MaryAgnes:
Please tell me so I understand … do you feel the Eucharist is more valid, more holy, more sacred–or what?–because you receive it from an ordinary minister? I believe the focus should be on WHO we receive and not FROM WHOM we receive!
Please understand that I do not think receiving from a priest or deacon makes the consecrated host more ‘valid or holy’. I hope I didn’t imply that. Also, during Mass I am focused on who I will be receiving, who I am receiving, and who I just received. I understand your point though, but no need to worry on that one.
But these forums are not Mass, and it’s a time where I can reflect and share my personal opinions. RS 88 (excerpt below) stresses that EMHC’s should be used
when necessary. If it truly doesn’t matter in any way whatsoever, why this guideline? I personally think it matters for several reasons, but one is because I see the use of excessive numbers of EMHCs as
part of a bigger problem – a blurring of the line between clergy and laity, which, in my opinion, leads to a decrease in the Catholic identify of a parish. This is
my experience. Yours may be quite different. It’s kind of like an earlier thread where someone noted that a priest who only gives ‘happy homilies’ is likely to be a priest who doesn’t spend much time in the confessional. I’ve noticed this in my own parish.** There is a ripple effect to the decisions our priests make.** I’ve heard a person in charge of various ministries at our parish say he doesn’t believe in the sacrament of confession. This same person is an EMHC. I’ve also heard comments such as
“I don’t get the whole ‘priest’ thing”. Or, “What does it matter if a priest gives you a blessing or someone just says ‘God Bless You’. He is no different than me.”. Well, I’m sorry. He IS different. He is an ordained man, part of the Apostolic Succession. The Pope is different too. As Jeff Cavins says *‘There is an anointing on that man. That is why when people come into his presence they are so moved because they know there is something different about him’.
*
I’ll be honest. If I had to choose between receiving communion from the Pope or from an EMHC, I would choose our Holy Father. I think receiving Our Lord from the Vicar of Christ only adds to the beautiful experience of receiving Him. Some may think that signifies a lack of focus, but I don’t. Many things can add to the spiritual experience of receiving Communion - incense, beautiful music, and the demeanor of the priest during Mass. We’re human. We are impacted by our surroundings and what we see, feel, hear, and smell. God gave us the sacraments as OUTWARD signs in part, I think, so we could tangibly experience and see his grace and love at work - He knows we are human and impacted by our surroundings.
The excerpts below are from RS and Dominicae Cenae #11. I think DC #11 especially talks eloquently on why people may prefer receiving communion from a priest.
It is the priest celebrant’s responsibility to minister Communion, perhaps assisted by other priests or deacons; and he should not resume the Mass until after the Communion of the faithful is concluded.
Only when there is a necessity may extraordinary ministers assist the priest celebrant in accordance with the norm of law
(RS 88, emphasis added).
Dominicae Cenae #11 (last 2 paragraphs). But one must not forget the primary office of priests, who have been consecrated by their ordination to represent Christ the Priest: for this reason their hands, like their words and their will, have become the direct instruments of Christ. Through this fact, that is, as ministers of the Holy Eucharist, they have a primary responsibility for the sacred species, because it is a total responsibility: they offer the bread and wine, they consecrate it, and then distribute the sacred species to the participants in the assembly who wish to receive them. Deacons can only bring to the altar the offerings of the faithful and, once they have been consecrated by the priest, distribute them. How eloquent therefore, even if not of ancient custom, is the rite of the anointing of the hands in our Latin ordination, as though precisely for these hands a special grace and power of the Holy Spirit is necessary!
To touch the sacred species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained, one which indicates an active participation in the ministry of the Eucharist. It is obvious that the Church can grant this faculty to those who are neither priests nor deacons, as is the case with acolytes in the exercise of their ministry, especially if they are destined for future ordination, or with other people who are chosen for this to meet a just need, but always after an adequate preparation.
