Friday 7 December 2012

Monitoring Participation and Praying the Prayers

Another fascinating discussion over at Pray Tell, trying to work out just what people are really doing at Mass.

In my family, Grandma enforced an unbending rule which said that you were never allowed to comment on other people's behaviour at Mass. Ever. She spent 18 of the first 20 years of her life living in a convent after her mother died, attending daily Mass at school etc, so it's not like there wasn't a big religious input in her upbringing.

So my immediate response is, don't know because I was trained never to look or to see. Nope. Still don't know.

How can you tell anything by how loudly people say things or how loudly they sing?
Why do you need to tell anything anyway?

If it's decibels that matter, you might want to consider how people talk to each other at the most intimate and loving moments of their lives. Generally not loud. Maybe people who answer loudly are very fervent or very insensitive. Who could possibly say?

How about minding your own business and saying your own prayers?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

1 comment:

Patricius said...

"How about minding your own business and saying your own prayers?"

Absolutely spot on! This is exactly what I was taught to do even before I made my first communion half a century ago. It seems to me that since the changes- i.e. from 1964- we have risked becoming like a people who honour the Lord with their lips while their hearts are far from Him. I suspect this because so often, while people are very good at saying the prayers of the mass, it is preceded and followed by the din of conversation. It is as if many of us have forgotten that prayer is about listening to God as well as addressing Him.