Just a question for other mass goers. Does anyone else wish they'd cease the sign of peace bit. I don't know how many times I've sat beside someone biting their nails, repeatedly blowing their nose into a grubby hanky etc, dreading the fact that I'm going to have to shake their hand shortly. I think its really unhygienic and have heard other people complaining about it as well.
Sign of Peace at mass
- Thread starter liaconn
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Guest117
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Why not wear disposable glovesAgreed. But its not just the hygiene, its the cringe factor when you've actually seen them with their fingers in their mouth (or somewhere worse!) and have to knowingly shake their hand. A bit like when you don't know what's going on in someone's kitchen you'll happily eat your meal, but if you actually see them tasting something and putting the spoon back in the pot or dropping something on the floor and putting it back on the plate you just lose your appetite.
Good idea. Or wash your hands five times with very hot water and, of course, with different bars of soap, when you get home.
lol I think you worry too much !!!
How about the door handles of shops, or even...shock.... toilet doors when people don't wash their hands !!!
How exactly does biting ones nails make their hands unhygenic ? How hygenic are the pews in your church ? Or the seats on the bus/Luas the last time you took one ?
If you were to worry about all this level of thing, you'd never leave the house (although that would probably be more unhygenic...oh you just can't win)
Besides, I'm sure god will protect you from the nasty germs picked up during worship.
How about the door handles of shops, or even...shock.... toilet doors when people don't wash their hands !!!
How exactly does biting ones nails make their hands unhygenic ? How hygenic are the pews in your church ? Or the seats on the bus/Luas the last time you took one ?
If you were to worry about all this level of thing, you'd never leave the house (although that would probably be more unhygenic...oh you just can't win)
Besides, I'm sure god will protect you from the nasty germs picked up during worship.
lol I think you worry too much !!!
Besides, I'm sure god will protect you from the nasty germs picked up during worship.
A bit inappropriate! I wasn't seeking smark alek comments about my religion.
I know what you mean and if I thought too much about it , it could be a problem. But then again, handling money, touching door handles in toilet cubicles and even eating and drinking out are all potential hazards. The good news is that it is only by doing all these things that we build up immunity.
I saw a BBC programme last year in which they checked the bacterial count on people's desks at work and found that the toilets in the latrines at Glastonbury were cleaner. People rarely clean their phones, keyboards etc and spend a lot of time there , eating , drinking , sniffling etc.
I also read an article on the free peanuts left out on bar tops. Now that was interesting.......lots of E Coli . So I buy my own peanuts.
Truth is the bacteria are eveywhere and I still think the sign of peace is a lovely gesture even though I sometimes have misgivings.
I saw a BBC programme last year in which they checked the bacterial count on people's desks at work and found that the toilets in the latrines at Glastonbury were cleaner. People rarely clean their phones, keyboards etc and spend a lot of time there , eating , drinking , sniffling etc.
I also read an article on the free peanuts left out on bar tops. Now that was interesting.......lots of E Coli . So I buy my own peanuts.
Truth is the bacteria are eveywhere and I still think the sign of peace is a lovely gesture even though I sometimes have misgivings.
I'm not a hygiene freak by any means, but I honestly can't understand how anyone in their right mind would go near these.
I heard a microbiologist on Newstalk a few weeks back talking about the obsession with cleanliness around the home. He advocated allowing children to go play in the garden soil and then eat their lunch without washing their hands to encourage their immune systems to develop. Obviously there are caveats to this.
Well, yes I have been known to come in early with the anti-bacterial spray and attack common area desks and phones and even bleach all the cups. Oh , sorry , I forgot, I attack door handles on occasion. As, I work in an all male office, they just raise their eyes and carry on!!!
Most of the time my compulsive obsessive behaviour is controlled!!!
Most of the time my compulsive obsessive behaviour is controlled!!!
But not your dyslexia?
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Guest114
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I have so many rows with my wife about the sign of peace. She reckons it is worthwhile. I remember a time before it used to happen. I don't know who introduced it. I consider it akin to charismatics or OTT religious stuff like that. I don't think it's hygenic either. Where I go to Mass, one of the priests says it but the other doesn't. I prefer to get the one who doesn't.
"your religion" teaches ,love thy neighbour and all that jazz, not very christian of you to not want to shake hands with people at mass. Also if you don't want smark alec comments, save your complaints for confession and not a public forum.
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Guest114
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The vital question is - WHO came up with the handshake ? It wasn't a part of Mass in the 70s. It seemed to come in for the 80s. I would be curious to know. I don't agree with it. Maybe I'm an a-la-carte Christian. If I am, so be it
The same could be said for celebacy for Priests, the RC church along with many others have man made rules.