Posted on 01/08/2008 1:33:05 PM PST by NYer
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The reverence and awe of Catholics who truly believe they are receiving Jesus in the Eucharist should lead them to kneel and receive Communion on their tongues, said a bishop writing in the Vatican newspaper.
"If some nonbeliever arrived and observed such an act of adoration perhaps he, too, would 'fall down and worship God, declaring, God is really in your midst,'" wrote Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, quoting from the First Letter to the Corinthians.
In a Jan. 8 article labeled a "historical-liturgical note," Bishop Schneider reviewed the writings of early church theologians about eucharistic reception and said the practice of laypeople receiving Communion on the tongue was the predominant custom by the sixth century.
The article in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, appeared under the headline, "Like a nursing child in the arms of the one who nourishes him."
Bishop Schneider said that just as a baby opens his mouth to receive nourishment from his mother, so should Catholics open their mouths to receive nourishment from Jesus.
"Christ truly nourishes us with his body and blood in holy Communion and, in the patristic era, it was compared to maternal breastfeeding," he said.
"The awareness of the greatness of the eucharistic mystery is demonstrated in a special way by the manner in which the body of the Lord is distributed and received," the bishop wrote.
In addition to demonstrating true adoration by kneeling, he said, receiving Communion on the tongue also avoids concerns about people receiving the body of Christ with dirty hands or of losing particles of the Eucharist, concerns that make sense if people truly believe in the sacrament.
"Wouldn't it correspond better to the deepest reality and truth about the consecrated bread if even today the faithful would kneel on the ground to receive it, opening their mouths like the prophet receiving the word of God and allowing themselves to be nourished like a child?" Bishop Schneider asked.
In 1969 the Vatican published an instruction allowing bishops to permit the distribution of Communion in the hand. While at papal liturgies most people who receive Communion from the pope receive Communion on the tongue, they also are permitted to reverently receive the Eucharist in the hand.
It's important to be cautious about donated labor. I've seen some pretty weird outcomes from such good intentions. It's usually better to raise the funds to hire professionals.
Wow! I like this!
In my Byzantine parish, we only kneel and/or prostrate during Holy Week. The rest of the time, we stand for the entire Liturgy, bowing profoundly during the Consecration. Those who are frail or weak may sit at any time. Communion is received standing, from a spoon, both species at once.
In our parish, we do not receive bread and wine during Communion. We receive the Body and Blood of the true Christ.
And, being an Anglican Use parish, we receive Them kneeling at the altar rail, directly upon the tongue.
A lovely church. We worship there when in New York.
“Why not just dump Vatican II altogether?”
Where in Vatican II is Communion standing and in the hand even contemplated?
“In our parish, we do not receive bread and wine during Communion. We receive the Body and Blood of the true Christ.”
No kidding! And here all along I thought Latin Rite azymites didn’t believe that! /s
More seriously, is “intinction” in the otherwise Western style Anglican use a hold over from the Anglican liturgy?
“Overlapping episcopal jurisdictions were also prohibited by Nicaea, recall.)”
Yes, we often remark at the overlap of Latin, Melkite, Maronite, Ukrainian and Ruthenian dioceses and eparchies here in America. It really is a scandal! :)
“Every Easter Rite Catholic church I’ve been in knelt on Sundays.”
Really! I haven’t seen it in any Eastern Rite Church except the Maronite, which still has sort of a modified NO type Liturgy. Likely its a local custom thing as it pretty nearly is among the Orthodox.
***All they would really need to do is tell the Knights of Columbus that a new Altar Rail is needed. Any decent Council will contain enough carpenters and handymen to make it so.***
Trouble is that “they” needs to include the priest and the bishop. Luckily, the “pros” are replacing the “antis” at a rapid rate.
As Cardinal Ratzinger opined, was the Church receiving the Eucharist unworthily by hand over the first 900 years?
I agree that it’s outwardly more reverential to receive on the tongue, but if I may further paraphrase Cardinal Ratzinger, the sins we commit with our tongue are as bad, if not worse, than what we do with our hands.
I was receiving on the tongue for many years, and then I realized I was secretly considering myself superior to those who receive by hand - which is a terrible sin of spiritual pride. Now I receive by hand, since it is perfectly acceptable to do so. Others may not have issues with spiritual pride, but I definitely do.
If someone wants to leave with a Host, communion on the tongue isn’t exactly foolproof. The Hosts do not dissolve as quickly and can easily be popped back out if one keeps it at the roof of their mouth.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, unfortunately.
But what does the Priest do to the person who is smuggling it out?
Probably nothing. His main concern is to retrieve the Host.
I read somewhere that while the early Church received in the hand, they also had some kind of cloth covering their hand so they did not come into direct contact with the Host. Maybe the same article discussed an early time when the faithful received the consecrated wine, but not by drinking out of the chalice. A deacon would place it into their mouth via a “fistula,” some kind of straw. Both these practices are somewhat different than what we see today.
So he takes it away from the person?
Also, once I saw an article about a girl who was selling the wafer she received from the Pope at an outdoor festival.
What is the status of things like that?
Doing something like that is blasphemous to the Body of Christ and more.
**But what does the Priest do to the person who is smuggling it out?**
The priest may never see the person again. The people who do these sacrlegous things skip from church to church so that they won’t be recognized.
What a church member can do is follow them and ask them to consume the host or give it to them so that they can consume it.
Here’s a good article on the subject..
http://matt1618.freeyellow.com/communion.html
Before he bacame pope, Cardinal Ratzinger said he was not fussy about it.
Actually, Fr. Hawkins does offer intinction at some masses.
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