Ah HA! Now I know

Now I know where this screwy holding hands creeping into the Lord's prayer comes from.

Please close your eyes, bow your heads, join hands, and pay attention to the overhead projector as it indicates 'prayer'.

At first I thought it was some misunderstood use of the orans posture. Although cool, it is not suggested.

But no, it looks like hand holding comes to us from these corner churches. Those that insist they are anti-liturgy, yet obviously prescribed nevertheless.

Oh well, now I know.

The worst I have seen was at a weekday morning Mass where the Priest rushed down to hug some women during the Our Father.

The usual is people linking up, and raising their hands higher during "the power, the glory..".

And the best? It is starting to disappear.

If you have hand holding during the Lord's Prayer in mind if we happen to be sharing a pew someday, stay away. If you're a guy I will slap your sissy paw away. If you're a woman, I will decline with a smile after a cough into my palm.

A long time ago, I read an explanation between store front Protestants and Catholics that stayed with me.

For Protestants, they have to pray extra hard so the Lord will bend his ear to their assembly, perhaps even enter where 2 or 3 are gathered. For Catholics, Christ is right there in the Eucharist whether we are praying hard or not. For us, it is not only the gathering, but the adoring of God present whether we hold hands, kneel, or even show up.

No matter what the current wave of liturgists think, we don't primarily gather at Mass, although gather we do. We come to be close to Christ. Holding hands, squinting our eyes, girl altarboys, waving banners, dancing, singing really loud notwithstanding. First things first.

Although kneeling is always appropriate.