The post on Talking in Church elicited a good number of comments with some helpful suggestions. Thank you very much indeed. In this post I want to take up some of those suggestions (I have tried some of them already) and would like to share my thoughts with you in the hope of getting even more useful suggestions. So please comment on this post now unless you want to answer a particular point in one of the comments on the other post.Francis pointed out that when the priest sits down after Communion, everyone else does so and then there is a general "end of lesson" feeling. I realised this years ago and I never sit down after Communion. I purify the vessels at the altar. When the Blessed Sacrament is returned to the tabernacle, all the servers kneel down until the priest or deacon genuflects and closes the tabernacle. After the purification, I stand at the altar for a quiet prayer (in fact, I find that it is a convenient time to say the "Placeat tibi", a prayer that used to be said quietly in the old rite. So the time immediately after Communion is without ambiguity a time of prayer and people are quiet and prayerful.
I am not keen on the long pausa after Communion. That seems to me to introduce an element to the Mass that is not really liturgical but the introduction of a period of private prayer in the middle of the Liturgy. Silence in the Mass was traditionally when the priest was saying some set silent prayers - that takes out the uncertainty. A short silence is provided for but I think this is best regulated by the priest saying a prayer so that the time is not variable at his whim and people do not wonder when he is he going to start again.
Another thing that I think has wrecked the end of Mass is the Notices. These are often likely to be informal so it has become the time for the "post-communion joke." I don't do the notices then (except when a visiting priest is saying Mass.) Usually, I read the notices before the sermon.
Notices in the bulletin, sermons, reminders, : yes, done all that but must do it more systematically. A good poster and some leaflets might help, too.
Prayers after Mass: check. We have the Leonine prayers after weekday Mass. Then people start talking. When they have finished, a small group says the Rosary! It might also be an idea to re-introduce the prayer for the Queen and the Marian anthem after the principal Sunday Mass. This always used to be done in England. As it is not part of the Mass itself, I can see no reason prohibiting it.
Finally, the most challenging but probably the most pertinent suggestion: the priest should stay and say some prayers himself, kneeling down on the sanctuary, after Mass. I usually do this before Mass and it certainly does help encourage silence at that time. After Mass, though, most parish priests are aware that this is the one chance they get to greet their parishioners and are therefore reluctant to miss this pastoral opportunity. However, the spiritual gain of encouraging people to make a thanksgiving after Mass probably outweighs this. Many good priests always did so, Fr Thwaites and Opus Dei recommend it strongly, and I am increasingly convinced that it is the way forward. Something to meditate upon during the Triduum.
Fr Stephanos kindly put me on to a post of his "To Receive Worthily the Eucharist" which has an extract from a document by the US Bishops' Conference and a link to the full text.
7 comments:
A few random thoughts on what happens after Mass:
I do agree that it is less than ideal when people start gassing as soon as the priest has left the sanctuary.
There is perhaps something to be said for keeping the "Ite, missa est" as a decisive sending-forth: no winding-down, but going straight out into the world filled with the renewed inner presence of Christ.
A nice loud organ voluntary, when season, musicianship and instrument permit, can rapidly expel all but the most diehard music-lovers; and a really bad organist can flush even these out.
If the congregation is aware that there are people trying to pray in the church after Mass, they will tend to respect this (though perhaps their attention may need to be gently drawn to the fact).
I personally value the presence of the priest outside the church greeting me as I leave. (It gives me the opportunity to thank him for doing what he does.) However, as a one-time regular server at Mass, I fondly recall the old practice whereby the priest would retire with the servers to the vestry and there give them a special blessing. This was for me an extremely precious moment and one that I would not begrudge the new generation of altar servers.
Where it is possible to offer coffee in a separate place after Mass, surely the parish priest can (and generally should) use this occasion to greet his parishioners less formally, rather than feeling obliged always to tear his chasuble off at the half-run down the nave so as to indulge in hasty flesh-pressing for the benefit of those who are anyway in a tearing hurry to return to the Sunday midday trough.
One recollection: one Christmas-time in Paris I went to the twelve o'clock Organ Mass at the Sainte Trinité. During the Mass, there was no singing, but instead there were organ improvisations at certain times during the liturgy. At the end, there was a long exit piece, during which I sat immobile in my seat. When the piece was over, the only people in the church were myself, the organist and his wife (who happened to be a world-famous concert pianist). It would have meant something enormous to me if I had seen a priest (or anyone else, really) listening right to the end of a piece of playing by someone who had travelled - as he regularly did, almost every week-end - a couple of hundred miles from his home near Grenoble specifically to play for that Mass. But then, he had been playing there every possible Sunday since his appointment in 1931, so perhaps the novelty had worn off! (The year was 1974 and the organist was Olivier Messiaen.)
