Communion at home

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daled7

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Why can’t we prayerfully bake our communion hosts (according to Church teaching) and use them along with the virtual mass, where they are virtually consecrated. Please consider scriptural references and early church history…not just magisterial rulings.
 
daled7 said:
not just magisterial rulings
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Why not? If you read scripture and the documents of the early Church, you’ll see that the Church has the authority to rule on such things. And scripture and the early Church obviously couldn’t have been in a position to anticipate broadcasts of any kind, so it would be a fruitless search.

-Fr ACEGC
 
You are free to make a Spiritual Communion.

My Jesus, I believe that You are in the Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I long for You in my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. As though You have already come, I embrace You and unite myself entirely to You; never permit me to be separated from You.
 
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Thank you for your reply. First, I am not questioning the authority of The Church to make a ruling. I want to know the reasoning, beyond that it could be abused. There are a lot of formal practices that are abused. Desperate times call for seemingly drastic measures. It wasn’t that long ago when the Catholic Church did not allow virtual masses. I can spiritually receive Christ almost any time, though I appreciate Fr. Ligourie’s prayer which WordonFire is using after mass in Bishop Barron’s chapel.

The Church has always invited serious inquiry, and I have not seen this topic addressed anywhere…so I’m looking for a theological, ecclesial treatment of this topic. Any references are greatly appreciated.

Respectfully, with love in Christ Jesus,

Dale
 
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When my husband was alive, he did not want me to leave the house. He was ill and unsure of being left alone.

He told me an outrageous thing: "Why not watch the TV for Mass and get some hosts from a religious good store and a bottle of wine. Then you could have Communion at the TV Mass.

I thought he flipped his lid! The priest has to physically be there to consecrate the bread and wine. I suppose my husband did not really know this.
 
Actually, some Protestants do precisely what you describe — maybe not in tandem with a television or radio broadcast, but they will have “their own communion”. They do not necessarily believe (depending on the denomination) that a priest or minister has to say the prayers over the bread and wine, and unless it would be Anglicans, Lutherans, and some Methodists (this one surprised me), they do not believe that the bread and wine actually “become” the Body and Blood of Christ in any way. I am not sure if Baptists believe that an ordained minister has to preside or not.

I have wondered, in moments of useless speculation, whether, if Holy Orders were lost from the face of the earth forever — if every priest and bishop died and no man could ever again be ordained a priest until the end of time — the remaining faithful could put together a type of “agape communion”, with unconsecrated bread and wine, and say something to the effect of “we know what we have lost forever, and we grieve for it, but let us come together in unity, and as a memorial to that sacrifice that we had and no longer have”. I have in mind how the Jews have essentially “improvised” with synagogue services and sacred rites for the past 2000 years with the Temple having been destroyed and sacrifices no longer being offered. I also have in mind the unconsecrated antidoron that is given to the faithful at Eastern Christian Divine Liturgies.

Not worth dwelling on, but perhaps an interesting plot device for some apocalyptic fiction.
 
daled7 said:
It wasn’t that long ago when the Catholic Church did not allow virtual masses.
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A livestream Mass is not nor will it ever be like attending Mass in person. Not a single bishop has stated that watching a Mass online will satisfy one’s obligation to attend Mass, because it can’t. Instead they dispensed us of our obligation to attend Mass and encouraged watching a livestream Mass as a pious practice. Also, Masses were live streamed over the internet before all of this happened.
 
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daled7 said:
It wasn’t that long ago when the Catholic Church did not allow virtual masses
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I think you are conflating viewing a broadcast and assisting at mass that is broadcast.

You are not “at” mass when watching a broadcast, even a live one. It doesn’t fulfill your mass obligation and never has. And never will.

But the Church has been broadcasting mass for decades. Viewing broadcasted masses are a source of spiritual devotion and enjoyed by millions. But no one is assisting at mass through the broadcast or fulfilling an obligation

There hasn’t been any “change” so I’m not sure what you are talking about.
 
