Communion in the Hand

[Annabelle_Marie]

Why do people feel the need to campaign against CITH? The Church has allowed it. End of story. We have not been asked for our opinions. No one at the Vatican cares about our opinions. We have the choice to use either CITH or COTT.

Unless you’re a member of a religious order, no one can mandate that you do one or the other. Even in religious orders, very few superiors involve themselves in such small matters. There are more important issues than how one receives Holy Communion, provided that it’s done within the law

It seems that there is a group of people out there who either has too much time on its hands and should probably spend some hours volunteering at one of my emergency pregnancy centers where they will see real evil unfolding: infanticide, abortion, rape, incest, human trafficking, child prostitution and more.

Or I could invite you to the hospital where our brothers serve. You can do battle with doctors and family members who want to put grandma’ to sleep as if she were the family dog.

Maybe, you want to spend a day with us under a bridge with a homeless person who is too mentally ill to accept shelter, because his paranoia won’t let him move from under that bridge. You look at him and you see Christ naked, hungry and sick. So, you take off your habit, tear it into large panels to offer them as blankets on a cold night and then walk home with nothing on but a pair of shorts, sandals and a t-shirt, when the temperature is 40 degrees. But you smile, because Christ is wrapped in your habit.

The next time you meet Him in the Eucharist, you look at Him and He looks at you and you say, “Haven’t we met before?” Then you both smile.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

Excellent Post!

I don’t know why some people get so riled up against something Holy Mother Church allows?

As an EMHC…I try to make sure that I handle Him revently…and I respect everyone–especially those who choose to receive COTT.

And I pray for more vocations…

 

[JReducation]

I very much doubt the Franciscans let lay people handle the Body Of Christ, prior to 1970.

In order to answer your question, I have to explain something about the internal organization of the Franciscans. Our founder was a layman. He handled the Eucharist. Later, he was joined by laymen and priests. However, it was very embarrassing to the priests who joined the order to prohibit the founder and superior general from handling the Eucharist. There was also another detail. Priests who joined the order had to give up their rights as priests. They were no longer called Father, but Brother. Only Francis was Father. And he was not a priest. In addition, priests had to become anonymous. They were not to dress in any say that distinguished them as priests. They put aside their clerical garb and dressed as peasant farmers as did all of Francis’ followers. There was not distinction between ordained and non ordained. Since there was no distinction, only that distinction that was absolutely necessary was allowed. For example, if there were more than one priest in the house, only one could celebrate mass. The others attended mass. Private mass was not allowed, because it singled out the priest. The idea was the blur the lines between the ordained and the non ordained. This is one reason that many Traditionalists and Franciscans bunt heads. We insist on blurring the lines as Francis did and many of the radical traditionalists insist on clericalism.

The term lay and laity are not the same. Lay is a canonical term that refers to anyone who is not a deacon. Laity is a canonical term that refers to anyone who is neither a deacon nor a consecrated religious. A religious can be lay, but not laity. Canonically, Franciscans have always allowed lay friars to handle the Eucharist. Many of them took Communion to the sick. In our female houses the abbess took Communion to the sick sisters. St. Clare is often portrayed with a monstrance. The truth is she never saw a monstrance in her life. Such a thing did not exist. What she actually held in her hand what the consecrated host wrapped in a purificator. But it makes better art to have her hold a monstrance.

As to the laity touching the consecrated host, read below.

Um, what? ‘A guest in their house?’

I’m pretty sure Franciscans never

 

[JReducation]

A Friary may not be a church building, hence being a guest in their house.

When you are a guest in a house of exempt religious: Franciscans, Dominicans, Cistercians, Trappists, Benedictines, Augustinians, Servites, Trinitarians, Jesuits and Carmelites, the superior is the ordinary. You (the guest) abide by his rules and follow the customs of the house.

