All the Catholics out there say, "Ho!": A Communion etiquette question

What does genuflect mean?

I am non-Catholic, but the girlfriend is Catholic and she wants me to go to Mass with her. I'm thinking of going and obviously I won't be taking communion, but what do I do during that part? Just stand there with my hands in my pockets? Will there be others not taking communion?

 

Just sit in the pew.

 

As a Methodist who dated several Catholics, I went a few years going to Mass more than church.

HB is correct. Just sit there. You won't be the only one. But go ahead and get down on the kneelers during that part of the service.

I always liked Mass. Felt more serious than the typical UMC service.

 

We got busted for chomping on the host, serious.

"Let it melt on your tongue like a snowflake ... like Christ's sacrifice for you."
-- Sister Seraphim, ca. 1984

I felt that kneeling and crossing was pure grandstanding just after the Eucharist. There is a biblical injunction against drawing spiritual attention to oneself. Save it for the pew.

I feel really guilty about saying this, earnestly, but the kneeling-time after communion and watching the ensuing procession was one of the best times for any 13-year-old boy to really inspect girls.

 

Catholics go down front during communion, right?
It's not like in the Protestant church where they typically pass communion plates around and then everyone takes it at the same time.

 

In my Anglican Church some sign the cross after the wine and some don't. I had a squirming baby in my arms tonight, so any sign was just an attempt to steady the baby, but like LJB, I've never been one for the "look at me, I'm crossing/genuflecting" sorts.

 

Oh, I didn't take it. I sat in the pew while the ex and her mom served it, but the looks I got from some of the people at that church told me one thing: Stay away from our church.

 

We go to the front and kneel at the altar, but we don't do the sign of the cross.

 

Correct.

And while a non-Catholic like KY should not ever take Communion, if he had felt pressure to stand up and walk through the procession like everyone else instead of kneeling at the pew, then the proper thing to do would have been to quietly put one finger over his lips (like the universal sign for "shhhh!") as he approached the eucharistic minister and the priest/EM would have placed his/her hand on KY's forehead and drawn the sign of the cross as a blessing.

 

That's what one old lady tried to get me to do that Sunday.

"But ... it's disrespectful for you to just sit there!"

 

She's wrong. It'd be more disrespectful if you had partaken.