Proper Church Etiquette: A Public Witness of Faith (I)

During the summer of last year, Bishop Arthur Serratelli[1] published an article that I think can be very useful for our parish. The title is: Proper Church Etiquette: A Public Witness of Faith. As it is a little long, so it will be presented in two parts. This is the first one. 

•••

«The 15th century Council of Basel drew the comparison between the way we are expected to behave in the presence of our civil rulers and the way we should behave in the presence of God. The Council stated, “A person who is about to make a request to a secular prince takes pains to compose himself and his words by decent dress, becoming gesture, regulated speech and close attention of mind. How much more careful ought he to be in all these things when he is about to pray to almighty God in a sacred place!” Coming into the presence of God requires a proper etiquette on our part. Yet, we seem to be less and less aware of this in our day. Today, a very casual attitude pervades all our social interactions. Proper church etiquette, like all civil behavior, suffers greatly in our day. The way that we dress for church is casual. Sometimes more suited for the sports field or beach! Our observance of silence is casual as well. Not infrequently people chew gum in church, keep their cell phones on and talk during the liturgy. The way that we behave in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament has changed much in the last two generations. Genuflecting when coming before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle is rarely done. At funerals and weddings, as some come to receive Holy Communion, they stop and chat with others instead of approaching the Lord in prayerful recollection. In some places, reverence to the Eucharist is withheld when the mandated rituals of purification of the sacred vessels after Communion are laid aside for a more casual disposal of the fragments of the Eucharist and the remains of the Precious Blood. To begin, when we come to church, we are not coming to just an ordinary building. We are entering a sacred place. Yes, the church is, first of all, the People of God “made one as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and … the temple of God built with living stones, in which the Father is worshiped in spirit and in truth”[2].  Nonetheless, the church building is made holy not simply by the worshiping community, but by the very Presence of God ■

---

[1] Arthur Joseph Serratelli (born April 8, 1944) is the current bishop of the Diocese of Paterson in northern New Jersey.

[2] Order of the Dedication of a Church, ch. II, 1.