malphono,
I’m not aware of any traditional guide on how the laity’s posture should be while in the line waiting to approach the front, so yeah, I’ve also seen a mixture of different postures. However, once the communicant approaches the front, the traditional practice is that the communicant first cleanses his hands with the smoke of the Holy Incense, and then proceeds to make the following posture as taught to our forefathers by Mar Narsai of Nisibis:
“The one who comes to receive the body of the Lord keeps his right hand over the left in the form of a cross… he receives the body of the Lord, embraces it with love and affection and kisses it” (taken from Holy Qurbana A Pictorial Journey, pg. 78).
This traditional practice is preserved essentially by the ACE. It is something that I hope our Church can restore in the future. While currently our eparchy’s practice is give the Qurbana via Intinction, we do have some of our people who prefer to receive in the hand, in which case, the Qurbana is given without it first being dipped into the cup. However, this reception on the hand seems to mirror the Latin practice rather than the traditional practice of cleansing one’s hands, receiving in the hand, and then bowing to reverence and pick up the Qurbana with one’s tongue.
As far as crossing one’s arms, which you might have seen with a few of our people, who come up to the front seeking a blessing rather than communion… this practice is probably another borrowing from the Latins, rather than a traditional practice. I’ve seen it done mostly with children who have not yet received their first communion, so they come up with their families for a blessing.
I personally have not seen it done among the laity of the ACE, and that’s probably because of the fact that children in the ACE have been communed as infants. Thus, a child can receive communion along with his family, rather than just a blessing. This is another practice, infant communion, where I hope our Church can restore in the future.
I went beyond your question of posture, by touching on other controversial matters… but anyways…
God bless,
Rony
