Arguing about how to receive Holy Communion

[thereseozi]

I’ve been reading the posts, in the different forums, where people are arguing over how to receive Holy Communion and it breaks my heart to see this. I’m even afraid to comment for fear that I will be attacked since it’s happened before. Why fellow Catholics do this to each other, and treat each other uncharitably, I don’t know. But anyways, I wanted to share the following information:

This excerpt is from the book, " 7 Secrets of the Eucharist " by Vinny Flynn; Introduction by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J.; published by MercySong, Inc. in collaboration with Ignatius Press, pg. 12-13:

"Pope Benedict XVI also discusses this issue of how to receive, emphasizing that, instead of arguing about whether it’s better to receive kneeling or standing, in the hand or on the tongue, we need to focus on the spirit of reverence with which the early Fathers of the Church received Communion.

"First urging priests to ‘exercise tolerance and to recognize the decision of each person,’ he goes on to ask everyone ‘to exercise the same tolerance and not to cast aspersions on anyone who may have opted for this or that way of doing it.’ What is important is reverence:

“It is quite wrong to argue about this or that form of behavior. We should be concerned only to argue in favor of…a reverence in the heart, an inner submission before the mystery of God.”

Notes, Sources and References, page 111-112:

" ‘It is quite wrong to argue about this or that form of behavior.’ Pope Benedict XVI, God is Near Us, p. 71. The pope goes on to urge that instead of arguing about the outer forms or rituals of receiving Communion, we 'should be concerned only to argue in favor of a ‘reverence in the heart, an inner submission before the mystery of God who puts himself into our hands.’

“He admonishes us ‘not to forget that not only our hands are impure but also our tongue and also our heart and that we often sin more with the tongue than with our hands.’ He explains that, by coming to us in Communion, ‘God takes an enormous risk…allowing not only our hand and our tongue but even our heart to come into contact with him. We see this in the Lord’s willingness to enter into us and live with us, within us, and to become from within the heart of our life and the agent of its transformation’ (p.71)”

 

[olivemoeono]

Hi Thank you for sharing that,it was very informative and it reminds us of what is really of importance,receiving Holy communion in reverence.

 

[Indyann]

Thanks Therese.

Now, I wish he would address the term “traditional Catholic”, which has been high-jacked by certain groups.

 

[Deacon_Ed_B]

I totally echo post # 2. Well said and succinct.
Deacon Ed B

 

[Brother_John]

I’ve been reading the posts, in the different forums, where people are arguing over how to receive Holy Communion and it breaks my heart to see this. I’m even afraid to comment for fear that I will be attacked since it’s happened before. Why fellow Catholics do this to each other, and treat each other uncharitably, I don’t know. But anyways, I wanted to share the following information:

This excerpt is from the book, " 7 Secrets of the Eucharist " by Vinny Flynn; Introduction by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J.; published by MercySong, Inc. in collaboration with Ignatius Press, pg. 12-13:

"Pope Benedict XVI also discusses this issue of how to receive, emphasizing that, instead of arguing about whether it’s better to receive kneeling or standing, in the hand or on the tongue, we need to focus on the spirit of reverence with which the early Fathers of the Church received Communion.

"First urging priests to ‘exercise tolerance and to recognize the decision of each person,’ he goes on to ask everyone ‘to exercise the same tolerance and not to cast aspersions on anyone who may have opted for this or that way of doing it.’ What is important is reverence:

“It is quite wrong to argue about this or that form of behavior. We should be concerned only to argue in favor of…a reverence in the heart, an inner submission before the mystery of God.”

Notes, Sources and References, page 111-112:

" ‘It is quite wrong to argue about this or that form of behavior.’ Pope Benedict XVI, God is Near Us, p. 71. The pope goes on to urge that instead of arguing about the outer forms or rituals of receiving Communion, we 'should be concerned only to argue in favor of a ‘reverence in the heart, an inner submission before the mystery of God who puts himself into our hands.’

“He admonishes us ‘not to forget that not only our hands are impure but also our tongue and also our heart and that we often sin more with the tongue than with our hands.’ He explains that, by coming to us in Communion, ‘God takes an enormous risk…allowing not only our hand and our tongue but even our heart to come into contact with him. We see this in the Lord’s willingness to enter into us and live with us, within us, and to become from within the heart of our life and the agent of its transformation’ (p.71)”

:tiphat:

 

[Deacon_Ed_B]

Thank you, well said. You are correct in saying this. It is not our external posture, tongue or hand, but what is in our heart and on our soul that reflects our reverence.
Deacon Ed B

 

[japhy]

Thanks Therese.

Now, I wish he would address the term “traditional Catholic”, which has been high-jacked by certain groups.

I think this might be a clue as to what the Pope considers “traditional”… Pope Benedict favors the “hermeneutic of reform” rather than the “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture”; from his December 2005 address to the Roman Curia:
Why has the implementation of the [Second Vatican] Council, in large parts of the Church, thus far been so difficult? Well, it all depends on the correct interpretation of the Council or - as we would say today - on its proper hermeneutics, the correct key to its interpretation and application. The problems in its implementation arose from the fact that two contrary hermeneutics came face to face and quarrelled with each other. One caused confusion, the other, silently but more and more visibly, bore and is bearing fruit. On the one hand, there is an interpretation that I would call “a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture”; it has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology. On the other, there is the “hermeneutic of reform”, of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is a subject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God.

The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks ending in a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church. It asserts that the texts of the Council as such do not yet express the true spirit of the Council. It claims that they are the result of compromises in which, to reach unanimity, it was found necessary to keep and reconfirm many old things that are now pointless. …

In a word: it would be necessary not to follow the texts of the Council but its spirit. In this way, obviously, a vast margin was left open for the question on how this spirit should subsequently be defined and room was consequently made for every whim. The nature of a Council as such is therefore basically misunderstood.