Dance at Mass?

Catholic Exchange ^ | November 15, 2008 | Mary Anne Moresco

[NYer]

“A recent craze associated with so-called active participation promotes the idea that there must be dance at a solemn Mass,” writes Francis Cardinal Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, in his book Celebrating the Eucharist (p. 53). Before we kick off our shoes, don ballet slippers, and inadvertently find ourselves or our children sashaying in the Sanctuary, it is important to understand what Holy Mother Church teaches about dance at Mass.

To enter a Catholic church is to leave the world behind and cross a threshold into that which is holy. The church building itself symbolizes heaven. “The visible church is a symbol of the Father’s house toward which the People of God is journeying…” (CCC 1186) For this reason, everything we encounter at Mass ought to speak of God and holiness.

The problem with dancing at Mass in western culture, especially in this age of dance “reality” shows on television, is that it tends to bring to mind worldly aspects of our culture and our lives. Thus, rather than having our thoughts elevated at Mass toward God and heaven, we can find that, when exposed to dance in church, our thoughts are instead made banal. The Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship issued a document called “Dance in the Liturgy.” This document addresses the connection between dance and banality when it states that in western culture:

[D]ancing is tied with love, with diversion, with profaneness, with unbridling of the senses: such dancing, in general, is not pure.

For that reason it cannot be introduced into liturgical celebrations of any kind whatever: that would be to inject into the liturgy one of the most desacralized and desacralizing elements; and so it would be equivalent to creating an atmosphere of profaneness which would easily recall to those present and to the participants in the celebration worldly places and situations.

Neither can acceptance be had of the proposal to introduce into the liturgy the so-called artistic ballet.

To introduce dance into the liturgy is to introduce enjoyment, and thus entertainment. Entertainment at Mass makes it easy for us to forget why we come to Mass at all, so that our time at church is spent thinking of dance rather than our prayers. As Francis Cardinal Arinze stated:

Now, some priests and lay people think that Mass is never complete without dance. The difficulty is this: we come to Mass primarily to adore God — what we call the vertical dimension. We do not come to Mass to entertain one another. That’s not the purpose of Mass.

[W]hen you introduce wholesale, say, a ballerina, then I want to ask you what is it all about. What exactly are you arranging? When the people finish dancing in the Mass and then when the dance group finishes and people clap — don’t you see what it means? It means we have enjoyed it. We come for enjoyment. Repeat. So, there is something wrong. Whenever the people clap, there is something wrong — immediately.

Why make the people of God suffer so much? Haven’t we enough problems already? Only Sunday, one hour, they come to adore God. And you bring a dance! Are you so poor you have nothing else to bring us?

Cardinal Arinze wrote, in Celebrating the Holy Eucharist (p. 53-54) about the misguided notion that we must dance because we are both body and soul:

Our answer must be that the liturgy, indeed, appreciates bodily postures and gestures and has carefully incorporated many of them, such as standing, kneeling, genuflecting, singing and giving a sign of peace. But the Latin rite has never included dance. …

Dance easily appeals to the senses and tends to call for approval, enjoyment, a desire for repetition, and a rewarding of the performers with the applause of the audience. Is this what we come to Mass to experience? Have we no theatres and parish halls, presuming that the dance in question is acceptable, which cannot be said of them all?”

Nor is it acceptable to use dance as a means for “evangelization” or to “attract” people to the church or the Mass. Pope Benedict the XVI, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote in The Spirit of the Liturgy (p. 198) that:

It is totally absurd to try to make the liturgy “attractive” by introducing dancing pantomimes (wherever possible performed by a professional dance troupe), which frequently (and rightly from the professionals’ point of view) end with applause.

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued directives indicating that it is not permissible for dance (including ballet, children’s gesture as dancing, the clown liturgy) to be “introduced into liturgical celebrations of any kind whatever” (NCCB Bishops Committee on the Liturgy, Newsletter April/May 1982).

Dance at Mass can generate feelings of disappointment and betrayal by believers who come to Mass to pray to God only to find that religious entertainment awaits them instead. One pastor explained the feeling of disappointment and betrayal he had when dancers appeared at Mass as he stood in persona Christi:

As a priest who stands in persona Christi to offer the sacrifice of the Mass, I felt disappointed and betrayed when liturgical dancers appeared at the Mass that opened our diocesan synod. The believers present for this Mass deserved to partake of the liturgy under the proper rubrics outlined by the Holy See. It would not be an exaggeration to say these believers were ambushed by an act of spiritual and liturgical terrorism.