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Dear Community in Christ Jesus,

Thank you all for your comments. I thinks what I was looking for was a more detailed discussion of this topic. Upon further investigation, I came across the following scholarly article, which should be helpful to those who would like to more thoroughly review this topic. I am not completely satisfied, but doubt I can take this much further…I would love to see Bishop Robert Barron, Dr. Scott Hahn, or other modern theologians discuss the topic.

I can’t include a link, but you can search for: Dear Community in Christ Jesus,
Dear Community in Christ Jesus,
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Thank you all for your comments. I thinks what I was looking for was a more detailed discussion of this topic. Upon further investigation, I came across the following scholarly article, which should be helpful to those who would like to more thoroughly review this topic. I am not completely satisfied, but doubt I can take this much further…I would love to see Bishop Robert Barron, Dr. Scott Hahn, or other modern theologians discuss the topic.
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I not allowed to include a link, but you can look up the 2014 article I found by searching for: The Promise and Problematic of the Virtual Eucharist Mass According To The Roman Catholic Church’s Position in “The Church and the Internet”

Andrew W. Labenek

The University of Western Ontario
 
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Fauken said:
Also, Masses were live streamed over the internet before all of this happened.
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And before that they were on the TV. The “Mass for Shut-ins” was shown on TV in my area every Sunday morning, even in the 1960s when I was little and we only had three VHF channels and no cable. I remember because I asked my parents what a “shut-in” was.

And before that, Masses were sometimes on the radio.

However, as Fauken said, these Masses do not take the place of physically attending Mass, and never did. Those who watched “Mass for Shut-ins” were generally ill or homebound and thus were dispensed from the Mass obligation because they were legitimately impeded from getting there physically. Watching Mass on TV was an optional devotion.
 
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I downloaded this article and will take a look at it, not right now, but as soon as I can. Sounds interesting. Thanks.
 
What scriptual reference are you suggesting? I don’t recall any. To disregard the Magistrium of the Church is to remove one of the three pegs of the Faith (other two being Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition). This leads one down a bad path. Also a lay person doesn’t have the authority to do anything similar to the conscrecration of the Host, only a priest ordained in the Church can. I agree these are hard times, but a “virtual conscrecration” is not the solution. There are many Spiritual Communion prayers and the Blessed Sacrament Chaplet to pray. Also majority of places are still doing Confessions. God Bless
 
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daled7 said:
Why can’t we prayerfully bake our communion hosts (according to Church teaching) and use them along with the virtual mass, where they are virtually consecrated.
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Nothing stops you from doing this.
But please note: You cannot really receive Jesus by this practice, because he is not really present any more than he is really present in mundane portions of bread or wine. You can only virtually receive him (whatever that means).
Please do not adore your virtually consecrated elements, as that would be idolatry.

Why would you want to do this?
Save the snacks for after your virtual Mass.
 
daled7 said:
It wasn’t that long ago when the Catholic Church did not allow virtual masses.
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I asked above about the thought process of “virtual consecration” and will ask again - where is the idea of “virtual mass” coming from? As has been stated above, the Church doesn’t offer such and never has or will. You’re simply allowed to view a Mass from afar in real time. It’s not the same as being there, especially in our sacramental theology.
daled7 said:
I would love to see Bishop Robert Barron, Dr. Scott Hahn, or other modern theologians discuss the topic.
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I doubt we’ll see such discussions forthcoming, since these folks likely don’t see anything to discuss in this regard. I’ll be glad to be proven wrong someday, should they decide to reiterate what’s already been stated.
 
People who are not able to attend mass have the blessing of watching on TV, praying in unity with the faithful across the globe.
It’s our turn now. We are the ones unable to attend. Accept that as your cross.

Jesus, who is the second person of the Trinity, is not somehow ‘stuck’ because we aren’t receiving his body in person. He is not somehow ‘unable’. We are in the desert like he was for 40 days. It’s our turn. All those communions we had before, now that we’re fasting from communion, let’s see the fruit of all those previous communions during this fast. We are doing this as a church together.
 
It just doesn’t seem fair that priests privately celebrate Holy Mass every day and receive Holy Communion but I am not allowed to receive - even on Sundays.
 
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