Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 5:40am

Hold the Applause

 

 

I hate applause in Church and I never join in applause.  Father Z quotes two popes to explain why this is my rule:

 

Joseph Card. Ratzinger – now Benedict XVI – wrote in his Spirit of the Liturgy:

“Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. ” (Spirit of the Liturgy p. 198)

I spotted this today at NLM from my friend Greg DiPippo.

His translation of the Italian in the video, below:

The fourth Sunday of Lent, John XXIII was once again among the crowd, at Ostia. (about 15 miles to the south-west of Rome.) Thousands of people were waiting for him along the street, in the piazza, in the church. They wanted to see him, to applaud him. They did not know that afterwards, he would rebuke them, in a good-natured way, in his simple , spontaneous, familiar way of speaking.

“I am very glad to have come here. But if I must express a wish, it is that in church you not shout out, that you not clap your hands, and that you not greet even the Pope, because ‘templum Dei, templum Dei.’ (‘The temple of God is the temple of God.’)

Now, if you are pleased to be in this beautiful church, you must know that the Pope is also pleased to see his children. But as soon as he sees his good children, he certainly does not clap his hands in their faces. And the one who stands before you is the Successor of St. Peter.”

 

Go here to read the rest.  One of the most tragic aspects of our contemporary world is our loss of a sense of the sacred.  So a Catholic church, where we come to meet the great I AM, is treated frequently with all the grace and dignity that we demonstrate at a sporting event.  None of this of course harms God, but it is hot oil on our heads.

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Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 7:34pm

What a beautiful rendition of a beautiful song! Thank you.

At our parish we have been asked to clap, after the Mass if over and before the final song and procession out. I don’t like that. Though we are not asked to clap within the time of the Mass, we are still in the Church, many still are praying. And we are in the Church after all!
People should be quiet and respectful, before and after Mass– Whenever in the Church– not carrying on full voice casual conversations!

Mary De Voe
Tuesday, July 29, AD 2014 8:31am

The good sisters of St. Felix, the Felicians of Lodi, New Jersey taught the school children, of whom I am one, church manners. We learned these good manners and to this day I observe them. How very much we need sisters and nuns to train our children in good behavior.
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“God’s house is God’s house” and Jesus is there. Jesus, the Real Presence must never be removed from His House for the profane use of Christ’s church. It is stealing.

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