Did I disrespect the Eucharist or did the Priest disrespect me?

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What of children who aren’t old enough to stay in the pews, but are walking? They can’t take Communion but must get in the Communion line.
 
Father will sometimes pat these little ones affectionately on the head. He will not give them holy communion, obviously, and I have never seen our priests giving a blessing to them. A youngster would not understand it at all, but a pat on the head is more geared to a young child.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
If you are not prepared to receive you should not go up for communion. Having your arms crossed has nothing to do with it.

It was confusing not “disrespecting.” The communion line is not the place for conversation or private blessings. Tell the priest you are sorry and then let the matter rest.
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Are you sure about that Mrs Sally?
I’m being initiated into the church at Easter 2014 and have for almost a year gone up to receive a blessing during the communion and when I’ve been asking my priest about it, he actually encouraged it.
In my parish there are a lot of people receiving a blessing instead of communion so where I’m from its quite normal.
In my parish however we’re putting our right hand above the left shoulder to show that we are not to receive the Eucharist.

There might be different policies at different parishes or with different priests as I remember once anathor priest held mass and I went up to receive a blessing, he kept reaching me the Eucharist and kept saying this is the body of Christ.
It felt quite akward as it happened. I repeated I want a blessing, and finally he gave the blessing, pwh…
 
An Act of Spiritual Communion

My Jesus,
I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.
 
Glad2behome said:
Hello everyone,

I will get right into it. So, I went up for Communion and went to kneel but I crossed my arms to show that I am asking for blessing in lieu of reviving Communion because I was NOT in a state of grace. I thought this was a common practice in the O.F.* In any case, the Priest said “The Body of Christ” and I felt awkward because again I had my arms crossed. Anyway, the Priest said “Do you want Communion?” and I said “No”(I should have said “No, because I am not in the state of grace”) but that should not matter because…I had my arms crossed.

Anyway, it ended with a look of great disdain from the Priest and telling to “Go”. Now then, did I disrespect the Eucharist or…did was this just a rude Priest? May I add, I do know this Priest fairly well… Also, there where some minor abuses during the Mass, such as the Priest joking at the beginning of Mass about “These are not Pink, They are Rose!”…and asked the congregation to “touch their ears, mouth and eyes” to see how we should love our bodies…

*When I to attend the O.F, which is about 40% of the time, at other parishes, this is not an issue…
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HeadingBackHome said:
Are you sure about that Mrs Sally?
I’m being initiated into the church at Easter 2014 and have for almost a year gone up to receive a blessing during the communion and when I’ve been asking my priest about it, he actually encouraged it.
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That may be true in Europe, but it is not typical here in the States, where many of our posters live. Unfortunately, your words here may be giving others the occasion to “go and do likewise” unless the particular parish priest encourages it specifically. 😉
 
Glad2behome said:
I was not asking for a personal or private conversation. I have seen many people and I have walked with my arms crossed many times before, and it was not an issue. Did the Holy See recently issue a policy change regarding this?
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It is unfortunate that this practice has become a source of confusion for both priests and laity. This “blessing in place of communion” has never been in the Mass rubrics, has never been a Church approved practice. It is something that some (well meaning) priests and/or bishops came up with on their own.

Don’t be upset, you didn’t commit any kind of sin, nor did anyone “dis” you. You just ran into a priest not familiar with this new invention.
 
Glad2behome said:
Well…I will contact the priest and apologize, becasue it appears that I was in the wrong… I am now if what I did would be considered blaspheming or disrespect the Eucharist…
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No, let go of it and use this as a learning experience. If you are not receiving communion for what ever reason, then stay back and pray.
 
I do not think that you showed disrespect for the Blessed Sacrament nor did you blaspheme.What you describe is a rather confusing situation.Yes talk to the priest and if you are still concerned about having disrespected the Eucharist take it to confession.
 
Glad2behome said:
Well…I will contact the priest and apologize, becasue it appears that I was in the wrong… I am now if what I did would be considered blaspheming or disrespect the Eucharist…
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I have seen this done in churches, as well, saw the priests gave it their blessing, told kids to go ahead, do this, showed them how! I actually didn’t realize till I got on the forum that it was something they really didn’t want us doing.

I live in Mexico, so it’s not even an issue where I am, at least, now.

Ah…I don’t know. It wasn’t intentional. A LOT of churches are in this movement, now, and it’s hard to get the word out to everybody.

All you were trying to do was to get a blessing! I’m so sorry it didn’t work out for you, that there was this misunderstanding! I know that God knows your heart and your intentions.
Actually, I feel badly for your being in this situation. You were TRYING to be respectful. I know that. God must also know that. It was a kind of misunderstanding.

