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I don't find anything more reverential about the mouth vs. the hand. God created our hands as well. The apostles ate at the Last Supper with their hands. More germs in our mouths anyway. While I like Communion rails and kneeling where this is still the practice, like in England, I can't get worked up about this. That's how I see it. Now...I wonder if I will be warned of Hell by anyone...

"I will tell you a secret, since we have just a thousand close friends together, and also because we have the Missionaries of Charity with us...

"Not very long ago I said Mass and preached for their Mother, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and after breakfast we spent quite a long time talking in a little room. Suddenly, I found myself asking her -- don't know why -- 'Mother, what do you think is the worst problem in the world today?' She more than anyone could name any number of candidates: famine, plague, disease, the breakdown of the family, rebellion against God, the corruption of the media, world debt, nuclear threat, and so on.

"Without pausing a second she said, 'Wherever I go in the whole world, the thing that makes me the saddest is watching people receive Communion in the hand.'"

-- Fr. George William Rutler, Good Friday, 1989 in St. Agnes Church, New York City (a precise transcript taken from a tape of his talk available from St. Agnes Church)

While I like Communion rails and kneeling .... I can't get worked up about this.

Precisely!

Something to think about. Most of those who would rather see the ban on recieving in the hand resurrected need to answer the question why?