Do us Catholics take advantage of Holy Communion?

  • Thread starter Thread starter hausofferni
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

hausofferni

Guest
It’s something that I keep thinking about, and now I see that we do truly take advantage of Holy Communion, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. I mean, Jesus Christ is literally present there and we just take advantage. It bothers me because I mean we should be on the floor crawling on our knees because he is present and some people don’t even have the courtesy to humble themselves to receive Him in their mouth. I mean look at the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, people walk in for a few minutes and then leave, and I think, “do they know that God himself is here?” IM guilty of this myself, because it really makes me think about how ungrateful we are. How we are so blind to see this. If we really believed and really understood the Mass, I think we would stay there on our knees forever, knowing about His REAL PRESENCE. I hope this made sense, it’s just something to think about.
 
If we really believed and really understood the Mass, I think we would stay there on our knees forever, knowing about His REAL PRESENCE.
Click to expand...
This. One lady at my parish waits till the end, then goes up and kneels to receive. You can see the love in her face as she walks back to her seat. I have a lot of respect for her! 👍
 
Most people are just going with the flow. When one is accustomed to treat God in a certain manner, it is simply “the way things are,” without any thought given to it. This is especially true when the atmosphere of public worship is banal and man-centered instead of inspiring solemn reverence and reflection. Unfortunately, this is the norm today. We live in an irreverent age. What it will take to wake us up, I am afraid to think.
 
hausofferni said:
It’s something that I keep thinking about, and now I see that we do truly take advantage of Holy Communion, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. I mean, Jesus Christ is literally present there and we just take advantage. It bothers me because I mean we should be on the floor crawling on our knees because he is present and some people don’t even have the courtesy to humble themselves to receive Him in their mouth. I mean look at the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, people walk in for a few minutes and then leave, and I think, “do they know that God himself is here?” IM guilty of this myself, because it really makes me think about how ungrateful we are. How we are so blind to see this. If we really believed and really understood the Mass, I think we would stay there on our knees forever, knowing about His REAL PRESENCE. I hope this made sense, it’s just something to think about.
Click to expand...
receiving communion in the hand is actually an old tradition, just in case you didn’t know that

I would be careful not to go above and beyond the church, approved methods of reception and humility should not be lumped together.

as for taking things for granted, well,we’re all guilty of this, at soime point or other
 
hausofferni said:
It’s something that I keep thinking about, and now I see that we do truly take advantage of Holy Communion, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. I mean, Jesus Christ is literally present there and we just take advantage. It bothers me because I mean we should be on the floor crawling on our knees because he is present and some people don’t even have the courtesy to humble themselves to receive Him in their mouth. I mean look at the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, people walk in for a few minutes and then leave, and I think, “do they know that God himself is here?” IM guilty of this myself, because it really makes me think about how ungrateful we are. How we are so blind to see this. If we really believed and really understood the Mass, I think we would stay there on our knees forever, knowing about His REAL PRESENCE. I hope this made sense, it’s just something to think about.
Click to expand...
Sometimes all one may have is just a few minutes to stop by in an Adoration Chapel.

Sometimes my husband and I would stop by on our way to or from an appointment, and we didn’t have more time to spend there at the time. We only stayed for a short period of time. I was happy for the time that I did have to spend there. Of course we “knew that Jesus was really present.”

I would not presume to judge another’s circumstances, when they stop by for a few minutes at Adoration, especially if it is not a 24/7 Chapel.

Some people may be stopping by on their lunch or dinner breaks, and that may be all of the time that they have for going at that particular time.
 
100 years ago, in the average parish church, when Mass had ended, something extraordinary would happen. Everyone would kneel down and pray. For 10 minutes. Saying thank you. Even though most had not received, for reasons not merely limited to sin and the actually serious fasting requirements, but also because they knew “this is a huge deal and requires actual preparation for, every time one receives.”

It’s called a thanksgiving. This is a very pleasing way of honoring our Lord in His eucharistic flesh. I’ve never once seen or heard this encouraged in any parish ever.
 
“Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” (John 7:24)

Judging someone’s humility by whether they take communion in the hand or the mouth is Judging by appearances. I don’t see how one is better than the other since in both in cases it goes in the mouth as food.

