For our non-Catholic friends, those are the proclaimations that the priest or Eucharistic gives to each person who receives Communion respectively for the bread (hosts) and the wine.
Also at our church everyone is encouraged to be very reverent and to nod in reverence to the Holy Eucharist (not the priest or the person distributing the bread or the wine), but to the true presence of Christ in this Sacrament of Holy Eucharist.
Think how you would greet Christ if he were there in person!
Also, for our non-Catholic friends, all Catholics used to kneel down at a Communion rail that separated the priest from the congregation before Vatican II.
So therefore, a nod of respect and reverence is definitely called for. If we can be the examples of this in our parishes it would be great.
This show of reverence has come down in a mandate from the Holy See through the USCCB - a letter from Bishop Wilton Gregory on the proper procedures surrounding the celebration of the Mass. Mention it to your priest, and if the reverence is not occurring in your parish, ask him to check out the letter and think about it. (BTW, if I had a scanner, I would scan the letter in, because I have a copy of the whole thing, Latin letter, English letter from the Vatican and the letter and list of instructions sent out by Gregory.)
The following explanation is based on the current liturgical law. At the end is shown how the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), not yet in effect, simply repeats the current law.
Liturgical Law. In the document Eucharisticum mysterium (Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery), the Sacred Congregation of Rites (called today, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments) established that,
In accordance with the custom of the Church, the faithful may receive communion either kneeling or standing. One or the other practice is to be chosen according to the norms laid down by the conference of bishops .... When the faithful communicate kneeling, no other sign of reverence toward the most holy sacrament is required, because the kneeling itself expresses adoration. When they receive communion standing, it is strongly recommended that, approaching in line they make a sign of reverence before receiving the sacrament. This should be done at a designated moment and place, so as not to interfere with the coming and going of the other communicants (34). [my emphasis]
This directive has been reaffirmed in subsequent documents (General Instruction on the Roman Missal, 244c, 245b, 246b, 247b; Notitiae 14, 1978, 535-536, no. 11).
According to the US Appendix to the General Instruction on the Roman Missal, the bishops of the United States chose standing as the norm for this country, as it is in most countries of the world, and left the communicant free to determine what sign of reverence to give to Our Lord, if any. As recently as the November 1995 meeting of the NCCB the bishops voted against changing this norm, leaving the nature of the reverence up to the person receiving Communion.
The Holy See having conceded to the bishops' conferences the decision as to the manner of receiving Communion, and the NCCB having refrained from restricting the freedom of the communicant in the matter of the reverence any further than Rome does, it would seem to be beyond the competence of others to restrict this freedom. In such matters the dictum of St. Augustine is apropos: In necessary things unity, in optional things freedom and in all things charity. Hopefully, pastors and communicants would respect each others freedom in such matters without judging motives.
Most Fitting Sign of Reverence. Since the laity have this freedom, the question becomes "what is a fitting sign of reverence" prior to receiving Holy Communion? Keeping in mind that there is no adequate human adoration of God, the Church has established customary gestures in keeping with the humility we should have before Him.
In the Catholic Church two liturgical signs of reverence stand out. In the Eastern Church (Byzantine Rites), a profound bow (from the waist) is the traditional sign used before the Blessed Sacrament and throughout the liturgy at solemn moments, such as the Consecration. In the Western Church (the Roman Rite), genuflection is the tradition. This is reaffirmed in all the liturgical documents, in fact is required of the principal celebrant at the Consecration and before he receives Communion. Concelebrants are required to make a profound bow at the Consecration and genuflect before receiving Communion (GIRM 233). In this way, the Church herself gives us the example of a fitting reverence, an example which includes the Roman preference for genuflection prior to receiving Communion.
This is the reason many today choose to genuflect before receiving Communion, doing so when second in line so as not to delay the procession. Certainly other gestures are possible (bow, sign of the cross), since in fact none is actually required. Yet, the Church's "strong recommendation," and clear example, ought to move Catholics to manifest their love of the Eucharist in the way most suitable to our Latin tradition.
GIRM (3rd edition, 28 July 2000)
Some suggestion has been raised that because the new General Instruction speaks of not having to genuflect before the Tabernacle when crossing in front of it in procession that Catholics who wish to show reverence to the Lord by genuflecting before receiving Him in the Communion procession will be in disobedience of this norm. This opinion is in error for three reasons: 1) the norm of paragraph 274 refers to genuflections that are obliged of the congregation when they pass before the Blessed Sacrament contained in the Tabernacle, as is clear from the context, 2) the norms for Communion in paragraph 160 simply repeats the current law, including the recommendation of a sign of reverence, and 3) the U.S. Bishops have explicitly chosen not to go beyond the general recommendation of Roman law, not exercising their right as a Conference to require a specific reverence. This leaves the communicant free.
1. Genuflections. The applicable portion of #274, after providing the norms for the priests and ministers with respect to the Lord reposed in a Tabernacle, states of non-ministers (the congregation),
"all who cross before the Blessed Sacrament genuflect, unless they are involved in procession." (my emphasis)
So, communicants going up to or returning from Communion are in procession and if they pass the Tabernacle located on the main altar, a side altar, or in a Chapel, they do not genuflect toward it. However, as an individual passing the Tabernacle in the course of the Mass they are to genuflect.
2. Before Communion. The norm for receiving Communion is treated separately and repeats the legislation cited above for the current GIRM. In the new GIRM #160 states,
"the faithful may communicate standing or kneeling, as established by the Conference of Bishops. However, when they receive standing, it is recommended that they make an appropriate gesture of reverence, to be laid down in the same norms, before receiving the Sacrament."
This text includes in the GIRM the norm which was previously contained in a separate document Eucharisticum mysterium, in which Bishops Conferences were given the authority to choose the method of Communion and establish a suitable reverence when it is received standing. It does not specify the reverence before receiving Communion, as opposed to crossing before the Eucharist, leaving that decision to Bishops Conferences, or by default to the communicant.
3. U.S. Norm. To date the U.S. Bishops have not exercised this grant of authority to establish a uniform norm for the recommended reverence before Communion. At their November 1996 Plenary Assembly in Washington, D.C., it was specifically decided not do so. Bishop David Foley offered a norm which would have set a common sign of reverence. The Bishops Committee on Liturgy recommended that since Rome had not established a particular gesture neither should the NCCB. This recommendation was accepted by the assembled bishops. The communicant is thus free to express adoration in the way he or she prefers, but in keeping with Roman norms that "this should be done at a designated moment and place, so as not to interfere with the coming and going of the other communicants" (EM 34). Having ample experience with genuflecting communicants I can attest that this sign fully complies with this norm.
Answered by Colin B. Donovan, STL