[narses]

"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)

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Understand the argument. Don't agree with it. Kneeling, etc., were devotional practices not essentially tied with theology or the matter and substance of the sacrament.
Have we seen a decline in reverence? Yes. Are our hands part of that problem? I don't see it that way. I understand why people are emotionally attached to all of the old styles of devotion. I actually prefer the kneeling with communion rails. It doesn't upset me to see faithful Catholics touching Christ with their hands as opposed to their tongues. This is not a problem theologically for me.
I can can agree to disagree on this. Our entire bodies reflect the image of God. Our hands can be reverential. Our wedding rings are on them.