Observe on EWTN when Fr. Mitch or Fr. Wade celebrate mass. They use the Franciscan missal, follow the Franciscan liturgical calendar, celebrate the mass as the friars do even though they are not Franciscan. The chapel is part of the Franciscan house. The superior of the house makes the rules for the mass. Those who are visiting, lay and clergy abide by his rules. In an exempt community, the superior is like a bishop and his voice is the voice of Christ, even for the guests.

There is the small issue where documentation on some of this stuff is lacking, but that’s because Franciscans never really cared back then to write down their traditions, they were passed down orally. Sort of like how our Faith was first passed down. We have the benefit of having a chance to hear some of their traditions through Brother JR.

One of the problems that you’re always going to find with the Franciscans, Trinitarians, Carmelites and to a certain extent the Dominicans is that much of our history is transmitted by oral tradition. The Mendicants were not stable as were the monks. We moved and still move. Very few houses had libraries and scriptoriums where ledgers and chronicles were kept. The other problem is that the friars carried many of the documents with them as they roamed around. When they died, these documents were often lost or stored in some place and everyone forgot they existed. We’re still finding old documents from the first generation of Franciscans in the strangest places. People would put them inside their breviary, carry the breviary from Assisi to London and then die in London. The breviary was stored in some box in some house in London that was later taken over by the Church of England. Today, someone finds the breviary, opens it and finds a letter written by St. Bonaventure or St. Francis.

Do you realize that we have only one document actually written by Francis himself? We know that it was he who wrote it, because it has his signature. That is his Testament. The other documents that we have are copies or originals written by scribes, dictated by Francis. Some were not dictated by him, but collections of his sayings. The faithful will just have to accept oral tradition or deny it. It really has on impact on the Franciscan order. It has an impact on the laity, because the order was founded to be a school of Gospel life for the laity to observe and learn. You can’t force an adult to go to school.

Except that in some circles receiving on the hand has been their tradition for 800 years, just like how in some circles the Tabernacle being in a side chapel has been a tradition for 1500 years (pre-dating it being at or near the alter).

As much as radical traditionalists scream and bellow about the tabernacle in side chapels, the educated traditionalist knows that there are two very Catholic traditions regarding the tabernacle. One is Benedictine and the other is Franciscan. The Benedictines, who are about 800 years older than the Franciscans have always had the tabernacle in a chapel adjacent to the sanctuary, not on the sanctuary. The Franciscans have always had it on the sanctuary. For centuries these two paradigms co-existed without problems. Most cathedrals and basilicas use the Benedictine model. You don’t have the Blessed Sacrament in the main church. It’s in a side chapel.

The Franciscans introduced the tabernacle in the central nave because their chapels were small. Later their parish churches were small, unlike the great monastery churches of the Benedictines. The tabernacle was front and center. This type of building was inexpensive and functional. As the friars grew, they took this model with them and others generalized it. No one screamed and hollered that this was a Franciscan custom and why was it being imposed on the laity. That’s a modern phenomenon where we want to reject the idea that religious orders teach the lay faithful.

And you’re missing the point; those who are members of certain communities are Brothers. They do no have “consecrated hands” as a priest does, yet they can touch the Eucharist and deliver Him to those who are sick.

This also applies to deacons. The idea of consecrated hands was made popular by St. Thomas Aquinas, but it was never adopted by the Church. Had the Church adopted it the Eastern Catholics would have rebelled, because they have always had permanent deacons.

 

[JReducation]

It proves that communion in the hand is neither an innovation, nor an abuse, nor a recent development, nor did it originated in parishes.

Religious orders like the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites and Benedictines are not segregated parts of the Church. It is they who inform the laity in the Church, guide the laity in the Church and enlighten the laity in the Church, not the other way around, nor are they off in a bubble on their own.

You are correct. Religious orders have always guided the great liturgical movements of the Church. In fact, the Tridentine mass came from the Franciscans. The original version came out of a missal that Pope Innocent III gave to Francis. It was called the Missal of St. Peter. It was a form of the Latin Rite that was rarely used. Apparently it was used only on the feasts of Peter and Paul and a few other special occasions.

