How do you receive the host?

[InnocentIII]

MikeWM:

That’s all very well as an opinion, but the Church teaches receiving in the hand is perfectly permissible (with indult). I somehow doubt the Church is explicitly allowing us to do something sacreligious.

Mike

This is not correct. The Church does not TEACH that receiving in the hand is right but it does PERMIT it. There are more than enough papal documents from Paul VI onward which stress the desirability of receiving on the tongue but after 30-odd years of disobedience the Church gave grudging recognition to the practice. The very fact that it requires an indult is an indication of that.

 

[InnocentIII]

Oh and I almost forgot … kneeling and on the tongue.

I might add that one argument I have heard for receiving in the hand is that it is more convenient when standing in the “busline” but at our parish father goes down the line and it is both efficient and convenient. No-one gets in anyone elses way and there is time to say a short prayer before leaving the rail. I find that people who tell me about problems with receiving on the tongue or kneeling when queued for communion are really being defensive, almost as though seeking a justification for receiving in the hand. So an interesting side question … do we receive in the hand because we now queue, or do we queue that we might receive in the hand??

 

[InnocentIII]

Triumpha:

Maklavan.

I refer to your posting on the “Men Only - can women be ordained” discussion.

So, why have you the “staggering effrontery” to say to traditionalists, basically, “Shut up, the Church has spoken and allows Communion in the Hand”?

Triumpha.

It is a fascinating insight to human nature that those who get their own way through disobedience are always the first to invoke authority when faced by the disobedience of others. I have a friend who has spent the better part of 20 years telling me that the heirarchy is NOT the CHURCH and that the laity has a right to demand reforms. The other day when I mentioned that our parish had taken a silent vote to kneel along the sanctuary step, he told me we were all being disobedient and should conform to the norms. Go figure!!

 

[ProudToBCathlic]

Either way. I go through stages, first one way, then the other.

We used to have a priest that would frown and protest if you tried to receive on the hand, or else he would rather roughly slap it down into your palm. I thought it was very wrong of him, especially to handle the Body so roughly, and I see no good reason not too receive on the hand, since I have never dropped it either way.

 

[Curtiss]

I receive the Sacred Host on my tongue as an act of reverence and humility (after many years of receiving Him in my hand). I believe that the most reverent and appropriate way to receive the Host is on the tongue while kneeling at an altar rail. Many of the problems now associated with giving the host on the tongue (dropping Him or ‘wet fingers’) come from the awkwardness of the standing position of the recipient (especially if he/she is very tall). Experiment with the two forms yourself - using crackers and a couple of volunteers - and then let us know the results. By the way, one priest can give Communion to a very large number of people very expeditiously with this method.

Keep the Faith!
Curtiss

 

[seeker63]

I take the Host on the tongue and feel very guilty and unworthy about taking the Chalice and serving myself, as it were, the Blood.

And for what it’s worth, I’d much prefer receiving from a priest than from a layman or woman.

 

[Sean_O_L]

RC Traditional wrote:

That 32% who voted communion on the hands commit a sacrilege each time they recieve that way. That what it is if you believe that honestly that is the REAL BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST, YOUR GOD WHO IS HOLY AND SPOTLESS, DEMANDING REVERENCE AS ONLY CONSCECRATED HANDS CAN TOUCH THE HOST as taught by the Church. RC

Didjano that the tongue is the dirtiest (in terms of bacteria, etc.) part of the body?

I receive “on the tongue”, but my wife receives “in the hand”. So, when the priest (or EOMOHC) places the host on my tongue, there is greater danger of passing on my dirty microbes to other after me than there is when the Host is placed in my wife’s hands.

Rc Traditional, mate (over here in Australia we call everyone mate!), you are making waves over a disciplinary matter - over which Christ gave St Peter and his successors TOTAL discretionary power - even though it might not be “prudent”. Isn’t our God great?

 

[Seminarian1]

Mother Teresa after a visit to the United States was asked by a reporter what the worst thing she saw was. The reporter thinking she would mention something about abortion or something else. She looked at the Reporter and said…“What troubled me the most about the United States was seeing so many people taking communion in the hand.”

 

[rcn]

Seminarian1:

Mother Teresa after a visit to the United States was asked by a reporter what the worst thing she saw was. The reporter thinking she would mention something about abortion or something else. She looked at the Reporter and said…“What troubled me the most about the United States was seeing so many people taking communion in the hand.”

This has become an urban legend, as has been discussed in the other endless circular threads on this topic. I would really like to know what, if anything, was really said.

Regardless, it is not proper for anyone - not even the good Mother - to deny the legitimacy of a practice that the Church has approved. And yes, to wag one’s head and mutter “tsk tsk” is to deny the authority of the Church to regulate matters of discipline.

 

[MikeWM]

InnocentIII:

This is not correct. The Church does not TEACH that receiving in the hand is right but it does PERMIT it.

I doubt the Church would allow anything it considered to be wrong.

There are more than enough papal documents from Paul VI onward which stress the desirability of receiving on the tongue but after 30-odd years of disobedience the Church gave grudging recognition to the practice.

Some people here have very little respect for the Church it seems. Do you think that if women keep on going out on boats and getting ‘holy orders’ that the Church will eventually grudgingly allow it?

The very fact that it requires an indult is an indication of that.

Hmm. Sounds just like the Tridentine Mass fx:ducks

Mike

 

[InnocentIII]

MikeWM:

I doubt the Church would allow anything it considered to be wrong.

I did not say it was wrong. As the Church has permitted it it cannot by definition be so. However, the universal norm is reception on the tongue and reception in the hand is by indult granted at the request of a local bishop. Thus it seems at least to me that the Church’s teaching is that it is to be received on the tongue. Indults are granted for reasons of local discipline not to alter the teaching of the Church. And my response was to the quote that the Church teaches reception in the hand.
MikeMW:

Some people here have very little respect for the Church it seems. Do you think that if women keep on going out on boats and getting ‘holy orders’ that the Church will eventually grudgingly allow it?

This is obviously a straw man. The ordination of women has been infallibly declared impossible as pertaining to the deposit of faith. No amount of disobedience will alter that. But in the case of a discipline such as the reception of the Sacred Species persistant disobedience can be an effective way to bring change about. It is like illegal immigrants who claim after 20 years of living here that they cannot return home as all their ties are now with this country and so are granted residence. It is a fact, at least here in Ozland, that reception in the hand was being practised long before an indult was granted.
MikeMW:

Hmm. Sounds just like the Tridentine Mass fx:ducks

As I am not a TLM person, I am perfectly happy to agree with you, except that the only TLM’s taking place before before the Indult that I am aware of were occurring in the schismatic SSPX. Of course they could have been taking place in secret but that is hardly the same as the open disobedience taking place in parish churches with regard to reception in the hand.

 

[Rebecca_New]

I receive the Host in my hands but always check to make sure there are no crumbs left on my hand. I get to hold the Lord Jesus in my hand, my cradle for him, and i can adore the Eucharist for a few seconds more.