - a very Catholic thing that seems to have sprung up over the the last 10 or so years. The celebrant is supposed to hold his hands up during the prayer - I wouldn’t be surprised if someone copied him and it suddenly became the norm. Personally, I dislike it as it has a charasmatic feel about it that makes me most uncomfortable.
 
Always wondered this myself. I thought it was just the same sort of thing as when they raise their hands for the Our Father (which isn’t allowed, because that’s a protected gesture).
 
mozier said:
I believe it all came down from various sources, from the charismatics to Marriage Encounter to “Father Hank” introducing it to the parish “in order to feel the community and ‘the spirit’!” Though technically not a liturgical abuse, it is indeed not in the rubrics and is something with which not everyone is comfortable.
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I think we have to be just a little careful here as it can be an abuse and it can not be an abuse. It depends on the circumstances.

The rubrics of the Mass do not tell me if I can hold a Rosary, wear a blessed medal, sit next to or between my wife and kids or stand at the back, give my kids a toy to hold during the service or hold my wife’s hand when we pray. In short, if you hold hands as a private act of devotion, at the our Father or anywhere else in the Mass, I can’t see how it is an abuse.

The rubrics do tell how the Mass is to be structured and what the Priest can and cannot do. So if the parish is making it mandatory (or highly encouraged) for example, by saying “Now let us join hands and pray the prayer that Jesus taught us” then it is an abuse.

Of course, some extremeists will argue “Well, the rubrics don’t say I can’t dance up and down the aisle during Mass so I guess that is allowed too”. My response is that an action taken which is disruptive to the sacredness of the Mass or to those who are trying to worship is a sin and the person should be counseled for it. This sums up my thoughts on holding hands: If it is not disruptive to the Mass itself or my brothers and sisters around me, it is acceptable to do.
 
liturgyluver said:
I don’t think it’s anything to do with the protestant influence as protestants - well Anglicans and Lutherans anyway - certainly don’t do it. It is - in the UK at least - a very Catholic thing that seems to have sprung up over the the last 10 or so years. The celebrant is supposed to hold his hands up during the prayer - I wouldn’t be surprised if someone copied him and it suddenly became the norm. Personally, I dislike it as it has a charasmatic feel about it that makes me most uncomfortable.
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Growing up protestant, we never held hands in church for any prayer or song. I never saw it until I became catholic, and then only when I came to California. I started attending mass in Warsaw, where no one holds hands.
 
JHow said:
Growing up protestant, we never held hands in church for any prayer or song. I never saw it until I became catholic, and then only when I came to California. I started attending mass in Warsaw, where no one holds hands.
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I only remembered holding hands with Charismatics in the 70’s and part of the 80’s. I never felt comfortable doing it and thought it was misplaced. I didn’t miss it at all when I became a member of the Church of Christ with my wife’s family, the same group I attended functions in my youth before ever even knowing I was baptized Catholic but never catechised. Mom hated Catholics. Needless to say, they divorced when I was 5 years old and the Catholic dad had been in Vietnam since I was 3. He found a way to get me to live with his parents and started making us go to mass when I was around 13. I never saw this holding hands until the second half of the 70’s. However, I always felt more at home in the Cathedral where everyone still respected to “old ways”.
 
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