The friars used it and made it very well known through Europe. It was much simpler. The Council of Trent adopted this form as the official form for the Latin Church, with few exceptions. They did leave some forms standing as well as some of the other Latin rites… They did add to it the Gregorian chant. Pope Pius V added the prayers at the foot of the altar and later the final Gospel. Later, other popes added other things, such as the prayer to St. Michael and the Aves. However, the Franciscans refused to celebrate the mass as it was promulgated by the Council of Trent, because it required Gregorian Chant and Francis had banned Gregorian chant from the mass and the LOTH. Pope Pius V allowed them to keep the older version of the mass, which was published in a missal known as the Seraphic Missal.

The chant was very plain. There were not prayers at the foot of the altar and no final Gospel. The mass was dialogued so that the priest was not singled out, as was Francis’ vision. The words of consecration were not whispered, but said aloud so that all of the friars and whomever else was present could hear. Francis’ name was part of the Confetior and added to the Canon. It’s still there to this day when we celebrate the EF.

St. Francis should be remembered for more than CITH, I would think.

Actually, CITH is very significant of what Francis and his movement is all about. His movement is about fraternity and equality. We are a family of brothers and sisters, lay and religious, ordained and non-ordained. The CITH, in some ironic way, actually reminds us that we are one family, sons and daughters of one Seraphic Father to whom we owe obedience and through him, to the pope and the local bishop where we work.

It was not meant to become the symbol of Franciscan unity, but in some interesting way, CITH represents us well. It blurs those clerical lines that the early brothers tried so hard to blur and that Vatican I almost destroyed, not intentionally. People unintentionally applied Vatican I incorrectly to the order and almost decimated it. Had it not been for Perfectae Caritatis and Pope Paul VI, we would have become a completely different order from what Francis founded. That’s our defensiveness with radical traditionalism. Radical traditionalism, it its effort to recover and retain liturgical tradition, ignore every other tradition and even sacrifices every other tradition. That is not a healthy traditionalism. Traditionalism must be an informed movement. People like Pope Benedict, Bl. John Paul, Bl. Mother Teresa, and others like them are informed traditionalists. They seek to preserve all Catholic traditions, not just the liturgy.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

 

[Saints_Alive]

Where do people get these crazy notions ? Surely not from the Curia ?

Spanish Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera recently recommended that Catholics receive Communion on the tongue, while kneeling.

“It is to simply know that we are before God himself and that He came to us and that we are undeserving,” the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments said in an interview with CNA during his visit to Lima, Peru.

The cardinal’s remarks came in response to a question on whether Catholics should receive Communion in the hand or on the tongue.

He recommended that Catholics “receive Communion on the tongue and while kneeling.”

Receiving Communion in this way, the cardinal continued, “is the sign of adoration that needs to be recovered. I think the entire Church needs to receive Communion while kneeling.”

“In fact,” he added, “if one receives while standing, a genuflection or profound bow should be made, and this is not happening.”

“If we trivialize Communion, we trivialize everything, and we cannot lose a moment as important as that of receiving Communion, of recognizing the real presence of Christ there, of the God who is the love above all loves, as we sing in a hymn in Spanish.”

In response to a question about the liturgical abuses that often occur, Cardinal Canizares said they must be “corrected, especially through proper formation: formation for seminarians, for priests, for catechists, for all the Christian faithful.”

Such a formation should ensure that liturgical celebrations take place “in accord with the demands and dignity of the celebration, in accord with the norms of the Church, which is the only way we can authentically celebrate the Eucharist,” he added.

