[Alberta's Child]

These joyful noises are spoken of as if spontaneous praise. Telling parishoners not to do so squelches spontaneous praise.

Nobody has ever said that the Mass is supposed to be "spontaneous praise" in the first place. The fact that religious services are scheduled at specific times, and held according to a specific set of prayers and rubrics, would indicate that they are very clearly not spontaneous.

Anyone who wants to engage in spontaneous worship can just as easily do it outside on the street -- you don't even need to be in a church building.

[beelzepug]

"Nobody has ever said that the Mass is supposed to be "spontaneous praise"..."

We do have a gentleman in our Anglican congregation who will give an "Amen" occasionally during a particularly good sermon and the priest smilingly accepts that as an affirmation of a job well done. I'm not offended; envious, maybe.

[rdb3]

Anyone who wants to engage in spontaneous worship can just as easily do it outside on the street -- you don't even need to be in a church building.

Well, a building is just a building.