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Sunday, March 21, 2010

Official rule during Our Father in the Mass: Raised or Clasped?

Anonymous said...

Good evening Father...
I'm here now in Molave Zamboanga Del-Sur.Father I attend a mass this day(sunday mornig)I notice that during the Lords Prayer(our Father song) all the people inside the church they raise their hands together with the Priest.
Father Abe in San Pedro Cathedral Davao City most of the people they are not raise their hands during Lords Prayer but few of them raise their hands.Father in our Catholic Church why there is no standard system during our Mass?Do we need to raise our hands during Lords Prayer or only the Priest who lead the mass have an authority to raise his hands during the Mass at Lords Prayer?

Good evening Father and Happy Sunday....

Fr. Abe, CRS said...

Dear Anonymous,

If we are going to follow the official rule for the Our Father in the Mass the hands of the people must be clasped in prayer while the hands of the priest are the ones raised because he is the minister of Christ interceding for the people.

In the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite in fact, only the priest recites the Our Father and the people only recites the last line: "Sed libera nos a malo" [And deliver us from evil.]

The practice of the people raising their hands in Our Father came from the Protestant heretics. It was imitated by some priests and lay leaders and soon it became popularized. Because the lay are eager to imitate the actions of priests so they want as much as possible to do what they are doing during the Mass. This is very unfortunate. We have lost the special liturgical actions actually done by the Blessed Mother and the early lay Catholics who used to clasp their hands and bow their heads when praying the Our Father. Instead, nowadays people prefer the manner of praying of the Pharisees. Proudly looking at the heavens, with hands raised.

In the original Latin liturgy, the priest is looking at the Cross as a remembrance of the Humility and Sacrifice of Christ and his hands are set apart, raised but only shoulder length in order not to imitate the proud bearing of the Pharisees.

So, please close your hands during the Our Father.



A discussion from Father Abe's blog, thesplendorofthechurch.blogspot.com

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