“Bishops have a unique responsibility” in the task of liturgical formation and the correction of abuses, the cardinal said, “and we must not fail to fulfill it, because everything we do to ensure that the Eucharist is celebrated properly will ensure proper participation in the Eucharist.”
catholicnewsagency.com/news/spanish-cardinal-recommends-that-catholics-receive-communion-on-the-tongue/

“It is now time to evaluate carefully the practice of Communion in the hand and if necessary to abandon what was never actually called for in the Vatican document, Sacrosanctum Consilium.”
Bishop Malcolm Ranjith
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

“The Church must be reformed, starting with the Eucharist!”
Bishop Athanasius Schneider

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01400/pope2_1400137c.jpg

http://www.thepaulusinstitute.org/images/main/pope-benedict-communion-2.jpg

 

[JReducation]

Where do people get these crazy notions ? Surely not from the Curia ?

The Telegraph - Telegraph Online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph
http://prounione.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/pope-communion-tongue.jpg
http://www.thepaulusinstitute.org/images/main/pope-benedict-communion-2.jpg

No one is disagreeing with the Cardinal and the Cardinal is not disagreeing with rational people. The disagreements from from the extremes to left and right. The Cardinal is walking right down the center.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

 

[Saints_Alive]

No one is disagreeing with the Cardinal and the Cardinal is not disagreeing with rational people. The disagreements from from the extremes to left and right. The Cardinal is walking right down the center.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

Yes, but anyone who dares agree with those three here by stating the same thing as they do are treated like schismatic lepers.

 

[agnes_therese]

Yes, but anyone who dares agree with those three here by stating the same thing as they do are treated like schismatic lepers.

Only when they say that those who commonly receive CITH, as allowed by the Church in her wisdom, are somehow less reverent, or even less Catholic, than those who receive on the tongue.
THAT is the disagreement.

 

[Sirach2]

Saints Alive:

Where do people get these crazy notions ? Surely not from the Curia ?

And surely, not from the majority of hierarchy.

You’ve surely heard the expression, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” ??

With all your overt efforts to convince the majority of members that one should not receive CITH, the fact is “we’re allowed.”

You posted personal opinions from **three **in the “Curia” but do you realize there are 5,215 (bishops, archbishops, cardinals) who are our appointed shepherds to guide the Church? It would require a majority of them, not just the opinions of the three you posted, to nullify the present indults for those countries who asked for them.

Surely, as ProVobis stated, it could be reversed. Until that happens, you folks are beating the proverbial dead horse. Why not bury it?

 

[SuperTrad]

CITH is just one of a range of changes that have happen in Catholicism. You can trace them back to the 60’s, the 40’s or to the Reformation. They are based on a delusion: that you can have a more ‘authentic’ Christianity by picking and mixing elements from the past that appeal to the tastes of the present. The Protestants already tried that. They’re still experimenting.

I’m just about old enough to remember the heady years of the 70’s. A rebellion in the Church reflected rebellion in the wider society. That’s all. No great Springtime, no great rush to join religious orders, no increase in popular piety. Just the opposite.

A person who fears a god will not start breaking and removing things in his temple or rewriting and blanding out sacred texts.

It is artificial to go all the way back to the 3rd century to justify a practice which gives no spiritual or practical benefit over the previous one. But it brings down Jesus down to your level. Or you up to His, I suppose.

I guess people are slowly waking up in bland, bare churches where they hear bland hymns and bland, easy going sermons and are served the sacred matter by women in street clothes and do one of two things: either seek out a TLM if they know about it or just stop coming if they don’t or don’t care.

After all, you never hear about the possibility of Hell, so people have little fear of going there. Might as well have a lie-in. You’re as good as saved.

CITH sounds defensible in isolation. Add it to the rest of the changes and a non-Catholic sociologist can draw his own conclusions.

 

[CesarAugustus]

Mons. Juan Rodolfo Laise O.F.M. Cap. from Argentina opposed the implementation of CITH in his Diocese, even wrote a book about the topic:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Extracts in Spanish:

www3.planalfa.es/santamariareina/laise.htm

In Colombia and Argentina, the custom was introduced, and not according to the indult guidelines.

Blessings.

