The Annoying "Yes" Lady at Mass

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Due to many scheduling conflicts a few Sundays back, I went to Mass by myself without the wife and kids. Over the past month or so we began to notice a curious and regular disruption at the 9:30 a.m. Mass. The weird part was, I began to take a strange pleasure in it. It went something like this:

Priest prays out loud, “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your ha-

“YES LORD,” interjects the affirmation from what sounds like an old African-American woman somewhere in the pews to the far back and right.

And it continues…

For the praise and glory of your name…

“YES LORD.”

For our-

“YES.”

-good and the good-

“YES.”

-of all our Church.

“YES LORD.”

And it goes on and on like that, with the older lady interceding between every ten or so words from the Priest. Heads everywhere are trying to make clandestine surveillance of the pews around them without making it obvious that they are clearly distracted and pissed off.

Now I’m not going to lie, the first time my wife and I heard the Yes Lady we did what every other couple did. We looked at each other with faces of smirky inconvenience and gossiped after Mass about how obnoxious and distracting this woman was being, resolving that SOMEONE had to do SOMETHING.

I mean holy righteous anger batman! We are trying to PRAY here!

But this Sunday was different. Right around the Eucharistic prayer I noticed a small but steaming pile of self-righteous indignation in my pew. Curious, I kicked it up under the pew in front of me and listened again to the Yes Lady.

“Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.”

“YES.”

A quick burst of willful naivete shot through my brain and I asked a question based on giving the Yes Lady the benefit of the doubt:

What if she really believes she is doing something important?

Suddenly I felt angry. I was angry at anyone who was angry at the Yes Lady. I was angry at the 59% of U.S. Catholics who don’t attend Mass weekly. I was angry at the who don’t claim a strong religious identity. I was angry at the 29% of U.S. Catholics who don’t believe in a personal God. But most of the anger was aimed at myself, because I suddenly became ashamed that I felt so entitled to a distraction free Mass.

What do Catholics who leave the Church to join a Protestant denomination say one of their biggest reasons for leaving is? “My spiritual needs are not being met.”

DISCLAIMER: There is a big conversation we could have about the discrepancy between a person’s perception of not being spiritually fed, and the actual reality of the depth of spiritual fullness made available in the Catholic Church. And I could fill a hard drive with reasons why I don’t think anyone should be constantly giving their public verbal consent to the Eucharistic Prayer. I’m not saying active participation must be busy participation.

But do we, who know the sublime reality of Mass, worship like we are being spiritually fed?

As I honestly examined my frustration with the Yes Lady, I realized I was really just frustrated by the notion of anything “happening” at Mass.

I watched the Priest raising up our gifts and the work of our hands – the bread, the wine, and all intentions we lay at the altar – but part of me didn’t really expect God to accept them. I heard the Priest calling the Holy Spirit down on the altar with the conviction of Elijah, but part of me would have been inconvenienced by a rush of wind and tongues of fire. I heard the Priest imploring the help and intercession of an army of Saints, but part of me didn’t really want them to show up. I cried aloud telling the Lord I’m not worthy for him to enter under my roof, begging Him to only say the word and heal me, but part of me didn’t believe He could actually deny me. I waited mere minutes as we shuffled to the front of the Church to hold the endless, to consume the unconsumable, to swallow the sea, to insert infinite love into my size 34 waist, like a candle trying to hold the Sun, but part of me would be impatient if anyone took longer than seconds to take their wafer and move on.

Who is really being inconvenienced here anyways? Me? The guy who wanted a woman with expectant faith to shutup so I could go back to thinking my own thoughts during Mass?

Or God, who sits through Mass revealing Himself lovingly through His Son, humbly through bread and wine, vulnerably through His death on a Cross, and intimately through bodily communion, only for people like me to look on with blank stares like we’re checking email? I’ve sent prayers to God soaked in tears asking Him to stop being so distant, and the next day been so impatient with a Priest who fumbled slowly through the Mass you would have thought if God himself showed up I’d tell Him to keep His homily short.

Thank God for the Yes Lady. I think only Yes Ladies get healed by Jesus. I think Yes Ladies walk out to Jesus on the water. I think the upper room was full of Yes Ladies at Pentecost. I think Yes Ladies’ prayers heal the sick. I think Yes Ladies convert cities.I think only Yes Ladies can be tortured and martyred for Christ.

Is this a call for everyone to go all Southern Baptist this Sunday at their local parish? No. Please no.

But lets smile at the Yes Lady.

Because thanks to her, I pray more often for God to show up.

