How do you receive the Body of Christ?

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None of which I have disagreed with, other than that one should not presume to judge those who choose CITH as choosing something that does not give God the best they are capable of.
I agree that we should not judge people’s motives for receiving as they do.
Giving all the evidence that COTT is objectively better is not a judgment on anyone’s motives. Encouraging people who practice CITH to think about this evidence is not a judgment on them.
 
I receive kneeling on the tongue at the altar rail. Just this simple show of reverence has been a catalyst for major change in my life.
The last time I received in the hand, I popped the host in my mouth like a cracker and didn’t even think about what I had received until I knelt at my pew. This shocked me greatly as I had always had great reverence in my heart for the Eucharist. Never, never, never again will that happen.
 
Giving all the evidence that COTT is objectively better is not a judgment on anyone’s motives. Encouraging people who practice CITH to think about this evidence is not a judgment on them.
I agree, but I would bet that since most receive in the hand at the OF, there are certainly some who of them who think you’re weird by receiving on the tongue. For some of us who are self-conscious about these kinds of things, that can be a very uncomfortable and unnnecessary situation, especially since you want to be on the safe side.
 
I agree, but I would bet that since most receive in the hand at the OF, there are certainly some who of them who think you’re weird by receiving on the tongue. For some of us who are self-conscious about these kinds of things, that can be a very uncomfortable and unnnecessary situation, especially since you want to be on the safe side.
If people have examined their own motives for receiving CITH and realized that their main reason is being concerned that others will think they are weird, they need to ask themselves if that is a good reason. Our ancestors in the Faith were willing to die for Christ’s sake. How can we follow their example if we are not even willing to deal with feeling a uncomfortable?

I used to receive CITH. Over time I became conviced that God wanted me to receive COTT. I found it very difficult to change. I was uncomfortable and self-conscious and I could not do it. I told God that I could not do it and He helped me.
 
If people have examined their own motives for receiving CITH and realized that their main reason is being concerned that others will think they are weird, they need to ask themselves if that is a good reason. Our ancestors in the Faith were willing to die for Christ’s sake. How can we follow their example if we are not even willing to deal with feeling a uncomfortable?

I used to receive CITH. Over time I became conviced that God wanted me to receive COTT. I found it very difficult to change. I was uncomfortable and self-conscious and I could not do it. I told God that I could not do it and He helped me.
I would suspect that most people who receive in the hand do so just because that’s what they’ve always done and what everyone around them does. Receiving on the tongue, for them, may seem as foreign as would be receiving intincted on a spoon as they do in the Byzantine Divine Liturgy.

Lots of people at my parish receive on the tongue, but at some of the parishes I go to for daily Mass, practically no one other than me receives on the tongue. But some of those people are very otherwise reverent and probably never thought about receiving on the tongue.
 
probably never thought about receiving on the tongue.
Exactly.

It’s easy to understand why when most schools only teach children CITH while standing. There are not many I know of that instruct the Church’s preferred method of COTT while kneeling even as an option.

Based on the sparse numbers at Confession I conclude most people don’t think about sin much either.

The ‘spirit of Vatican II’ by minimizing the distinction between clergy and laity, ‘protestantizing’ the liturgy in an ecumenical gesture, and avoidance of the subject of sin has resulted in an entire generation of lost or confused Catholics. With little to no understanding of our traditional practices and beliefs they wander through a spiritual desert unaware of their plight.
 
With little to no understanding of our traditional practices and beliefs they wander through a spiritual desert unaware of their plight.
I suspect many do *experience *their plight, even if they can’t name what it is.
 
I have recently started to receive COTT and only from a priest. I started to do so because I discovered that this is the norm and because I came across the background to CITH option which emerged from local decisions by the ‘progressive’ bishops conference in Belgium. I also became aware that lay Ministers are meant only to dispense in cases of necessity, which do not include speeding up the process of distribution so that everyone can get home a little more quickly.
I have only seen others receive on the tongue very rarely and was a little apprehensive at first but the priests (so far) don’t appear to be at all bothered when I keep my hands together and open my mouth.
At a local Catholic school after a school Mass, a host was discovered stuck to the underside of a chair with chewing gum. I understand that CITH was banned for school Masses locally thereafter.
In addition, it is known that consecrated hosts have been stolen for abuse by Satanists and mockers, this possibility is substantially reduced by COTT.
You might also want to google Maria Simma (now deceased) who had a great deal to say on this matter.
 