 

[LBorkowski]

fisheaters is a dangerous site if one is new to to the Church and an occasion of sin for some others . they present the faith in a very crude and and i would say borderline pornographic manner .they seem very proud of allowing the use of the F-bomb and racist language .

Fisheaters is a great site. Some of the people at the forum are nasty. Ignore the forum and read the main site. You will likely learn a lot.

 

[CesarAugustus]

(** The ‘vocations crisis’ becomes self-fulfilling when only a certain type of priest is wanted and he is being reduced to the role of a mere presider and social worker. Who will give up marriage and a well-paying career for that?)

Yes, and there is more to that. If Catholicism becomes someting similiar to an NGO (only caring about social issues), why bother with being Catholic? even an atheist can do assistencialism. That would be an appealing Church?

Is like some Jesuits in Latin America. Involved in social justice, even left wing politics (a big problem), but the Faith is being neglected (terrible problem). Now, another Jesuit Priest in Colombia has said scandalous things. This time, denying the resurrection of Christ, the virginal Birth, and the virginity of Mary. And the superiors? nothing. But is not surprising knowing the history of the current Provincial Superior.

Link to news article (in Spanish):

infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=13318

Another article:

intereconomia.com/blog/cigueena-torre/no-hay-provincial-los-jesuitas-colombianos-no-existe-arzobispo-ya-cardenal-bogot

The e-mail of that Priest (Alfonso Llano S.J.), in case someone wants to speak with him about his declaration:

cenalbe@javeriana.edu.co

The e-mail was published by the Priest in his articles in widely read newspapers, so I don’t think it would be a problem linking it here.

Other case, Father Novoa S.J., pro-abortion, and against pro-life politicians.

Articles about him (in Spanish):

aciprensa.com/noticias/padre-novoa-apoya-despenalizar-aborto-en-colombia-y-arremete-contra-procurador-35827/#.ULYR7OT8Ius

aciprensa.com/noticias/padre-novoa-camina-por-agendas-fracasadas-al-apoyar-el-aborto-98073/#.ULYSWOT8Ius

aciprensa.com/noticias/diacono-novoa-de-uruguay-critica-a-padre-novoa-por-apoyo-al-aborto-en-colombia-75874/#.ULYSW-T8Ius

And these two Priests, not only are still in the Company, they also still have their positions at the Jesuit University (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana), an educative institution that is becoming more and more problematic.

Blessings.

 

[zenith15]

Why do people feel the need to campaign against CITH? The Church has allowed it. End of story. We have not been asked for our opinions. No one at the Vatican cares about our opinions. We have the choice to use either CITH or COTT.

Unless you’re a member of a religious order, no one can mandate that you do one or the other. Even in religious orders, very few superiors involve themselves in such small matters. There are more important issues than how one receives Holy Communion, provided that it’s done within the law

It seems that there is a group of people out there who either has too much time on its hands and should probably spend some hours volunteering at one of my emergency pregnancy centers where they will see real evil unfolding: infanticide, abortion, rape, incest, human trafficking, child prostitution and more.

Or I could invite you to the hospital where our brothers serve. You can do battle with doctors and family members who want to put grandma’ to sleep as if she were the family dog.

Maybe, you want to spend a day with us under a bridge with a homeless person who is too mentally ill to accept shelter, because his paranoia won’t let him move from under that bridge. You look at him and you see Christ naked, hungry and sick. So, you take off your habit, tear it into large panels to offer them as blankets on a cold night and then walk home with nothing on but a pair of shorts, sandals and a t-shirt, when the temperature is 40 degrees. But you smile, because Christ is wrapped in your habit.

The next time you meet Him in the Eucharist, you look at Him and He looks at you and you say, “Haven’t we met before?” Then you both smile.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

What a beautiful post, Br. JR. What excellent work you and your brothers do for Christ and for your fellow man. You will be in my prayers.

