Posted on 06/11/2011 6:45:43 AM PDT by stfassisi
A Letter from Our Cathedral Rector by Very Rev. Fr. John Lankeit, Rector, Ss. Simon & Jude Cathedral Phoenix, AZ January 30, 2011
Dear Parishioners,
I want to thank all of you who have recently started receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, not to mention those of you who already had been. This subject has generated a lot of buzz over the past few weeks, the vast majority of which has been overwhelmingly positive.
While my main objective in encouraging reception on the tongue is to deepen appreciation for the Eucharist, I also have a pastoral responsibility to eliminate abuses common to receiving in the hand. Such abuses are no doubt unintentional. Nevertheless, what I witness troubles me. And I'm not alone.
In 2004, responding to the problem of Eucharistic profanation, the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament released an official instruction entitled REDEMPTIONIS SACRAMENTUS: On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist. Regarding Holy Communion the document states:
"[S]pecial care should be taken to ensure that the host is consumed by the communicant in the presence of the minister, so that no one goes away carrying the Eucharistic species in his hand. If there is a risk of profanation, then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful." (Paragraph 92)
Here are just a few examples of profanation that I see all too frequently:
We would never treat a piece of GOLD with the same casualness - especially in this economy! Yet many treat the Eucharist "piece" of GOD with casualness at best, indifference and irreverence at worst. Of course, much abuse is due to ignorance, owing to poor catechesis, which is precisely why I have written about this issue for four consecutive weeks.
Yet we have another great incentive...
When Holy Communion is received on the tongue... every single one of these abuses is instantly eliminated!
The way we treat another person says more about our relationship with that person than any words we might say. This is especially true of our relationship with the Divine Person, Jesus Christ. So let us continually seek to increase our reverence for our Eucharistic Savior, and to eliminate anything that degrades the respect He deserves.
God's Blessings... my prayers...
Here we are, about 3 months before the official launch of the corrected translation of the Mass, with plenty of diocese seeing the old regime of faux and elitist “liturgists” being retired and losing influence, and you are claiming that nothing has worked and therefore an in-your-face attitude is appropriate.
I suppose you have been dealing with entrenched libtards at your parish (in your chancery), so you are not as inclined to see all the progress? Is that it? I certainly understand that it is bad in some areas - I left a very bad parish situation in 2000 and have never looked back. I suppose I would not see the basis for hope if I was still there. But it is hard to deny progress has been made if you follow the official acts of B16. Regardless of how much your local priest seems to ignore them, the Church’s rubrics will prevail and you local priest will be dead some day.
“Hooptedoodle’’. I’ll have to remember that one, thanks. Say, you aren’t THE Jeff Chandler, the famous actor, are you? Man, I loved you in “Merrills Marauders’’. So where you been all these years?
“Hooptedoodle” is a term I read in Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for Writing Fiction, but I think he may have borrowed the term from Steinbeck, and who knows where he got it.
My mother liked the actor, Jeff Chandler, and since my brother already had my father’s name, I was named Jeff. The time came to choose a Freepname, and since I live in Chandler, AZ, I thought: What the heck.
One of the Precepts of the Church is to receive communion at least once a year - at Eastertide. So scare yourself up a priest, and drink some strong coffee to tide you over til 8:00 a.m. Mass!
So I guess grabbing two and making a baloney sandwich is frowned upon.
What is your point for making this statement?
Do you deny Christ's real presence in the Eucharist and do you think you're Catholic
sigh - I can’t find a priest with a retirement plan that would allow him time to hear all of it.
Forgive me father, for I have sinned - do you have a form, I can just check the boxes?
Although - it occurs to me that I have procrastinated enough.
Time to get back to church.
Just do it.
Yes, ma’m.
>>Here we are, about 3 months before the official launch of the corrected translation of the Mass, with plenty of diocese seeing the old regime of faux and elitist “liturgists” being retired and losing influence, and you are claiming that nothing has worked and therefore an in-your-face attitude is appropriate.<<
Nope, I said talk with your feet and checkbook. I did. Not a libtard at my parish.
http://www.saintcyrils.org/
But I’ll tell you this, if you think that innovation is not a problem in the Holy Mass in the US, you are desensitized to it. I travel and go to many masses. Mother Angelica was right. It’s “Electric Church”. You get a shock every time you walk in.
And when the new Missal is implemented, what happens when a parish ignores it? When they keep their handholding and inclusive language? Wait and see. You’ll be waiting a LONG time to see anything done about it.
When I came back to the church, I went to confession, told the length of time since my last confession, and said that there was tons of things I did.
The priest ask if there were “any big things that I wanted to tell him”.
I said what was bothering me the most, got absolution and that was that.
They want you back, you want to come home. The hardest part is driving there. Lord Love you!
You know what strikes me the most?
When the bell rings.
I had to go to a parish that I left years ago for being too liberal.
Yesterday, there were bells there. I nearly fell off the kneeler!
>>When Jesus broke bread and gave it to his disciples, the sat together at a table. He placed it in their hands, not on their tongues.<<
Jesus handed it to his priests.
>>The sign of Peace is beautiful. Knocks my pride away. Shows how humble we should be towards one another. I am in the spirit of peace while doing this act. I do not agree at all. <<
The Sign of Peace is inserted to the wrong part of the mass.
It should be during the liturgy of the word. I’m focusing on The Lord not “People”.
Huh? Not sure what you are trying to say. What is your understanding of infallible and who do you suggest is guilty of personal interpretation? Thanks for the clarification.
Do you acknowledge that Benedict XVI is making progress to reform the reform?
If not, why not?
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