Note that the key phrase here is “with the prescriptions of the liturgical books”. To my knowledge, there is nothing in the liturgical books that indicates that the faithful should be touching the monstrance, let alone, the luna where the Blessed Sacrament is housed.
I had heard a different reason for the priest covering his hands during Benediction. It is to show that it is Christ Himself, not the priest, giving the blessing.
Do you have a source for what you noted in post #2?
Benedictgal, I have heard that the purpose of the Humeril Veil is to enable the priest to carry the large Monstrance (Ostensorium) in procession. By having the veil in such a way around the elbows of the priest it gives his arms support due to the weight of the Monstrance. God Bless,nannyma
However, there are smaller Monstrances that are not as heavy, and the priest still uses the humeral veil. In fact, at the chapel in one of our local hospitals, my parochial vicar uses one when he reposes the Blessed Sacrament. He blesses the faithful with the Blessed Sacrament and then reposes the luna back into the sacristy. He even donated a humeral veil so that the other priests could use it; however, no one else does, which is a shame.
Like many things, it had a practical origin, but a spiritual significance was added.
I doubt it’s forbidden to touch the monstrance, but I wouldn’t do it unless I had a real need to- especially not while it had the Blessed Sacrament inside. I am sorry to say that many things that happen at youth rallies should not happen.During Adoration, during the procession of the Monstrance, are we allowed to touch the Monstrance? I was at a youth rally recently and as Our Lord was processed around many teens reached up and touched the Monstrance base and the rays, i thought the could only touch the veil the priest wore while holding the Monstrance. As the title indicates I’m a little confused.
Thank you
Oh, sorry. It was from an earlier post of mine. It was just meant to refer back to it. (I have no source
)Actually, Jesus does care about the norms. His Father did not spend significant chunks of time and wording to dictate to Moses just how He was to be worshipped. In fact, God, Himself, dictated the first set of rubrics to Moses, governing the form of worship acceptable to Him. Furthermore, Jesus made it perfectly clear that proper worship really mattered to Him when He cleaned out the Temple.
Oh no, Benedictgal, I can’t agree with you there!
Is there anything in the liturgical books, in your knowledge, that indicates that the faithful should NOT be touching the monstrance? How about the tabernacle? Your analogy of the Arc of the Covenant would certainly be applicable to the tabernacle, no?
Yet, I try to understand that ultimately it is the greater glory of God (AMDG) that we define thousands and thousands of pages of rubrics and that all of them should be headed for that reason.Try holding a five pound object at arms length for a long period. Then put a large towel over your shoulders and around it. If you get it right the towel will be taut and transfer much of the weight to your shoulders and ease your arms.
Just because something is not explicitly noted in the rubrics, that is not to say that we have carte blanche to do as we please. The rubrics do indicate that the deacon, priest or bishop should be doing this as far as the Benediction aspect is concerned. Furthermore, I noted that the Monstrance bearing the Blessed Sacrament should not be handled by anyone other than the ordained. Now, there are rare instances where an EMHC is allowed to remove the luna bearing the Blessed Sacrament, but, this should not happen on a regular basis. Furthermore, even when the luna is removed, the priest hold the vessel within the humeral veil and replaces the Blessed Sacrament back into the Tabernacle.