Catholics, STOP Causing These 3 Pet Peeves

We all have pet peeves. Some of us have one or two — maybe people smacking their food at the same volume as an overhead clap of thunder. Others have dozens of pet peeves encompassing manners, driving, and ways of speaking.

(If you ask us, chewing ice is one of the most ANNOYING things ever.)

Then there are pet peeves that Catholics especially are prone to commit. Even devout Catholics. Actually, especially devout Catholics!

Here are some of those peeves. If you recognize yourself doing one of them, well, we love you. But please stop!

1. Mumbling prayers during Eucharistic Adoration
We get it: You’re in conversation with Jesus. Your heart is swelling with love for our Lord and you can’t help but whisper it in a silent space where pretty much everyone can hear your mumbling.

Or maybe you just aren’t aware that you’re doing it. Either way, you’re distracting other people from their own prayers. Is that really charitable?

The same goes for loudly jiggling your rosary beads.

2. Keeping your phone on in church
Many of us have forgotten to silence our phones before Mass, adoration, or confession. It happens.

But some people forget a little too often. If that’s you and your phone hasn’t gone off in church, don’t press your luck. It could happen! Some priests are cool about it, but others get really annoyed — along with the rest of the church.

If you’re a forgetful person, find some way to remind yourself to check your phone before Mass. Maybe set a calendar notification on your phone that goes off shortly before Mass and reminds you to silence the device. (Just make sure you don’t set it to go off during Mass!)

If you’re not sure how to silence your phone, either leave it in your car or have someone show you how to do it.

3. Letting children scream way too long during Mass
First of all, it’s incumbent upon parishioners to exercise patience with parents of babies and young children. It’s tough to get children to behave during Mass. And, frankly, any parent who brings them to church these days is a hero.

We’re definitely not saying you need to step out when your child utters a few audible words or is moving around a lot, but not really bothering anyone. Nor are we saying you can’t stay for a little bit and try to stop their crying.

However, if your child is screaming or crying for a lengthy period of time, it’s really better to step out and try to settle them down. Some parents, in an otherwise praiseworthy attempt to train their children to endure Mass, end up distracting everyone else for far too long.

Again, this is one pet peeve where other parishioners should cut parents some slack. If only the days would come when parishes were as full of children as they once were!

We want to know your Catholic pet peeves. Leave them in the comment section of the YouTube video link above or in the social post you clicked on to get here.

Peeves aside, the most important thing to remember is: At the end of the day, we love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.