I pray more often for liturgical inconveniences.

(Photo by Cameron Zohoori)

Edmund Mitchell

Edmund Mitchell

Edmund Mitchell is a Catholic youth minister with a passion for Jesus, evangelization, and rugby - especially when all three happen at once. For now he enjoys being a Catholic hipster, until too many people start enjoying it with him, then he'll probably go mainstream. He blogs over at CatholicYouthMinister.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/EdmundMitchell.

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10 thoughts on “The Annoying "Yes" Lady at Mass”

  1. I would argue that the reason people leave the Church is
    because they don’t like (protest) certain doctrines and teachings…..no
    need to go over them here…..you know the ones. And for those who do
    feel spiritually deprived then I would say they don’t understand or
    believe in the Real Presence. How much more of a personal relationship
    with Jesus can you have than in the Eucharist. And finally I don’t think
    the Church needs to become more ‘protestant’ to attract protestants or
    keep ‘catholics’ from leaving. The Truth should suffice.

    1. I welcome counter argument, but can you provide any quantitative facts to back up that argument? The statistics (as sited here:http://www.votf-li.org/Reese-The%20hidden%20exodus%205-11.pdf) seem to disagree with you.

      Here are a few excepts from the study:

      “Fifty-four percent of both groups say that they just gradually drifted away from Catholicism….. Only 11 percent were unhappy with the church’s teachings on poverty, war, and the death penalty the same percentage as said they were unhappy with the church’s treatment of women. Contrary to what conservatives say, ex-Catholics are not flocking to the evangelicals because they think the Catholic church is politically too liberal. They are leaving to get spiritual nourishment from worship services and the Bible.

      For example, few (20 percent) say they left because they stopped believing in Catholic teachings.”

      1. “…said they were unhappy with the church’s treatment of women.”

        Too much pedestalization, insufficient floggings?

  2. “But do we, who know the sublime reality of Mass, worship like we are being spiritually fed”
    At my parish we sure do. Everyone is dressed as though we were attending a special occasion. Women and girls veil their heads. And we are all (excepting the many blessed babes) completely silent in our reverence before the majesty of the Lord.
    YES! Thank you JESUS! For the Traditional Latin Mass!

  3. Yes, while of course the Eucharist is the source and summit of Catholic life if it is couched in a mediocre liturgy people are going to believe they are not being spiritually fed. The liturgy itself is supposed to be one means of feeding people, but a banal liturgy and trite music isn’t going to cut it (at least most evangelical churches realize this).

    I agree with K Koenig, thank God for the traditional Latin Mass (now if only we could have one regularly in my area).

  4. Pingback: The Catholic Peasant

  5. Pingback: The Peasant disagrees with Ignitum Today about the “Yes” Lady in Mass | The Catholic Peasant

  6. One of the most beautiful pieces of music in the world is the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom set by Rachmaninoff, and in my favorite performance, the choir’s response of “Lord, have mercy” (in Slavonic) ceases to be strictly a response; it becomes an unending accompaniment of the priest. I have thought for some time that this is how the Communion of Saints must sound: a constant intercession for mercy for those like me who really need it. But the “Yes Lady” is perhaps another good representation of Heaven and the role of the Saints. After all, what she is saying is strictly equivalent to “Amen!” — which is not only retained in the Mass, it is interjected in much the same way as her “Yes, Lord!” in the Protestant tradition I came from.

  7. Oh, for at least a year after our conversion from a pentecostal denomination, I would murmur, “yes, Lord” or “amen” or “that’s right” or even (gasp) “halleluia” ~ it happened without thinking, as I heard something moving or convicting or encouraging. Keeping it quieter was the best I could do. I don’t do it at all anymore but I’m still a simmering pentecostal. Our Holy Faith IS moving and convicting and encouraging! Thank you for your thoughts and writing here.

  8. I have felt that spontaneous ‘Amen’ or out of the blue, “hallelujah!” I’ve never been anything but Catholic, even when I was ‘fallen away’; I’ve never been to a church where that was the norm. But when the Spirit grabs you….oh my, that we should all feel that, and be that blessed! I looked over and seen my arm raised partway up. I have been that person (albeit quietly) saying ‘Amen’ when so moved. I pray that I’m moved more often like that. It’s a powerful feeling!
    And for the record, we didn’t fall away due to doctrine; we were not only NOT being fed, we were pushed away by parishioners who thought it was more important to do their own things (doing things against Catholic teachings/rubrics/etc). Thank you for sharing this. HALLELUJAH!!

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