Fr. Tim,
Having reflected on what I wrote about the effect on the congregation of the priest sitting down after communion, it occurs to me that—for want of a better word—the “spell” (of reverence and mysticism) is broken on several occasions during Mass.
Talking in church could be a natural consequence of how the Mass is currently structured and conducted, from start to finish. Maybe the innovations which were supposed to increase “active participation” have in fact done the opposite. Aren’t we seeing evidence that people are less aware of what the Mass and Blessed Sacrament are about, and are more alienated from the essence of what actually happens at Mass than congregations were before Vatican II?
It could be argued that the acclamation after the Consecration has a similar effect as the priest sitting down after communion: just after the most solemn moment of the Mass, the sense of awe is suddenly broken by a loud interjection from the congregation which, arguably, de-mystifies the Mystery of Faith.
The worst offender of all has got to be the sign of peace, which puts everyone into familiar mode before Holy Communion. It’s downhill all the way from then on: the queue (sorry, “procession”), the rush of the entire congregation—regardless of worthiness—to the altar, the proliferation of extraordinary ministers, communion in the hand…No wonder we’re all slapping each other on the back after Mass and oblivious to Who is really present just a few metres away.
We will likely have to wait three decades for the reform of the reform to work its way through the system and for the hushed awe before the Blessed Sacrament to become the norm in Catholic churches again. In the meantime, I suspect the only short-term remedy is some straight talk in sermons about the Real Presence and why it’s important for Catholics not to be Protestant when it comes to the Blessed Sacrament.
The other short-term remedy is for priests to invoke the guardian angels of their individual churches and their parishioners and ask that they may strengthen the sense of reverence and piety while people are inside the church.
One final thought: when a baby in the congregation is crying, or a toddler is playing up, isn’t it funny how everybody’s sense of the importance of silence in church is suddenly re-awakened? Could this be the starting point for a sermon?
Father mounts the pulpit after Mass, usually a sign that the parish has a huge financial need, or the bishop has died unexpectedly or a new pastor is coming, something very out of the ordinary and not usually "spiritual."
He says something like, "My dear people, I have a small problem that can only be solved by bilocation unless you come to my aid. I should very much like to be in the foyer after Mass on Sunday to meet with you and catch up with what's going on in your lives. At the same time, I have just received Holy Communion and would like to spend some more time in the presence of the Lord, thanking Him and asking Him for the wisdom and the strength and the holiness I need to be a good priest for all of you.
"Here's a possible solution. Let me know what you think.
"I will be in the foyer ten (fifteen, whatever) minutes after Mass to speak with as many of you as may wish to see me. In the meantime, I would like to make a quiet thanksgiving here in the Church. It would be so wonderful if many of you or even all of you would join me in doing that.
"When else are you going to have any quiet time with the Lord during your busy week?
"But since we haven't been doing that up till now, by and large, ten (or fifteen minutes) may seem a very tall order. Let's take small steps into this and see how it goes. Here I've already kept you after Mass a bit, so beginning next week and for the next two months, won't you join in staying after for three minutes or so? We can ease ourselves into this, but wouldn't it be a beautiful thing if a year from now most of us were staying in the presence of the Lord after Mass for ten minutes or so...?
"Of course, no one is obliged to do this and I understand perfectly that you may have to rush home for one reason or another.
"Yet, I would appreciate it so much if you would help me out in this, for my good, your good and the good of the whole parish."
Personally, I am convinced that people are looking for leadership that demands something of them.
But I realize such an assertion may only be prima facie evidence of being out of touch with today's Catholic and that a seasoned pastor would recognize that all the above is pie in the sky. But, from a man in the pews, it seems like it might fly...
It's a risk, but then all real leadership is a risk.
At least, you will have stated your motives for staying in the Church clearly and publicly, and if not all, at least some will follow your example. Or so it seems to me...
Lee, you have read my mind :-)
Yes, I think that is the right way of going about things.
By the way, I think the friar in that picture is actually asking permission to speak, ironically!
Excellent post. If the priest doesn't make a thanksgiving after Mass, how can anyone expect the people to do so?
I hate loud organ music at the end of Mass. It makes private prayer extremely difficult. It suggests that talking - rather loudly - is what people are expected to do.
Worst of all is when you see priests actually in the public street, outside their churches at the end of Mass, still in their vestments; often, instead of processing into the sacristy, they process down the aisle and start chatting. I hope the Holy Father's recent comments on the symbolism of vestments will make priests think twice about this practice.
When I trained to be a priest in the Anglican church, at daily mass (high church college) all the celebrants came back in cassock having divested (some with alb over one arm, presumably it was their own) and made their personal thanksgivings.
I always remember that sight with fondness as it was one I do not think I saw very much after I left seminary.
One just hopes that if contemporary catholic congregations can be obtuse enough to chatter when next to a praying lay person, will they please be less obtuse when Father is on the sanctuary step praying following mass?
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