The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a precious gift from God. This gift belongs to the church, and must be preserved in accord with liturgical norms. To ensure that preservation, to promote Catholic unity, to honor the Magisterium, and to show charity towards fellow believers who have a right to “partake of the liturgy under the proper rubrics outlined by the Holy See,” each of us must remember we are not free to add to the Mass whatever suits our personal fancy.

Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC 22:3) sated that “no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.” May each of us come to embrace the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as a beautiful and perfect gift — in the perfect form it has been given.

To view Francis Cardinal Arinze as he discusses dancing at Mass, access: http://www.wikio.com/video/379459.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Dance can be a form of worship . . . when you’re alone outdoors or alone indoors.

The purpose of the SACRIFICE of the Mass is the Eucharist. This is where Catholics and Protestants meet the fork in the road. For Protestants the purpose of Church is the Sermon.

Dance doesn’t belong during the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Any more than the idea that we have to hold hands when we pray or sing/pray the Lord’s Prayer. (A custom I particularly disagree with.)

[vox_freedom]

Take me back to the old days and the solemn latin masses.

Yes!!! Latin, Gregorian music, incense. The true sense of the sacred...

[RonF]

Psalm 149:

1Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.

2Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

3Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.

Psalm 150:

1Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.

2Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

3Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.

4Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

Certainly there was dance for secular pleasure and other purposes in that day; in fact, that’s easily proven from Bible verses as well. If God has no problem with this, why does the Catholic Church?

[dsc]

“In fact it got so bad that this morning my wife and I attended the 0800 Mass at her Anglican Parish in Delray Beach. “

I’ve been struggling with that problem for a long time now.

Is poor liturgy an excuse for skipping Mass?

[netmilsmom]

How about just plain old “Catholic Calisthenics”?
Those who can’t hold still through Holy Mass. They are doing the “hands extended” Orans position, which is a priestly gesture, the “lift up your hearts” freethrow toss, Holding hands up in the air with the little final cheer during “For thine is the kingdom...” along with the across the aisle handshaking and gladhanding.

They are so devout.

[netmilsmom]

>>If God has no problem with this, why does the Catholic Church?<<

Because we praise him 24/7 with song, dance and praise. We start the Slovak Dance class at my parish and my girl’s Polish Dance events with prayer.

So we give Him one hour a week to fall on our faces and show him that we are not worthy of his light.
We relive His crucifixion at our Holy Mass and there was no dancing while He hung on the cross.

[netmilsmom]

>>Is poor liturgy an excuse for skipping Mass?<<

No. Our Lord only suffered three hours on a cross for you.
Watch EWTN on other days and pray to St. Michael that he will defend you in battle.

[dsc]

Okay, so, how am I supposed to feel about the bad liturgy as I sit in the pew?

[bradthebuilder]

I apologize for not being able to read every repy to this thread but it is late and I need to work tomorow. Can we please agree that the current Pope has indicated his belief that the the Church can be a smaller, more vibrant body of Christ? I have already told my wife that I expect my funeral Mass to be in Latin according to the 1962 Missal. If that is not possible, then, what do I care as long as I have had last Rites according to the proper Catholic Tradition?

[Ransomed]

“Okay, so, how am I supposed to feel about the bad liturgy as I sit in the pew?”

Just think about the Sacrament despite what goes on in front of you. Don’t let anything seperate you from the Sacrament despite all the garbage that goes on—that’s what the Enemy wants.

Freegards

[dsc]

Good advice, thank you.

[nanetteclaret]

dsc - As a former Episcopalian I can feel your pain. LOL! The Episcopal church I attended before I became Catholic was a beautiful gothic-style church, the liturgy was Rite I, and the music was heavenly English choral with excellent organ. But it is all a “whited sepulchre” because of various reasons. Anyway, yesterday we attended the little Catholic church near our farm and I specifically wore my long chapel veil, so that I could discreetly put my hands over my ears while the “choir” was singing, accompanied by some sort of electronic synthesizer piano/organ, played in a very old-timey Southern Baptist way! Although it was hard, I “offered up” my suffering (which it literally was) and asked the angels to sing louder than the “choir.” Plus, the homily was really questionable. But Jesus was there and that's really all that counts.

