It is easy to get angry with people when they talk in Church, to cast aspersions on them, to judge them for irreverence and perhaps a host of other things.
This is a temptation which should be resisted. Perhaps a priest has told them that the Church is a community and we should all greet each other and chat in the House of the Assembly. Perhaps they have had a poor education in the faith, come back to the Church with goodwill and assumed that it is the right thing to talk once Mass has finished. Perhaps they are a bit hard of hearing and so talk more loudly than seems sensible. Perhaps they're not Catholic and talk because everyone else does. There could be all sorts of reasons.
So this is a chance for penance - and therefore a partial indulgence, by the way. Here's a prayer I just made up:
Loving Lord Jesus, I would like to pray in peace and silence but I accept your will that here and now this is not possible. I offer this inconvenience in union with your sufferings. Accept my poor prayers and pour out your grace on all the good people who have been here at Mass today. Help all priests to encourage reverence in Church in a sensitive, charitable and effective way, through their preaching, their prayer and their example. Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!
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At the end of Maundy Thursday we were singing Tantum ergo sacramentum (much to my delight) as the Blessèd Sacrament was processed to the altar of repose.
--THEN--
Towards the end someone's mobile went off.
Usually I wouldn't get too bothered by this, except that it was extremely load and the ring tone was probably the most inappropriate it could be: 'Jingle bells'! Did it go off just once? I think not, and was it quickly turned off the second time? It rang for even longer the second time.z
I think that St James' should have a 'Switch OFF your mobile!' sign.
Could you put that in Latin?
Yes, you are right to mention this...because i was away with my self-righteousness...& God knows where that might lead! Thanks for 'reigning us in! '
Anon - what a good idea! That will be a good exercise for me - but once the Triduum is over.
An anti-oration: Loving Lord Jesus, how I hate it when people talk in Church! Help me to find creative ways to shut them up. Give me courage to defend the tranquillity in which you may speak to souls. Grant that I may never rebuke chatterers harshly, but always with patience, good cheer, and love.
The Latin version:
Domine mi Iesu diligens, quomodo odivi in ecclesia loquentes! Fac ut modos originales inveniar eos ad silentium reducendi. Da mihi animi fortitudinem ut illam tranquillitatem defendam, in qua Tu animabus loquaris. Nunquam garrulos aspere reprehendam, sed semper patienter, cum bono humore et caritate.
A church I have heard about has a notice saying "If you must talk, talk to God"
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