I used to be an Altarboy for around 14 years and I am wondering whether or not anybody else out there thinks that kneeling on a wood-based altar (and occassionally marble) would be bad for your knees.
I really think that I will need surgery on my knees before too long. They make loud cracking and creaking noises and frequently just ache.
Repeated injury, though small, can cumulate and cause permanent injury.
You did not mention your age now and how long ago your Alter Boy stint of 14 years ended. In case you are above 40 years or so, what you are feeling might just be part of aging. Maybe you have Arthritis.
The knee pains do not necessarily have to be cuased by your kneeling. But it is a significant history.
Whatever the case, whether it is that or some disease, the best thing would be to go see a doctor. What matters now is not how it happened but what to do about it.
| jipmerite wrote: |
Repeated injury, though small, can cumulate and cause permanent injury.
You did not mention your age now and how long ago your Alter Boy stint of 14 years ended. In case you are above 40 years or so, what you are feeling might just be part of aging. Maybe you have Arthritis. |
That is a good theory. I do drink a lot of coffee (lends to increased Arthritis), and other joints ache -- but, I do have to say that my knees are much worse than my other joints.
As for my age, I am currently only 37 yrs. My knees have been bad for at least the last 4 or 5 yrs.Knees are subject to so much wear-and-tear during a person's life that they are often the first joints to go as people age.
I wouldn't say that it is solely from the kneeling, I know my father (age 40) has pretty bad knees and it's just from wear and tear.
One thing that I can confirm -- it sucks for knees to "start going bad"; but this is going off topic. So, to stay within the Religion theme:
I would be interested in hearing some statistics from knee-specialists or other doctor types -- especially with any experience with large populations where the majority never kneel (atheist majority) -- compared to experience that he/she gained in an area where there was a catholic majority.
I also wonder whether or not your 40 yr old father did a lot of praying, or if he may have had labor / leisure - related injuries (stone mason, carpenter, catcher, goalie, etc).
I guess that I am not suggesting that any faith decrease their prayer time. I think this may be something to research. If the results of the research are that it causes great damage, then simple "building codes' should be enough to insure that new construction of kneelers cause minimal damate. Think about it -- ergonomic kneelers.
Now, that makes me remember what I was once told after somebody heard me complaining about my discomfort while kneeling for an extremely long Easter ceremony that I was an Altar Boy for -- they said something along the lines of "just offer that pain up to Jesus. He suffered for you, and what you are feeling is nothing compared to what he went through for you". At the time, I was proud of my Altar Boy position, so I felt that it was best if I just accept the pain as some kind of future investment to get into heaven.
I am 100% atheist now, so it goes without saying -- I am not going to heaven. I do, however care about the other young servants who may be needlessly suffering.
I can't give you any stats on knees, but I can tell you that what you're going through is normal. It's part of getting older. I'm only 41 and have knee problems for years.
As far as offering the pain up to Jesus. While it's true that what we can go through is nothing compared to Him, I don't think that was the right thing to say to you. But that is just my thoughts on it.
I don't accept this as normal.
When somebody answers, "well, my knees hurt too -- when I got older". The important relative fact has to do with whether or not you kneel to pray AND your knees are going bad. I insist that there is a connection. So, I wonder if you can attribute your knee damage to your faith or your profession....
When I was told that Jesus' pain was worse, and that I should offer up my pain as some sort of self-sacrifice or something, I was 100% catholic. It was another 5 years before I "fell from grace with God" (or gave up believing something that I couldn't believe).
It sounds as if your mind is made up. If that is what you want to believe, there doesn't seem to be much I can say about it.
I don't get on my knees to pray. So for me, there is no connnection between the two. For me, it could be from playing sports while in school, busting them up from bicycle wrecks, or a few other things like that, but kneeling to pray isn't one of them.
Hope you have a great day.
It seems to me that religion should be something that betters your life. If it's causing you physical injury, and this is something you don't want (some people might bear the pain as a mark of their faith) then you could probably ask to be released from this action. It's my understanding that exceptions are made all the time for this sort of thing. I don't think, for example, that recovering alcoholics are required to partake in communion using real wine.
If kneeling is your thing, you could kneel in your heart.
Take care,
Eyvind
