Communion in the Hand is a Calvinist novelty saysAuxiliary Bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan

[callmeChris]

Link: [eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2011/08/auxiliary-bishop-says-communion-in-hand.htm

l](The Eponymous Flower: Auxiliary Bishop Says Communion In the Hand is a Calvinist Novelty)

Auxiliary Bishop Says Communion In the Hand is a Calvinist Novelty
Not Even Martin Luther Would Have Done It

In the last century the Old Liberal Bishops promoted hand Communion. They used a historical lie toward this end.

Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider

Present day Communion in the Hand has no roots in the early Church.

This was stressed by Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider (50) of Astana in Kazakhstan on the 19th on the radio station ‘Radio Maria Südtirol’

Msgr Schneider is a Patristic expert.

Hand Communion was contrived “all new” from the Second Vatican Council – the Auxiliary Bishop firmly said.

The antique Church had practiced a completely different form for the reception of Communion.

In that period the hand in which Communion was received was purified before and after.

Additionally, the faithful would take the Body of the Lord from their hand in a disposition of prayer with his tongue:

“If anything it was more of an oral reception of Communion than in the hand”.

After Communion, the communicant had to lick their hands with their tongues, so that even the smallest particle should not be lost.

A Deacon supervised the purification.

The Auxiliary Bishop cotinued: “This concern and care stands in direct opposition to indifference and carelessness with which so called Communion in the hand is dispensed.”

Women never held Communion simply on the flat of the hand.

They spread a white cloth, a manner of corporal over their hand.

Then, they would receive Communion directly to their mouth from the linen cloth.

“That is a tremendous contrast to the present form of Communion in the hand” – insisted Msgr Schneider.

The ancient faithful never took Communion with their fingers: “the gesture of hand Communion was completely unknown in the Church.”

The Antique Form of Giving Communion Was Impractical in the Final Analysis

In the course of the centuries the Church developed a form of giving Communion which “surely came from the Holy Ghost”.

Msgr Schneider explained that the Eastern Church had already completed this step by the 5th Century, the West somewhat later.

The transition took place worldwide, organically, instinctively and peacefully.

The Auxiliary Bishop reports that Pope Gregory the Great († 604), gave Communion in on the tongue.

French and Spanish Synods of the 8th and 9th Centuries sanctioned against touching the Host with excommunication:

“If a Synod can make such a strict threat, this form will be forbidden in a short time.”

Communion in the Hand Comes from the Calvinists

According to the Auxiliary Bishop, communion in the hand comes from the Dutch Calvinists of the 17th Century.

Calvinism denies the real presence of Christ in the Host.

One such communion in the hand wasn’t even practiced by the Lutherans:

“The Lutherans have until quite recently, and till today in Scandinavian lands, preserved communion kneeling and on the tongue.”

Coming up: Communion in the hand destroys piety.

 

[philial]

Actually, Calvin never denied the Real Presence in the Eucharist - But he understood it quite differently than orthodox Catholicism. Nevertheless, he did believe in due reverence for the consecreated bread & wine during the Lord’s Supper.

so, if you’re wrong about that, it leaves all other statements regarding history questionable on the basis of being under-researched or completely misunderstood!

 

[jimrob]

The traditional Jewish Passover meal ends with the breaking of bread and the sharing of a cup of wine. The Last Supper was a Passover meal which Jesus elevated to the Holy Eucharist. In the early Church, Holy Communion was celebrated in the same way. There were no individual wafers. The unleavened bread was broken and passed around with no fastidiousness about crumbs on the table. The idea of receiving an individual host on the tongue is a far more recent introduction. Receiving the sacred host in ones hand is closer to the original tradition and has nothing to do with Calvin or any other Protestant reformer.

Kazak auxiliaries are entitled to their opinions, but I’m sure his ordinary has put him right.

 

[Bookcat]

Cardinal Ratzinger notes that it was the practice of the Early Church.

"…we know that until the ninth century Communion was received in the hand, standing. That does not of course mean that it should always do so. For what is fine, sublime, about the Church is that she is growing, maturing, understanding the mystery more profoundly. In the that sense the new development that began after the ninth century is quite justified, as an expression of reverence, and is well founded. But, on the other hand, we have to say that the Church could not possibly have been celebrating the Eucharist unworthily for nine hundred years. If we read what the Fathers say, we can see in what a spirit of reverence they received Communion…

We should be concerned only to argue in favor of what the Church’s efforts directed toward, both before and after the ninth century, that is a reverence in the heart, an inner submission before the mystery
of God that puts himself into our hands…

Cardinal Ratzinger “God Is Near Us” Ignatius Press Pg 70-71 2001

He notes in God and the World “I wouldn’t be fussy about it. It was done in the early Church. A reverent manner of receiving Communion in the hand is in itself a perfectly reasonable way to receive Communion” (pg 410)

and he comments in the new book (after being Pope) that he is not opposed to it.

While I personally receive usually on the tongue …such was indeed an ancient way to receive…

 

[ConstantineTG]

The Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church has shown that Communion in the Hand is an age old tradition dating back to the Apostolic age.

 

[ConstantineTG]

While I personally receive usually on the tongue …such was indeed an ancient way to receive…

Although I would contest that how it is done today in the Latin Rite is not how it is exactly done in the ancient ways. The Chaldeans 'til today would purify their hands over the incense before receiving the Eucharist in their hands. In the Byzantine Rite, the commandment of St. John Chrysostom on how to receive CITH is followed faithfully to this day by the clergy.

I would love if CITH in the Latin Rite would involve the ancient practices to actually show that we are indeed reviving an age old tradition.

 

[Bookcat]

I would love if CITH in the Latin Rite would involve the ancient practices to actually show that we are indeed reviving an age old tradition.

I imagine the even more ancient practices did not involve incense…

 

[promethius]

Link: [eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2011/08/auxiliary-bishop-says-communion-in-hand.htm

l](The Eponymous Flower: Auxiliary Bishop Says Communion In the Hand is a Calvinist Novelty)

He’s not my bishop, and he’s incorrect about the historical precedence (even contradicting the very conservative Pope we have now). I receive only on the tongue, but this piece is inappropriate if aimed as a universal teaching.