Hand-Joining At The Our Father

[Veridicus]

I have always wondered when the hand-holding during the recitation of the Our Father began. I assume it occurred sometime in the 70s after the implementation of Paul VI's Missal. I had also assumed it was more of a 'movement of the people' rather than a directive of the Bishops. My mom said she thought she remembered being told by her priest in the early 70s that the Bishops had decided the laity should extend their hands together during the Our Father and then soon thereafter the hand-holding began. Just curious if you guys knew the origin and reason for this relatively recent liturgical posture.

[cappie]

The holding of hands during the Our Father has been a "thorny" issue and is tied up with the discussion of the "orans" position of holding your hands like the priest which seems to be more common. The holding of hands seems to have come primarily from the Charismatic movement, but there seems to be no clear consensus

SOME Bishops have tried to set a clear direction on this matter ... " ... Regarding The Lord's Prayer, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal simply states that the celebrant invites the faithful to join in the prayer "and all the faithful say it with him." There is no mention of holding hands during the prayer. (Thus, these practices should not be imposed upon the faithful.) (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 81). Also, it is the priest whose hands are extended during the Our Father; the faithful are not instructed to extend their hands. (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 152) ..." -- His Excellency, The Most Reverend Salvatore R. Matano, Ninth Bishop of Burlington, Vermont.

In GIRM 43 and 160, the paragraphs dealing with the people's posture during Mass, the only posture specified for the congregation at the Lord's Prayer is standing. It says nothing at all about what people do with their hands. This is not a change from the past.

The history of the bishops' debate on the orans question suggests the origin of the confusion that persists.

During the US bishops' discussion in the 1990s of the proposed ICEL (International Commission on English in the Liturgy) revision of the "Sacramentary" (prayers for Mass), some liturgists were urging that this orans gesture, which by centuries of custom only the priest assumes, should now be mandated for the entire congregation as well.

In 1995, the Bishops Committee on the Liturgy (BCL), then chaired by Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, proposed certain amendments to the proposed revision. Among these, the BCL recommended specifying the orans posture for the people during the Our Father. The rationale was that the orans gesture was used in the "early Church", and that this posture should replace hand-holding during the Our Father, a practice that was becoming increasingly common.

Several bishops objected to adopting the orans for the people (by custom a priestly gesture), and strongly opposed making this a rule. But eventually the bishops compromised, at this 1995 session, and voted to make the orans a permissible option for the congregation during the Our Father.

But in the end, all reference to any posture of the hands during the Our Father was omitted in the US-adapted GIRM. The orans posture is not only not required by the new GIRM, it is not even mentioned.

An interesting article on the Orans position which is more common than holding hands is given below

[url="http://www.canonlaw.info/liturgysacraments_orans.htm"]http://www.canonlaw.info/liturgysacraments_orans.htm[/url]