How to explain altar rails?

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It is hard for a number of people to receive Holy Communion while on their knees without altar rails.
Really–can anyone else think of a more elegant way to manage it?
 
Yes.

Don’t kneel.

I bow before the Eucharist as I approach the priest.
 
OraLabora said:
Yes.
Don’t kneel.
I bow before the Eucharist as I approach the priest.
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If there isn’t an altar rail, you really can’t kneel to receive. Occasionally people do it, but if everyone did, it would be a mess.
I’m just saying that the altar rail isn’t a way to keep sheep away from the Blessed Sacrament but rather a way to allow them to approach the Blessed Sacrament with a certain form of reverence. I don’t know how the custom of receiving while kneeling could be done in a more practical way than with an altar rail.
 
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In many abbeys there never was one. The priest or priests giving communion would open a gate in the grille and people would line up 2x2 to receive. Maybe people had better knees then.

One possibility would be to install a prie-dieu in every communion line. I agree there’s no elegant way of kneeling without a rail (or a prie-dieu). Our schola sings in a few churches that still have them, but probably the most dynamic and lively parish we sing at doesn’t.
 
It is a problem that older people kneel down and can’t get back up. With sisters, they can line up so that there is always a younger there with the older ones who can’t get back up on their own, but parishes don’t work like that.

Yes, I think a prie-dieus for each line could work.
 
PetraG said:
It is a problem that older people kneel down and can’t get back up.
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Much to my surprise I find I have suddenly arrived at that point in life…

It’s weird, I can still rattle off a century on my bike (did one just this past Friday in fact) but off the bike sometimes I feel like a cripple… especially if I have to bend down or kneel.
 
OraLabora said:
Much to my surprise I find I have suddenly arrived at that point in life…

It’s weird, I can still rattle off a century on my bike (did one just this past Friday in fact) but off the bike sometimes I feel like a cripple… especially if I have to bend down or kneel.
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You don’t have to be that old, especially if you have ever played catcher.
 
As my Grandpa says: It’s not the getting down part that’s hard. It’s the getting up part that’s a killer.
 
Ardent_Fire said:
The Church has never operated Sola Scriptura, other traditions and practices are allowed.
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Right, but my initial and flawed understanding of the altar rail seemed to be actually contradictory to scripture. I understand now that it’s not, and I was mistaken
 
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Speaking of hornets’ nests, we now have Africanized bees coming en masse to our central Texas town! Unfortunate that one hive took a place under our AC unit, especially while I’m mowing. (Trying to change the subject before people get angry 😂😂)
 
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My former parish church, which was built some decades after Vatican II, has always had altar rails. When .it was remodeled some time later, the altar rails were kept. They are of a more modern design and do not completely extend the full width of the sanctuary. But they do serve to mark off the sacred space of the sanctuary. Also, for daily Mass, communicants would receive at the altar rail, either standing or kneeling.
 
originally a barrier to keep the animals out of the holy place. Over time, it took on meaning.

hawk
 
It was just where we knelt to take communion, back when I was a Protestant. Many Protestant churches hardly ever had communion and, in fact, mine did it less and less, probably because of the time it took up. Not streamlined like the Catholics, who get you up there and back to your pew in short time. We would have about 24 people go up, kneel and take the host and then the precious blood from little individual tiny glasses, then a blessing, and then that group went back to the pew and the next group would come up. Took a while.
 
altar rails are really a non issue, as lay people have zero say at all as to how their physical church is built or what can or cant be removed and where things should or shouldnt be, there is a very basic formula for the mass structure and that is it. a tabernacle can be placed off to the side of the altar, behind it, in another room , bells can be run or not run before mass or during concecration of the eucharist, floors can be tiled or carpeted, there may or may not be seating for wheelchair bound people . cry rooms for babies and children may or may not be available, everyone and their uncle may be allowed to roam freely around the church including the sanctuary, an the list goes on and on, hence why altar rails are just gone. some churches are considering or have installed a walk in baptismal fount or sorts, something that can cost a ton of money in insurance and is really not necessary and becomes more of a fad than anything spiritually practical, because if ya really need to go to the extreme of being submerged to be baptised, then ya mine as well just say the only way to be baptised is in the actual river that Jesus was baptised in.

And then if we have to have altar rails, then we mine as well do away with Eucharistic ministers and only allow clergy and religious to be able to minister the eucharist and blood.

Then opinions on top of opinions, some say the rails separate the priest from the people, or maybe it is just considered outdate or expensive.

In the end it doesnt matter what our opinions are, because the Clergy are the ones who get to decide despite what anyone thinks or suggests, they dont even have to listen to your suggestions or complaints. They can if they choose to an even then they dont have to enact anything that is suggested.
 
I suspect ‘alter rails’ may be the equivalent to the actual “walls” (I’m sure there’s a proper term, it just escapes me at the moment) used in the eastern Rite churches - I think only priests and deacons are allowed in back of it. I’m betting it’s symbolic of the Temple of Jerusalem.

But, as others have said, they were also used for people to kneel against during Communion which, given that pews are a relatively modern concept, people have historically had to kneel on the floor at church sans rails. That may lend a bit more credence to the above thought (symbolic of the Temple).
 
"Altar rails give “a clear designation as to what is the sanctuary,” Father Markey said. “The word ‘sanctuary’ comes from the word ‘holy,’ which means ‘set apart.’ The sanctuary is set apart from the rest of the church because it reinforces our understanding of what holiness is. The sanctuary is symbolically the head of the church and represents Christ as the head.”

"McNamara traces church architecture roots to the Temple of Solomon: The large room corresponded to the church nave; the Holy of Holies, an image of heaven, corresponded to today’s sanctuary. They were separated visually by the great veil, which was torn when Christ died.

“[The altar rail] is still a marker of the place where heaven and earth meet, indicating that they are not yet completely united,” McNamara explained.

“But, at the same time, the rail is low, very permeable, and has a gate, so it does not prevent us from participating in heaven. So we could say there is a theology of the rail, one which sees it as more than a fence, but as a marker where heaven and earth meet, where the priest, acting in persona Christi , reaches across from heaven to earth to give the Eucharist as the gift of divine life.”

Source:

Altar Rail Returning to Use

Architects, pastors and parishioners find it enhances reverence in church.
www.ncregister.com www.ncregister.com
 
I just remember being taught when I was a kid to never step past the altar rail.
Now when, for some rare reason I’ve been told to walk up to the area that would’ve been behind the rails, I feel so guilty.
 
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