Can an Altar Rail be Used in the Ordinary Form?

[Peerce]

One of the churches in my archdiocese was rebuilt a number of years ago. The layout of the new church was basically the same as the old and they retained the altar rail (the original in the old church, I might add, was built by my great grandfather). That church doesn’t even offer an EF mass.

 

[marleelynn]

I’m sure that it can, but even in the most conservative parish in my area that hosts a EF Mass on Sundays they don’t use it during their other Masses. It seems to me that it would just be too much of a hassle given that standing is the ordinary form and that priests would have to accommodate those who want to receive standing. So is this done? And if it is, is it more prevalent in other areas?

St Alphonsus in Baltimore uses the altar rail during weekday mass so I assume it is used for Sunday masses. one can receive in the hand or on the tongue

 

[Rand_Al_Thor]

It seems that churches named Holy Rosary tend to use the communion rail a lot. I’ll add the third one to this thread–Holy Rosary in Portland uses it for all Masses, OF and EF. St. Stanislaus and St. Birgitta’s in Portland also use it (though I’ve only been to the EF at St. Birgitta’s). Not sure if St. Patrick’s uses theirs or not…have only been to the EF there.

 

[Peerce]

It seems that churches named Holy Rosary tend to use the communion rail a lot. I’ll add the third one to this thread–Holy Rosary in Portland uses it for all Masses, OF and EF. St. Stanislaus and St. Birgitta’s in Portland also use it (though I’ve only been to the EF at St. Birgitta’s). Not sure if St. Patrick’s uses theirs or not…have only been to the EF there.

Our (very old) cathedral is Holy Rosary and has one upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Holy_Rosery_Alter_2.JPG. Our St. Pat’s is the church I mentioned above and as far as I know they use it.

 

[johnmann]

I was in Amsterdam and they received Communion kneeling at the altar rail-- in the hand!

Kind of an odd combo!

I always thought that would be ideal. You get fast distribution and a posture of reverence without the danger of tasting the priests’s finger and other people’s tongue.

 

[freshwind]

while travelling we attended St. Patrick’s Basilica in Ottawa Ontario…beautiful reverent OF Mass in a beautiful old building, altar rails were used and when it came time to distribute, 2 priests and a deacon appeared out of what seemed nowhere to assist, large church and it was efficient and quick…tongue and hand reception was about 50/50 from what I saw …no one seemed to care

basilica.org/

 

[Phemie]

Sadly, the only place I’ve seen receiving kneeling at the altar rail in the last 30 years was at the local Anglican Church. One person (the Primate of Canada in that instance) distributed the bread, the deacon behind him offering the chalice.

Even sadder is that my then-Pastor went up to kneel and receive bread from the Anglican Primate, leading most of the Catholics at that service to do the same.