Sunday 16 October 2011

Enculturated Sign of Peace

People sometimes think that I do not offer the Sign of Peace, when I attend Mass in the Ordinary Form. They are quite mistaken. However, as turning and shaking people's hands, at that point in the Mass, would be quite alien to my traditional Catholic culture, I have enculturated it.

I kneel and adore, praying that the adoration of the Body and Blood of Our Lord on the altars of the world may be a sign of peace to the whole world (thrice).

4 comments:

Patricius said...

I think it was the wording "according to local custom" that opened a can of worms. A return to the medieval custom of handing around the Pax for kissing or simply an extension of the kiss of peace as exchanged between the sacred ministers at high mass in the Extraordinary Form might have been better.That way people would not have got the idea that it was an opportunity to socialise.

Ttony said...

It worries me that no priest who has studied in a seminary run by the E&W Hierarchy seems to know this: they genuinely believe that "the sign of peace" is about public reconciliation between the faithful. If such a sign is needed, then put it after the Confiteor, not just before Holy Communion.

Chris (Longmont, CO) said...

We used to pass around a Pax? I never heard about this one before.

Ben Trovato said...

'In about the twelfth or thirteenth century the use of the instrumentum pacis, or osculatorium, known in English as the "pax-board" or "pax-brede", was gradually introduced. This was a little plaque of metal, ivory, or wood, generally decorated with some pious carving and provided with a handle, which was first brought to the altar for the celebrant to kiss at the proper place in the Mass and then brought to each of the congregation in turn at the altar rails. But even this practice in course of time died out' (from the Catholic Encyclopaedia at newadvent.org)