[AnAmericanMother]

Is poor liturgy an excuse for skipping Mass?

Unfortunately, no.

You're supposed to "offer it up". When I was attending a dog trial out of town, I wound up at a Life Teen service and boy was it awful - and LOUD. I wondered whether the lady standing up front doing ASL for the deaf was required because the decibel level had rendered the congregation deaf, or whether it was just so noisy in there that nobody could hear anything.

At least nobody was dancing in the aisles - at least not that I saw. The "rock band" was gyrating around though. It would have been better if they could actually play.

I offered it up, but it was a struggle not to just turn and bolt out of there.

[AnAmericanMother]

Catholic Calisthenics: Stand. Sit. Kneel.

What my dad calls the "Episcopal Aerobics".

[AnAmericanMother]

As a former Episcopalian I can feel your pain.

Amen, amen! We only stayed in our Pisky parish as long as we did because of the great music . . . but fortunately we found a good solid parish (very little "holy field goal" or handholding during the Our Father - visitors who do that look around and realize that it isn't done, and subside), and the music just keeps getting better and better.

We sang Faure's Requiem for All Souls, it was splendid AND elevating (and nobody applauded).

We do occasionally give a round of applause to new altar boys or so forth, but only after "Ite, missa est."

[NYer]

Wow, you guys have problems far beyond anything I’d have thought of!

A few miscreants do not equate to such a comment. Remember to remove the beam from your own eye before looking for the splinter in your neighbor's.

[NYer]

Certainly there was dance for secular pleasure and other purposes in that day; in fact, that’s easily proven from Bible verses as well. If God has no problem with this, why does the Catholic Church?

It would be comparable to dancing at the base of the crucifix on Calvary.

There is nothing wrong with someone personally dancing before the Lord or organized liturgical dance as a form of celebration in the hall or before a Mass but - NEVER - during the Mass.

[NYer]

Can we please agree that the current Pope has indicated his belief that the the Church can be a smaller, more vibrant body of Christ?

Absolutely and thank you for that excellent reminder! The recent election is a clear indicator of why this is necessary.

I have already told my wife that I expect my funeral Mass to be in Latin according to the 1962 Missal. If that is not possible, then, what do I care as long as I have had last Rites according to the proper Catholic Tradition?

Right again! If neither is available, might I suggest the Maronite Funeral Rite. Very reverent and extremely moving. After sprinkling the coffin with holy water and incensing it at the door, the priest processes before it towards the altar while the congregation sings "Open wide your gates, O Jerusalem".

[Kolokotronis]

“Remember to remove the beam from your own eye before looking for the splinter in your neighbor’s.”

I have no doubt there’s a beam there...but perhaps you could enlighten me as to just what precisely it is composed of. The late pope and the EP urged us to get to know one another; I suppose so we won’t be surprised if some silly nun in a pantsuit starts dancing at a High Mass, among other things.

As for the problem being confined to a few miscreants, well they must be influential miscreants if the Vatican thought it important enough for one of the papabile to comment on it. Sadly, NYer, the excesses of post Vatican II liturgics in the Roman Catholic Church have become a problem for us in the Orthodox Churches, a true stumbling block to progress on reunion as the EP hinted in his homily during the visit of +BXVI to the Phanar. That the pope and Cardinal Arinze are tackling this head on is a good thing and not something to be minimized as a problem found in a few isolated places practiced by nuts.

[netmilsmom]

>>Okay, so, how am I supposed to feel about the bad liturgy as I sit in the pew?<<

I have to tell you that I did wrestle with this myself. We camp a lot in the summer and some of the Masses we’ve seen, well I had to look at the sign on the way out to make sure it was Catholic.

If the Mass is valid (and it’s either Nyer or Salvation that have a warning list of a valid mass), you take it as your personal cross. However, check around in your city. I was at “innovation central”. Like noicemakers for Mardi Gras type. Within 5 miles is my traditional Catholic parish. Start church shopping. That might help.

If your Mass is not valid, get with the Diocese.

But I have to tell you, talking with your wallet is great. Go somewhere that they have a valid Mass and give them your donation. You may see a change all the way around.