Posted on 12/21/2015 7:14:17 PM PST by NYer
“Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
Should one smack the person in front of him if the line isn’t moving fast enough, as I witnessed one of the faithful, eager to receive the Body and Blood of his Lord, do one Sunday morning?
bump
Many times I've wanted to ask people, "why are you even here"?
I wanted to ask that very question to an annoyed, sneering priest as I attempted to receive communion on the tongue.
I do not touch the body of Christ with my hands. I am beyond unworthy and will not do so.
In the Maronite (Eastern) Catholic Church, communion is by intinction and on the tongue. There is no communion in the hand, nor are there an Extraordinary Ministers of Communion. It is distributed by a priest and deacon. One visitor a while back refused to take communion on the tongue and never returned. Guess for some folks, it's a power issue. She was a seasoned senior. There are several Maronite Churches in MA, You might enjoy attending a Divine Liturgy at one of them. It is very reverent.
Not a goblet — a chalice.
Thanks, my friend.
I think I will take a look into one of those Churches. The experience I recalled took place in a parish in Maine while during Christmas.
I never look forward to going there.
Bookmarking
I actually witnessed that episode in what was (past-tense) arguably THE single most orthodox and conservative parish in NYC.
Nowadays...oy. Can you say "Fundamental transformation"?
I was scoping out a parish on the West Side, thinking, "yeah, it's a got a good name, it's close by..." and the next morning the sidewalk in front of it is filled with foreigners...don't know the details of that but I can sure guess...and as I walk up to the marquis looking for the confession schedule ('cause God knows I need it) I can feel priest out front staring daggers at me (I'm a conservatively dressed white male)...
Gawd I'm so over it.
/rant
Here’s a good article that may help answer your question:
Have you visited Church of St. Michael on W. 34th St.? Fr. George Rutler is the pastor and very conservative. He and Dolan have locked horns over his orthodoxy.
I can see why you may suggest this because it would seem at first blush to minimize the risk of the Precious Blood being spilled but there are a number of problems with your suggestion:
First, any kind of misting or atomizing device such as you suggest would in fact compound the danger of sacrilidge. Every fine droplet would be the Blood as much as any discernible taste or sip, and those fine droplets would have just as much of a tendency to float in air and float away as go into a mouth. So you could have potentially thousands of droplets of Blood going everywhere but where it’s intended.
Secondly, at the end of Mass such a device would invariably have some of the Blood still in the pumping mechanism of the device, so again there’s sacrilidge there as it would be difficult to dispose of the excess properly. Normally the excess must be either consumed, poured out into a special “sink” (the special name of which escapes me at the moment) that has a pipe that doesn’t go to the sewer or anywhere else but straight into the earth. Or it must be diluted with Holy Water and that dilution consumed. Typically that last portion is done by the priest at Mass as you see him “cleaning” the vessels. I suppose one could dilute what’s left in the pumping mechanism but it wouldn’t work very well as described above.
Thirdly and perhaps most important, it wouldn’t be very fitting to squirt Jesus through a sprayer as if He were some kind of disinfectant. We believe the Blood is as much His Body (and Blood) as the consecrated bread, so it’s literally Jesus present under the appearance of wine. It just wouldn’t be right to treat Him like some kind of air freshener. This is the Creator we are talking about here the Second Person of the Trinity.
Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but just speak the words and my soul shall be healed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.