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jimmyakin.org/2006/01/fulfilling_ones.htmlDifferent priests have said different things about this.
Once, that was about two years ago, I was very late for a weekly mass, I came shortly before communion, and the priest said at weekday masses it was different and I could still take communion.
Another priest last year said the same thing.
Then, this summer, I went to communion even though I had been late and after mass talked to the priest, and he said that the mass was a whole, the liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the Eucharist together, and out of respect it would have been better not to come to communion (but since I hadn’t known or hadnt been sure, it wasn’t a sin that I did come). Now I was confused and asked still another priest and that one said it was ok to come if I was here for the part that had to do with communion.
So I had all these different viewpoints on my mind when today I came to mass late (not purposely, of course). I came after the first reading, during the responsatory psalm. So I wasn’t sure if I could go to communion or not, but I really felt the desire to go. So I went up to the priest as the last person and asked him. He seemed to waver a bit at first but then said, yes, I could, but to say a prayer afterward (I think he meant after mass). Which I did and was happy.
Now, is there any official guideline about this? Or is it a matter of interpretation? I wonder what other people have heard or read about this matter. Thanks
Kathrin
there is the note there from Jimmy Akin senior Catholic Answers Apologist and author of Mass Confusion the Do’s and Dont’s…:
“YOU DON’T HAVE TO PARTICIPATE IN MASS IN ORDER TO RECEIVE COMMUNION. That’s why there are Communion services. That’s why the Church’s documents EXPLICITLY note that it’s licit to receive Communion even if you just happen to be walking through a church when Communion is being distributed.”
(of course only if you have not received that day…as he notes)
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