The (Roman Catholic) Liturgical “Sign of Peace”: Move or Remove?

And kids constantly getting up to go use the bathroom. I realize that sometimes you can’t help having to use the bathroom during Mass, but it’s mostly kids that are bored and their parents let them go whenever they feel like it. Some leave during the Consecration, and you can’t tell me that these are emergencies. I very seldom see an adult get up to use the facilities. It’s kids.

I like your post. I was raised Catholic, but gave it up, never go to Mass unless one of my family members is having a sacrament event, and pretty much consider myself a deist now.

But with that said, I still have great respect for the Mass. But also with that said, even as a kid, I thought the sign of peace was really in an odd place. You have the most solemn part of the Mass, and then interrupt it with a bunch of glad handing and happy talk with those sitting by you. My two cents, it seems more appropriate right away at Mass, or right at the end.

In the same vein, another reason going to Mass makes me cringe is the whole hand holding thing during the Lord's Prayer. I'm not a touchy, feely guy, and I don't really want to hold hands for 30 seconds or whatever with someone I don't know.

And while I'm on a roll, there was a YouTube video that was popular a few years ago with a wedding party dancing up the aisle. I don't think it was a Catholic Church. It seems everybody thought it was so awesome. And maybe my opinion doesn't count, because I am no longer a church goer, but I thought it to be totally inappropriate. I think church is a place to get your head together, contemplate your mortality and insignificance in the universe. Save the dancing for the wedding hall (which I think is awesome in that forum). But whatever. The rest of my family goes to church, and I am fine with that. But it is not a place I typically get any enjoyment to attend.

What you speak of is false antiquity. When Jesus walked the Earth, men and women used to sit separately as well. Do we see that in the NO? No, but we do see female lectors and EM’s. So this supposed return to early Christianity is bogus. And Latin started in the liturgy as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries when Christianity spread beyond the Jews.

And no one is saying that the TLM was the ONLY way to worship as the Catholic Church also has the Eastern Rites as well. However, the Eastern Rites are nothing like the NO either. The Mass developed over time, but never underwent the kinds of changes that occurred at VII.

The issue with the NO is not that it’s “new” but that it took much of what was actually Catholic out of the Mass, many prayers, etc. because those things were just too Catholic, darn it. Those Catholic references were too much for the non-Catholics to handle and well, Vatican II was all about making the Catholic Church and Catholicism more palatable to others like the Protestants, to the Modern World. Same with the Mass. In fact, there were Protestant ministers that helped in changing the mass.

It would behoove you to read up on the change in the liturgy and those who changed it before pointing fingers at those “TLM only” Catholics. So-called “TLM Only” Catholics have very good reason to take issue with the NO.

>> And no one is saying that the TLM was the ONLY way to worship <<

Really? I've read numerous traditional Catholics argue that the Tridentine mass is the ONLY valid expression of worship and that the liturgy MUST be in Latin or it isn't the true Catholic faith. Would you like me to show you some quotes?

I’m sure some folks say this, but they are ignorant of the Eastern Rite which is undoubtedly Catholic worship. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said “no one”. I was responding to your post as I would respond. I took your accusatory post to mean me.

Regardless, I see you’ve ignored everything else I said about the NO which really was the most important part of my post. Considering your angst against those TLM only folks, I’m not surprised.

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