You couldn’t receive communion so did what you could under the circumstances.

I’d recommend you try not to beat yourself up over this. You did NOT know.
 
I’m really confused about this. In my parish in Canada, Father recently told the parents of First Communicants to bring these children and all their other children below the age of reason up in the communion line for a blessing from him or the eucharistic minister. So according to him the minister (not priest or deacon) can offer this blessing too.
 
I would also love to know, if this is wrong, then would it just be appropriate to do as the priest wishes out of deference?
 
At the Catholic school where I worked, we had the entire class of Pre Kindergarten mothers get angry because their children were not lined up for a crossed arms blessing at Communion. The priest gave a big speech about how everyone gets a blessing at the conclusion of Mass. That the communion line is not the place for this. So we abandoned the practice. It does kind of call attention to oneself and their disposition I suppose.
I mean, if people go for a blessing week after week, maybe they should make time for confession. But in your case, I feel for you. Nothing feels more awful than thinking you have upset your priest. Don’t beat yourself up. At least now you know he doesn’t like it. You were not trying to be disrespectful.
Peace.
 
GloriaMaria said:
I’m really confused about this. In my parish in Canada, Father recently told the parents of First Communicants to bring these children and all their other children below the age of reason up in the communion line for a blessing from him or the eucharistic minister. So according to him the minister (not priest or deacon) can offer this blessing too.
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I think the priest told this to first communion parents because the children are getting ready for first communion and this would be considered as part of the training. That is very different from Op’s question who is an adult and not a child in training for first communion. There is a difference between an adult and young children that shouldn’t be left back in pews alone while their parents are going up. There is also a difference between an adult and a child preparing for their first communion.
 
GloriaMaria said:
I would also love to know, if this is wrong, then would it just be appropriate to do as the priest wishes out of deference?
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Ask your priest but I am sure he told that to the first communion families because their children are getting ready for that sacriment. That would be part of their preparation.
 
In all the parishes of the area I live, people always go in the communion line with arms crossed to receive a blessing. This is not only a norm of my own parish, but also in the neighbor parishes where I sometimes go for daily Mass. In some Catholic weddings I attended in other States, priests have also announced for the non-Catholics to cross their arms for a blessing during Communion.

I don’t think it is a “legal” or “illegal” issue, it may all depend on the priest. However, having been a Catholic for more than 40 years, and having lived in different States of US, I have never heard neither witnessed any problem for people going forward for a blessing until this forum.
 
I had excellent religious instruction by the Jesuits when I was in grammar school. However, I became a lapsed Catholic when I went to sea in my mid teens. I remained away from the Church for a little over 50 years, and during that time, there were enormous changes. However, I had never heard of going up to the Altar in the Communion line for a blessing until I found this site. In particular, I never even heard of non-Catholics entering the Communion line.
The Church my family attended during my youth was in down-town Miami, Fla. and, during the tourist season, which ran from September through April, I remember priests announcing from the pulpit that if you were not Catholic, please do not try to take communion. They would also add that this applied to both Anglicans and Episcopalians.
Of course, in those days one knelt at the Altar Rail to receive Communion.
I realize that a lot of nonsense, like Polka Band Masses, Clown Masses, and Rock n’ Roll Masses happened in the 1970’s, but getting blessed in the Communion line is a new one on me.
When and where did this all happen? Who authorized it?
 
Near as I can tell, it seems to be a new development. I first experienced it a couple of years ago in Mississippi. Where it came from and who authorized it, I have no idea.
 
Those dispensing Communion need to deal with these situations as professionally as possible.

It’s another one of those nuances that can drive people away from the Faith.

To answer the question on this thread, I don’t know that either of you were disrespectful, but the wires get crossed and in the Communion line, well, seconds count and there is an expectation to move things along. That’s what I think happened here.
 
The “cross your arms and go up for blessings” thing? It seems to have started in the mid-1980’s in some places, didn’t hit our area until the late 1990’s, and went away again sometime in the 2000’s.

It’s not really obnoxious, like some innovations, but it seems to have been designed to pressure everybody to get up from the pews, instead of letting people not receiving just keep kneeling and praying. Of course, it does seem to have caught on more in churches that were removing their pews and kneelers, or never letting anybody kneel.

Re: kids, I never had a problem not getting blessed or not receiving Communion when I was a little kid too young to stay in the pew. Grownups did tons of things I didn’t do, so why would I expect to receive something in the Communion line? Did I expect to drive the car just because I got in it? Of course not.
 
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