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.
“I have read postings of some traditionalist that we should not be accepting the Blood of Christ from the Chalice, but if we do receive the Blood of Christ then it should be via Intinction. I don’t know why that is and have been trying to find out.”
It may have to do with touching the chalice. In Orthodoxy, the laity cannot touch the chalice and if I recall correctly, that was the rule in the Latin Church prior to Vatican II.
When we Orthodox receive communion, it is from a golden spoon, the priest having mingled the consecrated “Lamb” with the Blood . Because the Latin Church uses azymes, there really isn’t any way to effectively “commingle” the Body and Blood and thus the intinction.
But what if they don’t do it?
Would people fight over it?
**Would people fight over it?**
Many people have died for Christ. Hence — all the Catholic martyrs.
I haven’t ever been in a situation like this, but a friend has. She went to the person’s house the next day, got the host and then consumed it.
But what is the wafer while it is in the company of the thief?
It is still the Consecrated Bread, the Body of Christ. That does not change.
Are you familiar with Eucharistic miracles?
BLOOD TYPE FOUND IN ICONS IS SAME AS IN SHROUD OF TURIN AND 'LANCIANO MIRACLE'
Physician Tells of Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano -Verifies Authenticity of the Phenomenon
Eucharistic Miracle - Bolsena-Orvieto, Italy
No, I am not familiar with this subject at all.
I appreciate your answers.
Check out some of those links. They are amazing. Especially Lanciano.
If Bishop Schneider was really a “Thuc line Bishop,” he would NOT accept the ‘primacy’ of JPII, Benedict XVI, John XIII, which he clearly states he does, as they are all antipopes.
Archbishop Ngo dinh Thuc STATED CLEARLY THAT THE SEAT OF PETER IS VACANT!
Therefore all these so-called ‘Thuc line Bishops,’ are ipso facto excommunicated, IF they ever were ever validly ordained and consecrated in the first place. There are but three TRUE Bishops remaining in the Church today - Christ has NOT abandoned His flock - but pride, pride, disobedient pride of mankind’s fallen human nature will NOT accept that.
Humility is the gretest of the virtues from which all others proceed - NO ONE is in Heaven who will not truly humble themselves - but the world violently rejects that today, to their ultimate destruction.
I’m sorry if that offends all the “Traditionalists,” but Truth is Truth. The grace of my Confirmation requires me to defend the Faith, no matter what!
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