Blessing during communion

  • Thread starter Thread starter McatholicN
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

McatholicN

Guest
Is it sinful to try to receive a blessing during communion if you will not receive? I’ve heard it be discouraged, especially is the eucharistic minister isn’t the priest. I don’t want to inconvenience others or embarrass myself.
 
Stay in your pew.

The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments has issued a statement that these blessing are improper and are not to be done.

We all receive a blessing at the end of Mass.

As for sinfulness, you will have to ask yourself if knowingly doing what the Congregation says not to is a sin.
 
It isn’t sinful to receive a blessing, but whether or not you should go up during Communion to receive it is something you should ask your Priest about. Not every Parish recognizes this practice. Also, only the Priest and the Deacon can actually give you that blessing. The “Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion” isn’t supposed to do this.

There was another thread on this awhile back where a great article was linked in. I’ll see if I can find it.

ETA: Okay, I just saw 1ke’s explanation. Her comment is correct. I’ll still see if I can find that article…
 
Hmp. I can’t find anythign newer that 2006. Do a web search if you like…the main point is, going up to get a blessing during Communion is an interruption of the Eucharistic service. Only the Priest or Deacon can do this. A layperson standing in as a Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion may NOT give a blessing at this time…because they have no authority to interrupt the Sacrament of the Eucharist, among other reasons.
 
Ask your priest. It’s not a bad thing to want a blessing if you’re not receiving. It can be confusing especially for a Eucharistic minister who doesn’t know what to do. At our Parish my priest asks that anyone who wants a blessing come up with their arms crossed (as the children do when they come up and can’t take communion.) As I have been going to church there for nearly 7 years, and am not Catholic, I asked him directly. He was very enthusiastic about it and encouraged me to please come up.

I never thought about what it would be like to do it to anyone other than him. Then one day another fellow was near my aisle so I just went over there. I walked up he tried to hand me the Eucharist and I had my arms crossed. I shook my head no. He handed it to someone else and tried to hand it to me again… I shook my head no. He promptly turned away from me and to the other ‘line’ and started handing it to them. I walked away.

So now I either walk to whichever ‘line’ the priest is at, or I simply stay in my pew.
 
Only the Priest or Deacon has received the Sacrament of Holy Orders, and so only they may impart the Church’s blessing. It is a matter of authority. The Laity possess no such authority. Yet, not all Priests offer the blessing, so it is always best to ask before mass.
 
The Bishops of England and Wales actively encourage those not receiving Holy Communion for whatever reason to go forward for a blessing.

If it were against the ‘rules’, I’m quite sure the Papal Nuncio would have had a quiet word with them by now.

Do not be confused by posters claiming that it has been forbidden in some private letter from someone not the Pope to someone else. The matter isn’t that black and white, as the practice is under consideration by the Vatican. It hasn’t been offically forbidden meanwhile.
 
In our diocese the EMHC are told to offer up a prayer with an adult who comes forward with arms crossed:
If an adult comes forward with their arms folded across their chest, it is usually (but not always) a sign that they do not wish to receive the Communion but to be part in the procession. It is permissible to offer a short prayer for them. (e.g. May the peace of the Lord be with you).
Click to expand...
 
paperwight66 said:
If it were against the ‘rules’, I’m quite sure the Papal Nuncio would have had a quiet word with them by now.
Click to expand...
Dont be so sure about that. many places break “rules” Sometimes the rules are not the battle that needs to be fought by the Vatican, other times Bishops are reminded and just realize that it isn’t anything someone is going to to to war over. It is dangerous to think that because something happens that it has been “okd” by the Papal Nuncio…
 
McatholicN said:
Is it sinful to try to receive a blessing during communion if you will not receive? I’ve heard it be discouraged, especially is the eucharistic minister isn’t the priest. I don’t want to inconvenience others or embarrass myself.
Click to expand...
no of course it is not sinful, but if they invitation has not been issued in the church you are attending the ministers may not be prepared for it, as it is not really part of the communion rite. You will get your blessing, everyone does at the end of Mass.
 
paperwight66 said:
The Bishops of England and Wales actively encourage those not receiving Holy Communion for whatever reason to go forward for a blessing.

If it were against the ‘rules’, I’m quite sure the Papal Nuncio would have had a quiet word with them by now.
Click to expand...
It would be great if these bishops would follow the directive issued for the universal Church. Leadership is important.
paperwight66 said:
Do not be confused by posters claiming that it has been forbidden in some private letter from someone not the Pope to someone else. The matter isn’t that black and white, as the practice is under consideration by the Vatican. It hasn’t been offically forbidden meanwhile.
Click to expand...
Not a private letter. And, the Congregation of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments is not just any “someone”.
 
The Church is universal: it is also local.

Also in many/all/some cases maybe the EMCH are offering up a prayer, not bestowing a blessing and we are confusing the two.
 
Blessings (who cannot receive) -** The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments:**
  1. The liturgical blessing of the Holy Mass is properly given to each and to all at the conclusion of the Mass, just a few moments subsequent to the distribution of Holy Communion.
  2. Lay people, within the context of Holy Mass, are unable to confer blessings. These blessings, rather, are the competence of the priest (cf. Ecclesia de Mysterio, Notitiae 34 (15 Aug. 1997), art. 6, § 2; Canon 1169, § 2; and Roman Ritual De Benedictionibus (1985), n. 18).
  3. Furthermore, the laying on of a hand or hands — which has its own sacramental significance, inappropriate here — by those distributing Holy Communion, in substitution for its reception, is to be explicitly discouraged.
  4. The Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio n. 84, “forbids any pastor, for whatever reason to pretext even of a pastoral nature, to perform ceremonies of any kind for divorced people who remarry”. To be feared is that any form of blessing in substitution for communion would give the impression that the divorced and remarried have been returned, in some sense, to the status of Catholics in good standing.
5. In a similar way, for others who are not to be admitted to Holy Communion in accord with the norm of law**, the Church’s discipline has already made clear that they should not approach Holy Communion nor receive a blessing. This would include non-Catholics and those envisaged in can. 915 (i.e., those under the penalty of excommunication or interdict, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin).**
 
This is in keeping with my prior post: when someone comes up to me in the communion line with arms crossed I can offer up a prayer, as my Diocese has instructed. For instance: May the peace of the Lord be with you.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top