Have we lost reverence in Church these Days? How can we recover it?

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 7/17/2013 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[murron]

A dress code should be posted and adhered to. If you’re not dressed properly for Church or Mass, then you can’t go in. Go home and get dressed. Eventually, the idea will catch on and people will show up for Mass properly dressed.

[murron]

The Saturday vigil Mass is the worst for the chattering before Mass. It’s mostly attended by elderly people, who are hard of hearing, and they all know each other and talk so loud that if you want to say some prayers before Mass begins, it’s almost impossible to concentrate.

[murron]

The applause thing is one of my pet peeves. Now at Mass someone in the congregation is applauding the homily and others follow suit. I refuse to participate in any applause at Mass.

[PeterPrinciple]

They go to church to fellowship with other Christians.

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My experience when I go to church and try to talk about the sermon or what they read in the Bible the past week, they turn their back and walk away. I can engage in talk about the weather, news, and even politics. Church is a great place for fellowship, but finding Christian fellowship is very RARE in my opinion.

[cuban leaf]

My experience when I go to church and try to talk about the sermon or what they read in the Bible the past week, they turn their back and walk away. I can engage in talk about the weather, news, and even politics. Church is a great place for fellowship, but finding Christian fellowship is very RARE in my opinion.

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This can be true. If I keep coming up against it, I change churches. I have not had that experience much though. Every church I’ve gone to has had an ample supply of people to discuss the bible and its meaning with.

[Bigg Red]

Oh, I know what you mean. And how about applauding the musicians or singers? Fortunately, this does not happen in my church, but I have visited some where it does occur.

Don’t get me started on the stupid “Sign of Peace”. I still do not understand the meaning of it. If I am expected to give such a sign to those around me, wouldn’t it make much more sense to do so at the beginning of the Mass, or when I first enter? Dumb and disrespectful of the Mass, IMO.

[Bigg Red]

I agree with you, but how many priests would dare to “offend” their parishioners?

Actually, I clearly remember that such a dress code was posted on the bulletin board in the vestibule of our church when I was a little girl and a teenager. Pretty sure there was never any need of enforcing it, as social pressure served that need. But, today, for too many, there is little shame or embarrassment about inappropriate dress or behavior.

[Jeff Chandler]

If you reject the importance of communal worship, them skip the following.

A church is not something we worship IN. A church is something we worship WITH.

Of course, a church building is not the most important aspect of worship. The prayers of the soldier in the field and the child on his knees at bedtime, or of a family around the table are more precious to God than the most elaborate liturgy in the fanciest cathedral.

But if communal worship is important then it is important how we design the place we do that, how we decorate it, and how we comport ourselves in it. Every aspect of it should contribute to our worship of God. In that way it does indeed become a sacred place.

It does not take gold and silver appointments to make a church a sacred place, but it stands to reason that if we consider our weekly communal worship to be the most important, most significant event of our lives, then the building in which we do that should reflect that to the best of our ability, and we should also dress at least as well as we would to a job interview, and we should act as if worshiping together is a sacred act.

Unfortunately, not only have we become an undisciplined nation of slobs, but the sacred nature of worship has been mostly forgotten.

[Jeff Chandler]

people couldn’t dress in same clothes for church as they plan on wearing when they stop at walmart on the way home

You nailed it. Mass has become a scene from People of Walmart, LOL!

[Jeff Chandler]

I don’t know about the men

It doesn't have to be suit and tie. Clean long pants (starting at $10 at Walmart), a clean tucked in polo or short-sleeved buttoned shirt (starting at $5 at Walmart), and hard leather shoes (starting at $25 at Walmart) is perfectly fine, respectable summer attire.

I'll forgo pricing underwear and belts, but for the price of a dinner and movies for two, a man can look decent and be comfortable.

[Jeff Chandler]

liturgical music accompanied by guitars & tambourines.

Even when it's not, the music chosen seems designed to appeal to 10-year-old girls. It's a shame.

[piusv]

Well said, except for one small point. Why does he refer to the death cult of mohammedanism as if it is a legitimate religion?

Not a small point at all. Didn't you hear? Vatican II, after hundreds of years of the Church condemning Islam and Mohammed, now asserts that Islam worships the same God as we do.

Why wouldn't this priest say this?

YWIA.

[mware]

Since I am off during the summer, I always volunteer one day a week at my parish (We do not have custdians at our parish, we volunteer our time to keep the church spic and span.)

I told Fr. that I noticed gum stuck under the pews, and volunteered to scrape the bottom of the pews.

Our church sits 900 people. It took me almost 5 hours to clean the pews up.

I am still shaking my head over the whole thing.

[NYer]

Ping!

[stonehouse01]

“...sign of Peace...”

Nothing but a germ fest - absolutely meaningless and should be done away with, mothballed with the superwide bell bottom, beads and platform shoes.

[MayflowerMadam]

Proper church etiquette is to be silent and prayerful the minute you step into a church sanctuary. All churches I’ve been in recently have had a free-for-all, three-ring circus before the service begins. Everyone is chit-chatting and catching up on social stuff, kids are running around — it’s disturbing. All of that can be done outside of the sanctuary.

At least the women in our church dress appropriately; I’ve never seen one in slacks, and their dresses/skirts are tasteful and modest. That’s not the case everywhere.

[NYer]

I go to a non-denominational Bible church that is largely free of symbolic acts other than those taught in the new testament such as Communion, Baptism, etc.

There is a BIG difference between your place of worship and a Catholic Church. In a Catholic Church, you will find a >p>

Tabernacle

in which is kept the Eucharist. IOW, entering a Catholic Church, we are truly in the actual presence of our Lord.

Were anyone of us to be invited to dine at the White House (regardless of who is serving as president), or to dine at Buckingham Palace, we would dress appropriately. This article, in essence, poses the question of why Catholics, invited to dine with our Lord and Savior, would come to church dressed for the beach? Does God not deserve the attire one would don for a president or queen? If anything, He deserves even better.

[Bigg Red]

Germ fest, indeed.

I stopped the handshaking a few years ago. I keep the missallette in my right hand and make a little wave with my left. Most people get it.

I am very careful about germs, and I use hand sanitizer before receiving Communion, but, beyond the germ thing, it is downright disruptive and disrespectful, IMO. It seems as though, just as we are reverently making our way toward the Consecration, someone blows a whistle and calls a time out. It is just so incongruent.

[NYer]

And of course the Sign of Peace where the Mass grinds to a halt while people shake hands, hug, wave, and nowadays whip out the Purell. Recently a pandemic was raging & the celebrant told us to “wai” to each other (hands together & bow Hindu/Buddhist style). Topped off with liturgical music accompanied by guitars & tambourines.

That is most unfortunate. In the Maronite Catholic Church, the Sign of Peace is quite different. The priest kisses the alter, places his hands on the chalice, then passes God's peace to an acolyte, who then gives it to two children standing just beyond the sanctuary. They "carry" the peace to the first person in each pew and it passes down the pews from there. There is no hand pumping, no back slapping and its exchange is limited to those in the pew. Very rich and respectful, indeed!

[elcid1970]

Heh, heh! Your tagline evokes some of those Guitar Mass ditties.

When I was in high school they were already adapting lyrics to PPM folkies: “You can hear the whistle blow one hundred miles” was sung at Mass as

“In this Eucharistic feast, we all are priests...”

Yuk.