Can I be forbidden to kneel after Communion?

[guymurphy]

I am on vacation in Maui. After receiving Communion they asked us to stand until everyone is finished. This is typically a time for me to kneel down and pray to my God who is in me. I find that standing is a big distraction and I end up looking at everyone going to Communion instead of praying. Does the local bishop have the right to ask this? Am I obliged to follow it?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

No, you cannot be forbidden to kneel following Communion. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments stated:

Dubium: In many places, the faithful are accustomed to kneeling or sitting in personal prayer upon returning to their places after having individually received holy Communion during Mass. Is it the intention of the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia, to forbid this practice?

Responsum: Negative, et ad mensum [No, for this reason]. The mens [reasoning] is that the prescription of the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, no. 43, is intended, on the one hand, to ensure within broad limits a certain uniformity of posture within the congregation for the various parts of the celebration of holy Mass, and on the other, to not regulate posture rigidly in such a way that those who wish to kneel or sit would no longer be free (source).

I would say to you though that the idea that Catholics kneel after Communion to “pray to my God who is in me” may be, strictly speaking, true, but our emphasis at Mass should be on entering into worshipping together as members of the body of Christ. To separate ourselves from the worshipping community is to fall into a Christian “rugged individualism” that can quickly degenerate into a quasi-Protestant “me and Jesus” spirituality that is foreign to Catholic sensibilities.