I have been following this thread with interest. Aside from all of the given directives that forbid EMHC giving blessings what about the practices that really happen in parishes across the country.
I have travelled from west coast to east coast, to the northern states and the southern states and most if not all of the parishes I have attended there have been people in the communion lines crossing their arms to receive blessings.
So what are the EMHC’s to do? Tell those people, “sorry we are not allowed to give you a blessing” and turn them away, more than likely giving way to humiliation and embarrassment?
While this is a wonderful educating thread the practicality/actuality of this being changed and the rules followed, in my own personal opinion is slim. People are going up to be blessed because (I would like to believe so anyway) they are being led by their heart to be closer to God and it gives them comfort, whether it be by their Priest or by the EMHC.
I fully understand that these are the rules but those of us who are reading these threads are in the small minority from the faithful who attend Mass every Sunday to whom seeing their fellow parishioners receive a blessing is commonplace and normal.
Please be assured that I am not arguing either way, personally when I went through RCIA 9 years ago, I didn’t want to go up for a blessing, I wanted to wait for the “real deal”!
So whether I am going to get lambasted for my thoughts we will see. But that is all they are, my thoughts. I normally don’t post because things can get so heated and all rationale seems to fly out of the window sometimes.
I wish you all God’s Peace
Parrotgal, that is why this practice is so bad. We feel that those who cannot receive are somehow cheated out of something so we make up a “ritual” to offer them some sort of consolaton prize, when really, there is no point to this.
Redemptionis Sacramentum hit the nail on the head when it noted that:
11.] The Mystery of the Eucharist “is too great for anyone to permit himself to treat it according to his own whim, so that its sacredness and its universal ordering would be obscured”.27 On the contrary, anyone who acts thus by giving free rein to his own inclinations, even if he is a Priest, injures the substantial unity of the Roman Rite, which ought to be vigorously preserved,28 and becomes responsible for actions that are in no way consistent with the hunger and thirst for the living God that is experienced by the people today. Nor do such actions serve authentic pastoral care or proper liturgical renewal; instead, they deprive Christ’s faithful of their patrimony and their heritage. **For arbitrary actions are not conducive to true renewal,29 but are detrimental to the right of Christ’s faithful to a liturgical celebration that is an expression of the Church’s life in accordance with her tradition and discipline. In the end, they introduce elements of distortion and disharmony into the very celebration of the Eucharist, which is oriented in its own lofty way and by its very nature to signifying and wondrously bringing about the **communion of divine life and the unity of the People of God.30 The result is uncertainty in matters of doctrine, perplexity and scandal on the part of the People of God, and, almost as a necessary consequence, vigorous opposition, all of which greatly confuse and sadden many of Christ’s faithful in this age of ours when Christian life is often particularly difficult on account of the inroads of “secularization” as well.31
Thus, things like a blessing in lieu of distributing Holy Communion are a misguided attempt at “inclusivity”, especially since the final blessing, imparted by the celebrant at the end of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is the most universal part of the Mass, since
everyone is able to receive it, Catholic or not.
Those who continue to support it and purport this move have, in my opinion, a very poor, very inadequate, understanding of what the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is and what the line for Holy Communion is. The celebrant issues the invtation after the Agnus Dei, “Behold, the Lamb of God, happy are those who are called to his supper.” When we are called to a supper, it is assumed that we are going there to eat. If you were to invite me to your house for supper, this means that I am going to eat with you. If I just show up and watch you eat, then, that makes no sense at all. If you are serving filet mignon and all I do is ask you for a picture of the meal, you would think that is rather odd, right? You would expect that I will join you in the meal and eat. The same concept applies to Holy Communion. The line is to receive and consume Someone, not receive something that cannot be consumed.
As you yourself noted, you chose not to go up for a blessing. The Lord had already planted a strong and sturdy sensus Fidei within your soul. He gave you a sense of the Faith, urging you to wait until your time had come. Would that some RCIA teams had your sense of the Faith.