I just switched to COTT a few months ago. I felt pretty disturbed last Sunday when a EM at my parish refused to give me COTT. She asked me to “please open my hands”. I did so begrudingly but was very upset. Should I have complained to our priest?
 
I just switched to COTT a few months ago. I felt pretty disturbed last Sunday when a EM at my parish refused to give me COTT. She asked me to “please open my hands”. I did so begrudingly but was very upset. Should I have complained to our priest?
You shouldn’t “complain” so much as bring it to his attention that every EMHC should be aware that it’s the faithful’s right to receive on the tongue, and that they shouldn’t be distributing if they’re not comfortable doing that.
 
I just switched to COTT a few months ago. I felt pretty disturbed last Sunday when a EM at my parish refused to give me COTT. She asked me to “please open my hands”. I did so begrudingly but was very upset. Should I have complained to our priest?
This was certainly incorrect of the Eucharistic Minister (or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, to use the underused but correct term) - all the faithful continue to have the right to receive by intinction. You should make this known to your parish priest - I’m sure that the Minister was not deliberately defying him - he or she probably wasn’t instructed on this right, and felt uncomfortable doing it, as I know has been the case in some parts of Scotland anyway.
 
I just switched to COTT a few months ago. I felt pretty disturbed last Sunday when a EM at my parish refused to give me COTT. She asked me to “please open my hands”. I did so begrudingly but was very upset. Should I have complained to our priest?
If the reasons you switched were out of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament then it follows to only receive from a priest. EMHCs are generally unnecessary and blur the distinction between clergy and laity.
 
This was certainly incorrect of the Eucharistic Minister (or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, to use the underused but correct term) - all the faithful continue to have the right to receive by intinction. You should make this known to your parish priest - I’m sure that the Minister was not deliberately defying him - he or she probably wasn’t instructed on this right, and felt uncomfortable doing it, as I know has been the case in some parts of Scotland anyway.
In trying to sound smart I managed to use the wrong word. Intinction is when the host is dipped in the consecrated wine.
 
At my parish, the majority receive in the hand, but those receiving on the tongue are certainly not unusual. I would guess it is 75:25. Personally, I receive in the hand - after a reverent bow. I make it a practice to look at my hands immediately afterward - partly to look for Particles, but also to marvel at the wonder that I have touched the Body of Christ!

No one kneels at my parish because logistically speaking, it would be impossible. The only time I can recall seeing someone kneel, it created quite a bit of confusion and “traffic jams”. I have, however, seen people kneel at a Wedding Mass.

Our EOM are very well-trained and reverent. And our Pastor is great in that when he is made aware of practices in receiving the Eucharist that are not permitted, he makes an announcement at the next Mass in a very kind and non-judgemental way. He recently repeated to us that intinction is not permitted, for instance, and he always tells us the reasons.

For me, when the Holy Father and The Church tell me the only way to receive is on the tongue, then I will change my practice. Until then, as the Church says it is allowed, I will continue to receive in the hand.

A friend of mine said this: Jesus, at the Last Supper, said, “Take and eat”. He did not feed it to the disciples. He would have done it the way the Jewish Seder is done: taking a piece for Himself and passing it on for each person to also tear off a piece to eat. I like that description and that is one reason why I receive in the hand.

I have a question for those who will only receive on the tongue: Do you also always receive only from the priest? Because if we are not worthy (or permitted as laypeople) to touch the Consecrated Host, then it would follow that no one other than the priest should distribute the Communion. At my parish, I have seen people receive on the tongue from an EOM. To me, that looks confusing.

I hope I do not offend anyone with my statements or my question. It reads as though some emotions have ridden high in this forum…Pace e bene. 🙂
 
May the Peace of our Lord be with you all. There is a personal experience I will like to share with you all but I don’t have the time right now. I’ll be back.:blessyou:
 
May the Peace of our Lord be with you all. There is a personal experience I will like to share with you all but I don’t have the time right now. I’ll be back.:blessyou:
OP here,
Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, this thread has been very interesting!🙂

Deacon JAR-
I can’t wait, I love to hear personal experiences!!!

To Razz(name removed by moderator),
I am not sure if I understand your comment about receiving COTT from an EMHC, could you elaborate, please?
 
