Holding Hands during the Our Father

Donna P · #1 May 8, '12, 6:55 am

Does this bother anyone else? I mostly just let it go but when a Priest tells the congregation to hold hands during the Our Father it really just peeves me. This happened at a funeral at another church. Not only did the Priest tell everyone to hold hands, he finished the Our Father with ..and thine is the kingdom and the ...etc.

YoungCatholic86 · #2 May 8, '12, 7:05 am

I think it gives a false sense of unity so yes it bothers me. The Eucharist is what unites us into the one body of Christ, not holding hands. Though I REALLY like my priest and enjoy how my parish runs in terms of it being fairly traditional, all still hold hands and finish with that add-on.

roadsend · #3 May 8, '12, 8:01 am

It is not in the rubrics and the Church has disapproved of it.
That is good enough for me If a padre directs this, he is out of line and I will ignore him.

TheRealJuliane · #4 May 8, '12, 8:07 am

It is the norm in so many parishes. I never knew we weren't supposed to do it. I NEVER do it in the weekday Masses and no one else does either. But we do say "For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever" just like good Protestants...

Sometimes I just say "Amen" quietly where it belongs and I don't say the rest.

Oneofthewomen · #5 May 8, '12, 8:10 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadsend

It is not in the rubrics and the Church has disapproved of it.
That is good enough for me If a padre directs this, he is out of line and I will ignore him.

I know it is not in the rubrics, but I have never heard the the Church has "disapproved" of the practice.
Would you kindly site your source, please?

mdgspencer · #6 May 8, '12, 8:15 am

Holding hands isn't part of the mass, so people should feel free not to hold hands if they want. Usually I put my hands in my pockets if I think an unknown neighbor might seize my hand. Others fold their hands in prayer and use other expedients then. One poster on a preceding thread on this topic suggested extending out a backscratcher in each hand, as a joke. But I don't have anything against it if neighbors want to hold hands with each other. Some people though are troubled to have strangers invade their space in this way, and I think this should be respected.
Some people are criticized if they don't want to hold hands during the mass, but, still, this isn't part of the mass at all, but simply a practice made-up by some people.
I consider myself lucky in this regards after I retired and moved to a country where things aren't added to the mass or the mass isn't changed in unauthorized ways that can be disturbing to some people.

victorbuhagiar · #7 May 8, '12, 8:16 am

Even in far away Malta, Europe, I've seen people holding hands during the Our Father, but very few. Personally I don't like it much. Never do it. But then it is no big deal, is it?

God bless.

Victor

SonCatcher · #8 May 8, '12, 8:22 am

Is there currently a moratorium on discussing the topic of holding hands? (if not, let's make sure this thread doesn't cause a new one)

Regarding the Lord's Prayer doxology ("for Thine is the kingdom etc."), we do say that at every Mass. Usually it is separated from the prayer itself by another brief prayer said by the priest. This is to emphasize that the doxology is not part of the prayer, itself. Someone will have to dig into the rubrics to determine whether the intermediate prayer is required when reciting the doxology. For my part, I can't imagine a reason why this would be.

**Joe 5859** · #9 May 8, '12, 8:27 am

"For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever" is in the Missal. Why wouldn't it be said?

There used to be a moratorium on hand-holding-during-the-Our-Father threads. Has that been lifted?

Rich C · #10 May 8, '12, 8:41 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donna P

Does this bother anyone else? I mostly just let it go but when a Priest tells the congregation to hold hands during the Our Father it really just peeves me. This happened at a funeral at another church. Not only did the Priest tell everyone to hold hands, he finished the Our Father with ..and thine is the kingdom and the ...etc.

Maybe father directed hand holding to prevent people from imitating his orans position.

SonCatcher · #11 May 8, '12, 8:43 am

Here is a blog post regarding the doxology. The author (a Catholic) suggests that the doxology should be recited even if the embolism is not. By extension, he seems to mean we should recite the doxology with the Lord's prayer when saying the rosary and other times we recite it outside of Mass.

Is there a liturgical doctor in the house?

SonCatcher · #12 May 8, '12, 8:48 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe 5859

There used to be a moratorium on hand-holding-during-the-Our-Father threads. Has that been lifted?

There used to be a sticky. The moderators have moved away from announcing moratoria in stickies because "nobody reads stickies". I suppose that means we tread very carefully so nobody gets banned.

wendy w. · #13 May 8, '12, 8:57 am

My family holds hands and prays together. I don't see why this is a big deal.
If families want to hold hands so be it. I'm not really big on the whole parish having to hold hands. Personally I think there are bigger problems to focus on in the church. Like politicains receviving communion when they support abortion, same sex marriage and birth control. Just my opinion.

Rockie01 · #14 May 8, '12, 9:02 am

If you look it up on the USCCB website you'll see it has been discouraged to hold hands during the Our Father during mass. However, people insist on doing it; even when they know this. When I taught RCIA and CCD I tried to teach the students and catechumen/candidates on this, but I was overrided with this comment "We've always done it and we will always do it". Even though many of us want to be obedient to the Vatican's wishes, there are many who do what they want. I put my hands together in prayer and usually no one tries to grab my hand.

In addition, a priest I met while in Korea told us that it is a distractor for him when people jump out of their pews to hold hands and if nothing else consider that movement out in the pews when it is loud and busy is distracting. Another distractor is the raising and lowering of the kneelers, this could be done alot quieter, slamming them down is unnecessary. In the military you never heard kneelers being raised or lowered. He was a phenomenal priest, he held no punches but I had so much respect for him.

Also, when we extend the sign of peace to others, I would like to ask for everyone to consider that some of us, love to show our expression of love, but some of us elderly have arthritis and it is extremely painful when some young whipper snappers put a bear hold on our hands and just crush our joints. It is painful. So, if someone just waves and is reluctant to shake your hand, don't take it personally, for me it's a matter of protecting my hands from being squeezed and causing pain for the rest of the day. I know no one does this intentionally, so I'm just saying..... please be considerate and don't take it personally.

The Patriarch · #15 May 8, '12, 9:08 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donna P

Does this bother anyone else? I mostly just let it go but when a Priest tells the congregation to hold hands during the Our Father it really just peeves me. This happened at a funeral at another church. Not only did the Priest tell everyone to hold hands, he finished the Our Father with ..and thine is the kingdom and the ...etc.

Yep! Just close my eyes....