See Matthew 7:5
 
Yes, I think there are Catholics that take the Blessed Sacrament for granted. This is probably due to most Catholics not believing in the true presence or they believe it but don’t realize what it really means. What we can do is try to be as humble & reverent as we should and hope that, by our example & prayers, we will affect those around us.
 
angell1 said:
receiving communion in the hand is actually an old tradition, just in case you didn’t know that
Click to expand...
The way we receive Communion in the hand today is nothing like what it was so many centuries ago. Those Christians would be appalled at how most Catholics receive today, so I don’t think we should consider our current Communion in the hand as a tradition.
 
Confiteor_Deo said:
What we can do is try to be as humble & reverent as we should and hope that, by our example & prayers, we will affect those around us.
Click to expand...
So, being “humble” means judging your fellow Catholics? I get the sense that you somehow think that you are more Catholic than others.
 
. It bothers me because I mean we should be on the floor crawling on our knees because he is present and some people don’t even have the courtesy to humble themselves to receive Him in their mouth.
Click to expand...
I understand that we should have a certain amount of reverence before the Eucharist. But do you want people to become so afraid that they don’t even come forward to receive the Eucharist? Like the Israelites who dared not set foot on the mountain because they were too afraid of God? They wanted Moses to intercede on their behalf. And he had to wear a veil on his face to protect the people. Yet the curtain was torn when Christ died. The veil is no more for those in Christ. The Eucharist is also about intimacy. In order for people to be intimate and draw close to him they can not be overly afraid of him. We receive the Eucharist by eating him. This would be a great act of disrespect if the Eucharist were not about intimacy with God. The Eucharist is also about making us holy. We don’t have to be perfect to receive it. It is our medicine.

Perhaps, you should be less concerned about what other people are doing and more focused on intimacy with the Lord in the Eucharist.
 
“Some Catholics feel more comfortable receiving the Eucharist in their hands. For some, touching the Eucharist makes them feel more connected to Jesus Christ himself. It takes humility to accept the Lord, present and visible, in our own hands. Many of the Fathers of the early Church recognized that our hands could be a “throne” for receiving holy Communion—the Lord, the King of Kings. To make a throne for the Lord with our hands is to signify our total commitment to worship and to Christian service.”

“Some may choose to receive the Lord on the tongue while others choose to receive in the hand. All of us should receive with great reverence and respect. And to demonstrate reverence and respect, the Church asks us to offer a slight bow of the head immediately before receiving holy Communion. For to receive our Lord in holy Communion is, indeed, the most profound union we can have with God this side of eternity.”

-Bishop James D. Conley
catholicnewsagency.com/resources/roman-missal-3rd-edition/bishops/the-manner-of-receiving-holy-communion/
 
Tim_D said:
So, being “humble” means judging your fellow Catholics? I get the sense that you somehow think that you are more Catholic than others.
Click to expand...
I don’t know where you saw me say that we are humble by judging others. Believe what you want about me, I really couldn’t care less.
 
Confiteor_Deo said:
I don’t know where you saw me say that we are humble by judging others. Believe what you want about me, I really couldn’t care less.
Click to expand...
You need to reread/edit your own post, then.

Your post comes off as arrogant and condescending because you judge others to not have the proper understanding of Christ in the Eucharist when it is a mystery that none of us can even begin to comprehend.
 
Tim_D said:
You need to reread/edit your own post, then.

Your post comes off as arrogant and condescending because you judge others to not have the proper understanding of Christ in the Eucharist when it is a mystery that none of us can even begin to comprehend.
Click to expand...
In my post, I blamed the lack of reverence towards the Blessed Sacrament to be due to two things: denial of the true presence and a lack of realization as to what it means. The former is obvious since statistics have repeatedly shown that most US Catholics don’t believe in the true presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The latter can happen to any Catholic, myself included. I firmly believe in the true presence, yet I still have neglected to genuflect, genuflected irreverently, or have been distracted while approaching the Communion rail. This, I believe, arises from a lack of true realization as to what it means that Our Lord is right there veiled under the appearance of bread.

I don’t judge people I see in that I don’t say “they are heretics by not believing” or that “they have no devotion to Our Lord due to lack of understanding”. However, when I see an entire congregation pass before the side altar that has the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle with no one even glancing over let alone genuflecting, I am justly appalled at the blatant lack of respect. I am not judging something that is beyond my power, namely whether they believe in the true presence or if they are committing a sin, since only God may do this. Nevertheless, I can judge outward actions as reprehensible while not judging the interior of a person’s heart nor his eternal destiny, and I can speculate as to why this is common among Catholics today without applying these speculations to any person in particular.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top