OP here,
Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, this thread has been very interesting!🙂

Deacon JAR-
I can’t wait, I love to hear personal experiences!!!

To Razz(name removed by moderator),
I am not sure if I understand your comment about receiving COTT from an EMHC, could you elaborate, please?
To better explain: If only the priest is worthy of touching the Consecrated Host, and a communicant is using that as his/her reason to receive COTT, it would seem to me that such a communicant would go to only the priest and never receive Communion from an EOM, since the EOM had to touch the Blessed Host/Body to place It on the tongue. Is that so?

That is why it appears contradictory to me to receive COTT and then go to an EOM.
 
I recieve only on the tongue and only by a priest.
Ditto! I kneel as well.

See article below written by David Martin.

Kneel For Communion

“Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord… For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord” - 1 Corinthians 11:27,28

Pope Benedict to Catholics:
Kneel and Receive on the Tongue Only
Pope Benedict XVI does not want the faithful receiving Communion in their hand nor does he want them standing to receive Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. According to Vatican liturgist, Monsignor Guido Marini, the pope is trying to set the stage for the whole church as to the proper norm for receiving Communion for which reason communicants at his papal Masses are now asked to kneel and receive on the tongue.
The Holy Father’s reasoning is simple: “We Christians kneel before the Blessed Sacrament because, therein, we know and believe to be the presence of the One True God.” (May 22, 2008)
According to the pope the entire Church should kneel in adoration before God in the Eucharist. “Kneeling in adoration before the Eucharist is the most valid and radical remedy against the idolatries of yesterday and today” (May 22, 2008)
The pope’s action is in accord with the Church’s 2000 year tradition and is being done in order to foster a renewed love and respect for the Eucharist which presently is being mocked and treated with contempt. The various trends and innovations of our time (guitar liturgy, altar girls, lay ministers, Communion in the hand) have worked together to destroy our regard for the Eucharist, thus advancing the spiritual death of the church. After all, the Eucharist is the very life and heartbeat of the Mystical Body around which the entire Church must revolve.
Kneeling also coincides with the Church’s centuries old ordinance that only the consecrated hands of a priest touch the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. “To priests alone has been given power to consecrate and administer to the faithful, the Holy Eucharist.” (Council of Trent) This teaching is beautifully expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica: “Because out of reverence towards this sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands, for touching this sacrament.”
It is for reason that Pope Paul VI in his May 1969 pastoral letter to the world’s bishops reaffirmed the Church’s teaching on the reception of Communion, stating that: “This method on the tongue must be retained.” (Memoriale Domini) This came in response to the bishops of Holland who started Communion in the hand in defiance of the centuries old decree from the Council of Rouen (650 A.D.) where this practice was condemned as sacrilegious. “Do not put the Eucharist in the hands of any layperson, but only in their mouths.” To date this prohibition has never been overturned legally.

Today Communion in the hand is carried on illegally and has become a major tool of the enemy to destory the Faith throughout the world. For this practice serves no other purpose than to warp our conception of Jesus Christ and nourish a contempt for the sacred mysteries. It’s no wonder St. Basil referred to Communion in the hand as “a grave fault.”

That is to say, Communion in the hand is not tied with Catholic tradition. This practice was first introduced to the Church by the heretical Arians of the 4th century as a means of expressing their belief that Christ was not divine. Unfortunately, it has served to express the same in our time and has been at the very heart of the present heresy and desecration that is rampant throughout the universal Church. If we have ‘abuse’ problems today it is because we’re abusing the Sacrament - it’s backfiring on us!
Thanks to Communion in the hand, members of satanic cults are now given easy access to come into the Church and take the Host so that they bring it back to their covens where it is abused and brutalized in the ritualistic Black Mass to Satan. They crush the Host under their shoes as a mockery to the living God, and we assist it with our casual practice? Amongst themselves the satanists declare that Communion in the hand is the greatest thing that ever happened to them, and we do nothing to stop it?

Hence, the Holy Father is doing his part to try to purge the Church of abuse and we as members of Christ are called upon to assist him. For your encouragement we include the following quotation from Cardinal Llovera, the new prefect for the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments speaking to Life Site News on July 22, 2009: “It is the mission of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments to work to promote Pope Benedict’s emphasis on the traditional practices of liturgy, such as reception of Communion on the tongue while kneeling.”
 
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