February 2001

Can you tell me about the practice of holding hands during the Our Father?

The practice of holding hands during the Our Father began at charismatic
prayer meetings and was then transferred to charismatic Masses, eventually
working its way into general Sunday Masses in some places. In a response to
a query, the Holy See stated that holding hands "is a liturgical gesture
introduced spontaneously but on personal initiative; it is not in the
rubrics" (Notitiae II [1975] 226, DOL 1502 n. R29). For this reason alone,
it should not be done. There are, however, at least two other additional
important reasons why it should not be done.

First, it misleads some people to believe that holding hands changes the
efficacy of the prayer. Second, it alienates many people. Nothing should
ever be introduced into the liturgy (especially of an optional and arbitrary
nature) which would have that effect. The Second Vatican Council teaches
that "there must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely
and certainly requires them, and care must be taken that any new forms
adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing"
(Sacrosanctum concilium 23).

Mass is public, liturgical prayer, which differs from private, personal
prayer. When one prays privately, he can use any words, any books, any
posture (INCLUDING HOLDING HANDS), any time. But for the Mass, EVERYTHING is
prescribed, because the liturgy is the prayer of not just one person, one
family, or even the local community of priest and congregation. It is the
prayer of the entire Catholic community, the entire Roman Catholic Church,
the entire Mystical Body of Christ.
The liturgy is, most assuredly, about more than rules; it is about communion
with the Father through the saving mystery of Christ in the Holy Spirit,
effected by means of sacred words and sensibly discernible sacred signs. But
it is precisely for this reason that the Church takes liturgical norms
seriously.

Rubrics, the directive precepts or liturgical directives found in the
Missale Romanum (Roman Missal), including the sacramentary and lectionary,
and in the Roman Ritual, an official authorized book of the Holy See, are
real laws. They are prescriptions for the good order of external worship in
the Catholic Church and they emanate from the highest authority--the
sovereign pontiff.

Rubrics are not intended to stifle personality or creativity; on the
contrary, they provide the parameters within which one can make the liturgy
truly come alive for God's people. Rubrics protect the liturgy from
banality, the imposition of idiosyncrasies and material heresy, ensuring
that it does not become the private possession of any one person or group of
persons, but remains the treasure of the entire Catholic community.