Posted on 04/03/2021 5:48:45 PM PDT by ebb tide
The doctrine of the Holy Eucharist — central to Catholic Church teaching — is either not known or outright denied by most Catholics today.
According to a 2019 Pew Research poll, seven out of 10 U.S. Catholics don't believe that the Holy Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is despite the constant teaching of the Church going back to the times of the Apostles.
And the Apostles heard it directly from the mouth of Our Lord Himself, Who in John 6:54–57 told His followers:
Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life; and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him.
The Gospel goes on to say that many stopped following Our Lord after that owing to the horror of cannibalism. Unbelieving Catholics today are too lacking in faith to be horrified.
Instead, today's self-identified Catholics fell out of disbelief through familiarity, much like the people of Nazareth, who rejected Our Lord when He preached there. It was Communion in the hand that bred and perpetuated such widespread disbelief in what Catholics call the Real Presence.
Watching Church Militant's brilliant show on this liturgical abuse — titled Sleight of Hand: Reception Deception — sheds light on how a nonexistent practice became common in the late 20th century.
It shows how, by using lies and deceit, the American bishops flouted the directives of Pope Paul VI that were meant to safeguard the preeminent dignity of the Blessed Sacrament. The pope signed off on Vatican directives which stipulated "care must be taken not to allow particles of the eucharistic bread to fall or be scattered" and that "care must also be taken that the communicants have clean hands."
Anybody who's been to a typical parish knows that eucharistic particles are given little to no mind by the priest, deacon or extraordinary ministers. It's been observed that the holiest places in a church are the tabernacles and the floor.
For more about the waning respect for the Holy Eucharist, watch The Download — The Body of Christ.
Ping
If you would allow, I would suggest that the arrival of the pedestrian “Eucharistic Lay Ministry”” that precipitated the handsy Communion - was and is the beginning of the irreverence shewn to the Sacred Body, Blood, Soul Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Imho.
But I think we would never have gotten to Extra-distracting Eucharistic Monsters until the VC II popes allowed Communion in the Paw.
The fact that at most all Novus Ordo Masses, communion patens are not offered under the communicant’s chin is a sure sign of lack of belief in the Real Presence.
Have you ever seen a consecrated Host accidentaly dropped in a Traditional Mass compared to a dropped host in the Novus Ordo Mass?
The respect and reverence in the recovery of the sacred host is like night and day. It like two different religions.
Communion in the Paw Ping
Shoulda double caucused....
A few months ago I saw our priest delivering a Host “in the paw” to an old guy in his pew.
As the guy was then pulling his face-diaper down, he dropped the Host into the pew in front of him. He then reached down, picked it up, put it into his mouth, and the priest moved on; there was no sort of purification whatsoever.
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