HAND HOLDING THE OUR FATHER
Introducing, mandating, or imposing the holding of hands during the Lord's Prayer is violating the norms set by the Church.
The Code of Canon Law (1983) does mandate: "The liturgical books approved by the competent authority are to be faithfully observed in the celebration of the sacraments; therefore, no one on personal authority may add, remove, or change anything in them" (Canon 826.1). (Note that this Canon repeated a previous mandate found in both Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963) and the Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery, No. 45 (1967), which was issued to address certain abuses arising in the liturgy after the council.)*
The Wiccans were doing it first, then the charismatics started doing it in their “charismatic” liturgies and as it would follow they introduced it to the rest of us. Now at any given Mass on Sunday groups of charismatics are holding hands during the “Our Father” and the rest of the congregation prays in various postures. There are several variants on the orans, there are folded hands, hands dangling and hands gripping pews. For all that hand holding the congregation is a picture of disunity. And trust the Charismatic Movement to bring a pagan practice into the Mass, because clearly the hand-holding-unity-mania has not been part of Protestant prayer either.
Wicca and hand-holding during the Our Father
“The holding of hands has been brought in by the feminist movement, and its origins are from the Wiccan ritual where the group forms a circle and joins hands to form the base of a cone. Holding hands is to engender power as they pray: to spiral upwards from the base of the cone. As we know, feminists are great for attempting to engender power, and so this hand-holding is coming more and more into use.
For us Catholics, this Wiccan tradition is a serious intrusion. We know we all belong to the Mystical Body of Christ when we are in a state of grace. However, when we join hands, and some are in the state of grace and some are not, then are we presenting the Mystical Body of Christ to the Father? God cannot be present where there is sin. So this is just another way of diminishing our teaching and the reality of the Mystical Body of Christ.” Re: Source
*Straight Answers: Holding Hands During the Lord's Prayer
The Code of Canon Law (1983) does mandate: "The liturgical books approved by the competent authority are to be faithfully observed in the celebration of the sacraments; therefore, no one on personal authority may add, remove, or change anything in them" (Canon 826.1). (Note that this Canon repeated a previous mandate found in both Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963) and the Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery, No. 45 (1967), which was issued to address certain abuses arising in the liturgy after the council.)*
The Wiccans were doing it first, then the charismatics started doing it in their “charismatic” liturgies and as it would follow they introduced it to the rest of us. Now at any given Mass on Sunday groups of charismatics are holding hands during the “Our Father” and the rest of the congregation prays in various postures. There are several variants on the orans, there are folded hands, hands dangling and hands gripping pews. For all that hand holding the congregation is a picture of disunity. And trust the Charismatic Movement to bring a pagan practice into the Mass, because clearly the hand-holding-unity-mania has not been part of Protestant prayer either.
Wicca and hand-holding during the Our Father
“The holding of hands has been brought in by the feminist movement, and its origins are from the Wiccan ritual where the group forms a circle and joins hands to form the base of a cone. Holding hands is to engender power as they pray: to spiral upwards from the base of the cone. As we know, feminists are great for attempting to engender power, and so this hand-holding is coming more and more into use.
For us Catholics, this Wiccan tradition is a serious intrusion. We know we all belong to the Mystical Body of Christ when we are in a state of grace. However, when we join hands, and some are in the state of grace and some are not, then are we presenting the Mystical Body of Christ to the Father? God cannot be present where there is sin. So this is just another way of diminishing our teaching and the reality of the Mystical Body of Christ.” Re: Source
*Straight Answers: Holding Hands During the Lord's Prayer
