Hands Across The Pew

Father Robert Johansen wants to know what we all make of this:

"In my parish, we have introduced, in the past couple of weeks, the practice of inviting the congregation to stand up and greet/introduce themselves to their neighbors in the pews before Mass begins... The way it works is this: the cantor stands up at the cantor's lectern and says something like: 'Welcome to St. Joseph Catholic Church. As we begin our celebration, let us rise and take a moment to greet Christ in one another.' After a minute or so of this, the cantor then announces the opening hymn and the processional begins... I should point out that this practice was not introduced at my behest. I'm just the associate here..."

Uh-huh. And I'm just the Pope. I can't get my bishops to listen. We all seem so powerless these days, don't we?

My territorial parish is like this (which is why I left for a REAL one). I could have my nose right in the missal, and the pastor would shove his hand right in my face. Oh yeah, now THERE'S a way to build bridges!

From what I've been reading so far, the following should come as a shocking bit of news to some of you at St Blog's:

This is not a matter of likes or dislikes. There is a centuries-long tradition of silent preparation before Mass, one that is reinforced in the newly-revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal. Our "community" is built around the Eucharist, not the back-slapping of boneheads who wouldn't cross their freshly-manicured lawns to do you a favor.

We have created an artificial suburban culture, producing the mentality that an artificial act of "fellowship" will somehow turn into something real. At the former parish I mentioned, it was all I could do for the pastor or the staff to return a damn phone call. I'm glad I never needed the Last Rites.