Tim Staples answers a call asking whether it is improper for us to use the same gestures as the priest during mass, such as raising the hands during the Lord’s Prayer.
Transcript:
Host: We go now to Maria in Phoenix, Arizona, listening on Immaculate Heart Radio. Maria, you are on with Tim Staples.
Caller: Hi, I just wanted to ask, well, I heard that you’re not supposed to make any gesture in mass like the priest, because you’re not co-celebrating the mass, and my question is kind of two parts, because here in Arizona, like at every Church just about, there’s parts during the mass where everybody is doing that, like kind of putting their hands out like the priest, looking exactly like the priest, and then everybody holds hands at the Our Father, and and I was–and I heard that, you know, that’s not really a prayer where we’re sharing love with each other, but like, you know, praying to God.
But I also know that if somebody’s standing all by themselves, they’ll put their, you know, everyone else is holding hands, but they’re putting their arms out again in imitation, like, looking like the priest, and my sister is like “Oh, it’s no big deal,” you know, and I just, I mean obviously I don’t want to offend God, I don’t want to spin in any way, you know. Is it a big deal or is it not?
Tim: Maria, that is a fantastic question. And I will tell you the way I look at it. First, Maria, we have to understand that the Code of Canon Law tells us that we ought not to do anything for which there’s not a rubric in the liturgy. You know, there are those who approach the liturgy and say, “Well it doesn’t say you can’t do this.” Well, that’s not a very good way to approach. I mean, it doesn’t say you can’t breakdance, you know, on your way up to receive Communion, but that doesn’t mean you can.
What the Code of Canon Law says is: you ought not to do what is not prescribed in the liturgy. And it says it like this: no one, not even a bishop, priest, anyone, can add to the rubrics. Rubrics are the instructions as to what we are supposed to do. That is the rule of thumb, okay? And that would mean no to the holding hands and all that.
However, the Church has not come down on the holding of hands and the lifting of hands like that. And so we shouldn’t either. We can express, “Hey, you know what, that’s technically not in keeping with the Code of Canon Law,” but the bishops haven’t come–the Pope hasn’t come down on it, so you know what, I say we just lighten up. Express what we believe the Code of Canon Law says, and let it lie. The bishops will take care of that, not you and I.