Holding Hands During The Our Father

[Oik]

[quote]It's distracting. [/quote] Nuff said, however, Dust also adds a good point in that we are to be focusing on God, not our neighbors. I find it difficult to focus on God when holding hands and singing, too many distractions.
[quote]For individuals, I would recommend closed eyes and a prayerful posture as sufficient response, rather than belligerence.[/quote] Best course of action in my mind.

A significant break down in Authority has occurred, but we still have faithful Priests, Bishops, and most of all The Pope that are leading the way for faithful laity to take action.

Futhermore, I propose that if anyone is going to get involved in a ministry (epsecially a teen ministry), first be certain that you are either A) willing to suffer the work of changing it if it promotes abuses, or B) study to first make sure it follows the Church. :ph34r:

[franciscanheart]

it has been difficult for me to keep to myself during the our father..
in my 17 years of being at the church we have always been taught to hold hands
when i went to the school there they taught us to hold hands
its very hard to break the habit when its all youve ever been taught and your family believes in it still..

another thing is the altar rail. we still have one. we still use it. people still kneel.

our priest announced that the Vatican had said that it is appropriate for people only to stand while receiving communion but that he would not be forcing anyone to do this. he left the decision up to each individual saying that he would not correct anyone. he was not going to be supervising the communion lines to make sure everyone was standing. so the majority of our parish still kneels on the altar rail.


many things we dont do right.... many things i wish could be changed

[cappie]

....never held hands during the Lord's Prayer, never will....

On another note, the Italian Missal allows for the hands to be upheld in the "orans" position for all the faithful not just the priest. This was approved by the Congregation when the revision of the present missal was approved for use in Italy.

[i feel like im taking crzy pills]

[quote name='dUSt' date='Sep 5 2004, 12:04 PM'] My family keeps our hands together in a prayer position so it's pretty much impossible for the people next to us to grab them. haha... My daughter asked why we can't hold hands and I explained to her that we should put all our attention on God and not our neighbors. Made sense to her, and she's only 6. lol [/quote]
Well, I duno about all ya alls, but at my church, we have been holding hands during the Our Father since forever. But now that I have read everyone's posts, I agree with you guys. Maybe I will make a comment next time I think about it at church. But what I do, if I don't want to hold people's hands and they all expect me to do? I know that if I fold my hands in front of me, my brother will definately grab my hand, almost trying to make me hold his hand. Then it will cause my dad and my grandma to look at me like I'm crazy and I don't care for that in the middle of mass.

I agree, keep ya hands 2 ya self and no one will get hurt...

WoW. I never understood anything when I was 6... LoL. I agree with keeping our attention to God and not our neighbors. Good point, friend.

[P3chrmd]

I actually like doing it...it gives me a strong since of community, and how united we as a Parish really are! I like it...lol

but thats just little ol' me!

Edited September 6, 2004 by P3chrmd

[the_rev]

I can't stand it! I hate doing it serving especially with the Priest GRRRR.....


I should print this off and mail it to him!

Muwhahahahaha!

[ilovechrist]

our Parish is split on the issue.

personally, my family holds hands. when serving on the altar--

thats a NO NO

[voiciblanche]

Argh. Horribly, horribly distracting.

I, for one, am not a touchy-feely person [i]at all.[/i] Not with my family, not with my friends, not with anybody. I don't like being touched. I don't like holding hands, not even with my own family. Therefore, it has always been terribly distracting for me in the middle of Mass to have to hold hands with a bunch of people I don't know (my family's been through four or five parishes that were pretty large in my lifetime and we never got to know anyone.) I stopped doing it a little while back, and every now and then it's a problem, for example, my four-year-old sister doesn't understand and will yank at my folded hands if I'm not careful. But, generally, I find that if you have your eyes lowered/closed and hands folded, people around you won't try to wrestle them away.

I don't think the priests/deacons/altar servers do it at my parish, either... thankfully.

[Brother Adam]

The problem is the matter has been settled by the Vatican for us. Holding hands is a no-no. No one who doesn't have a very good reason to disobey should hold hands. While you don't want to cause a riot in mass, be firm in your resolve to follow the Church and not the feel-good whims of misguided laity.

There have been those who have caused weaker brothers to fumble on this issue because it is very distracting to those of us who choose to follow the Churches teaching.

Though it should always be the intent of the law above the letter of the law. If someone was about to make a scene because I wasn't holding their hand, I would do so as the intent of the law is always above the letter of the law.

[AfroNova No Limit Soldier]

voiciblanche, FYI - the Church started with everyone kissing at the sign of peace. On the LIPS.

If anyone wants to hold my hand during the Our Father, I'll just keep holding his hand all the way till the end of Mass.

[dUSt]

[quote name='P3chrmd' date='Sep 5 2004, 08:04 PM'] I actually like doing it...it gives me a strong since of community [/quote]
Ahhh... and now we have proof of the theological effects of it! This is [b]exactly[/b] why we [b]shouldn't[/b] hold hands during the Our Father because it transfers our focus from the Eucharist to the community.

There is a time to build up community, but it is not during the consecration of His Body and Blood.

Our prayers, at that moment during mass, should be [b]vertical[/b] (to God) and not [b]horizontal[/b] (to our neighbors).

I hope this makes sense.

[HomeTeamFamily]

thats a great explanation dust

[Paladin D]

I wouldn't be able to [b]not[/b] hold hands during the Our Father, because almost every week I altar serve. My parish priest askes me to come down from the Sanctuary and to hold hands with him and the congregation. If I was just someone in the congregation, I would be able to not hold hands. But in this case, I can't.

[Ash Wednesday]

I don't like holding hands during the Our Father, and I usually avoid it.

If I bow my head and close my eyes like I'm really concentrating, most people don't try to hold my hand.

I will hold someone's hand if they are one of those "hand thrusters" or "hand grabbers" because I don't want to be rude. Usually in mass I sit by myself so it doesn't usually come up.

I don't think they do the hand holding in Europe. And I don't remember them doing it in Brazil. I think it's a very American Evangelical influenced thing.

I don't really care for shaking hands in mass, either. It's not that I don't want to know people in my parish, or that I don't care about them. But I think it's a forced social gesture, and there are better ways to socialize and get to know your parish: by getting involved.

What's more I really hate it when the Catholic college students from our local campus ministry turn it into "inside joke and social hour."

Last week I turned around to shake some of these students hands when they were at our parish (school hasn't started here yet) they spent at least 10-15 seconds laughing and joking, while I was waiting for them to notice that I was offering my hand. Finally I got fed up and turned around and they didn't notice me until I was already turning around and it was too late.

[musturde]

I heard from a priest that the Bishops of U.S told Rome that they couldnt take out a tradition passed on soo long in U.S. The priest said that he doesnt want us to do it but he's not gunna break our hands apart if he sees us doing it.