 

[LBorkowski]

Exactly! The language used on that site is quite vulgar and I wonder if those that behave like that on there would let their true colors show and dare to speak those colorful words in front of their SSPX or sedevantist priest and chapel members. If I was unaware of what kind of site it was and stumbled on to it, I would leave thinking that Catholics are crude, racist, and have no class. Thankfully, I am well aware of that site and the one that’s even more vile than FE and I stay away from both! The OP needs to do the same and also not be involved with a group whose status in the Church is murky, at best!!

Fisheaters.com is a website with tons of perfectly orthodox material. The discussion forum is a different matter. Stop confusing the two and stop confusing the opinions of some posters at the forum with the opinions of the person who made the Fisheaters site. Noone confuses some poster’s opinions here with the opinions of the people who run this site, do they?

 

[agnes_therese]

CITH is just one of a range of changes that have happen in Catholicism. You can trace them back to the 60’s, the 40’s or to the Reformation. They are based on a delusion: that you can have a more ‘authentic’ Christianity by picking and mixing elements from the past that appeal to the tastes of the present. The Protestants already tried that. They’re still experimenting.

When a liberal considers the Church “deluded” about something, they are called “cafeteria Catholics.”
Why should it be different for a “trad”?

 

[zenith15]

Where do people get these crazy notions ? Surely not from the Curia ?

The Telegraph - Telegraph Online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph
http://prounione.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/pope-communion-tongue.jpg
http://www.thepaulusinstitute.org/images/main/pope-benedict-communion-2.jpg

Regarding the remarks about how if one receives while standing, a profound bow should be made and this is not happening, I would like to report that in my large parish this DOES happen and almost every person who receives in the hand bows low first. Some priests may not see it as they are focused only on the person in front of them and the person behind may be bowing on approach as the person in front receives, but I see it and it happens almost without exception in my parish of over 4,000.

 

[Esrb99]

Second myth: A priest can’t tell you not to receive COTT.

In the USA, the GIRM says that the ordinary way for receiving communion is on the hand while standing. However, the GIRM does say that communion cannot be denied to one who wishes to receive it on the tongue or on his knees. But the GIRM does say that the priest should counsel the individual as to the proper way to receive Holy Communion in the USA.

I just wanted to point out that this is no longer the case. the revised GIRM now states,

*160. The Priest then takes the paten or ciborium and approaches the communicants, who usually come up in procession.

It is not permitted for the faithful to take the consecrated Bread or the sacred chalice by themselves and, still less, to hand them on from one to another among themselves. The norm established for the Dioceses of the United States of America is that Holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling (Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum, March 25, 2004, no. 91).*

SOURCE: usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/general-instruction-of-the-roman-missal/girm-chapter-4.cfm (paragraph 160)

The bit about pastoral advising was removed from the english translation, as it is not mentioned in the original latin of the GIRM, and some laity were writing to the CDW about being withheld communion and reproached publicly or after mass.

Regardless, in the OF/NO/Paul VI Missae, communion is allowed to be received standing or kneeling, on the tongue or in the hand. Make your own choice, and unless you are being denied communion in the OF for trying to receive in one way or the other, do not bother yourself too much with it.

 

[Sirach2]

Agreed, Zenith15. I see many people bow early before the communicant ahead of them has received. Some even genuflect behind the communicant before their turn comes. Ever watch EWTN? Happens all the time.

We must remember that the opinion Saints Alive expressed is only one person, and it cannot possibly reflect the millions of Catholics world-wide, nor the 5,000+ hierarchy who guides them.

I wonder if anyone remembers that the Pope is very capable of issuing a Motu Proprio to forbid CITH? Posting cheerleader photos of Pope Benedict giving communion on the kneeler certainly reflects his personal preference, but has anyone noticed that he does not impose his preference on the universal church via a M.P.? He is very respectful of those who petitioned the Holy See for the indult and his lack of action to reverse it speaks just as loudly as the photo.

 

[TimothyH]

You are correct.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

Well, I learned from the best.

-Tim-