How to receive from the priest when ushers make it impossible!?

[IrishDude45]

I found a more conservative parish to attend for the rest of high school and I was loving it until I realized they have this impossibly complicated way of leading people to the (all female) EM’s except for about 2 rows that receive from the priest who are elderly or disabled folk. They have an usher come to your row who “escorts” you to the EM. There’s literally no way to get to the priest to receive. I mean I really do sort of have a problem with receiving Communion from a non priest when a priest is present. Anyone else ever encountered this type of thing?

pax

 

[redrosetea]

I found a more conservative parish to attend for the rest of high school and I was loving it until I realized they have this impossibly complicated way of leading people to the (all female) EM’s except for about 2 rows that receive from the priest who are elderly or disabled folk. They have an usher come to your row who “escorts” you to the EM. There’s literally no way to get to the priest to receive. I mean I really do sort of have a problem with receiving Communion from a non priest when a priest is present. Anyone else ever encountered this type of thing?

pax

I think you should ask your priest about this…I have never heard of it before…We just lineup by oursleves…Fr is always on the left and people on that side of the church automatically receive from him

 

[LilyM]

I think you should humbly and gratefully receive Our Lord from whoever is distributing communion (same Lord in each case, after all).

Think of those living in remote areas, or places where the Church is persecuted, who are unable to receive Him from anyone at all - and ask Him for MORE EMHCs, if necessary, if it would help those poor people to be able to receive more often.

 

[Jimzz12]

I found a more conservative parish to attend for the rest of high school and I was loving it until I realized they have this impossibly complicated way of leading people to the (all female) EM’s except for about 2 rows that receive from the priest who are elderly or disabled folk. They have an usher come to your row who “escorts” you to the EM. There’s literally no way to get to the priest to receive. I mean I really do sort of have a problem with receiving Communion from a non priest when a priest is present. Anyone else ever encountered this type of thing?

pax

The book “Liturgical Q&A” from Ignatius Press written by an Australian bishop says that ushers are never to be used at the time for Eucharist. It argues that it puts an undue hard-ship upon the Faithful. Which, is apparent in your case. It allows goes to argue that the use of ushers makes people feel as though they must recieve the Eucharist, even against their own conscience. Personally, I have found it quite disturbing for some time.

 

[IrishDude45]

It argues that it puts an undue hard-ship upon the Faithful. Which, is apparent in your case. It allows goes to argue that the use of ushers makes people feel as though they must recieve the Eucharist, even against their own conscience. Personally, I have found it quite disturbing for some time.

yeah I noticed a couple of people who weren’t going to receive sort of panicking trying to figure out how to let everybody out the way the usher was leading them without disrupting and then just getting in line. I don’t know if they received or not…

 

[Malkin71]

I found a more conservative parish to attend for the rest of high school and I was loving it until I realized they have this impossibly complicated way of leading people to the (all female) EM’s except for about 2 rows that receive from the priest who are elderly or disabled folk. They have an usher come to your row who “escorts” you to the EM. There’s literally no way to get to the priest to receive. I mean I really do sort of have a problem with receiving Communion from a non priest when a priest is present. Anyone else ever encountered this type of thing?

pax

I make it a point to go to the Priest to receive Holy Communion. As soon as Father stands ready to distribute I start to walk up because if he runs out of Communion he just turns around and sits down and lets the EMHC to take over. I have other people in my Parish do this too. In our Cathedral here when I attend there, I have seen nuns and people go clear across the Cathedral to receive Holy Communion from a Priest. A lot prefer going to a Priest because a Priests hands are consecrated.

 

[adelore]

I’ll cut over to the other line to recieve from the Priest. I"m old fashioned and it’s just a Tradition I grew up with. Taking Communion from someone who is not a Priest, (and a lady to boot) is just something I won’t do.

 

[LilyM]

A sensible person who is drowning is happy for someone - anyone - to throw them a rope. It would be more than a little odd, would it not, to waste even a moment’s thought on whether it was your preferred person throwing it?

We’re all drowning here, people. Holy Communion is the rope. To worry about who distributes it (providing the priest is fulfilling his responsibility and taking part in the distribution as much as he can) seems to me to be missing the point of the exercise entirely.

 

[Paladin_V]

Well, there is nothing wrong at all with receiving from a EM, it’s all right there in the rubrics. Certainly, it would be better if there were more priests so that we didn’t need EM’s, but in reality there aren’t and it’s no less licit or less sanctifying to receive Christ from an EM (all other things being equal).

Someone mentioned that ushers should not be used during Communion… I’d think the same reasoning would apply for the congregation… if everyone started running all over the church to get to the priest, it would be a serious distraction for others receiving. Nothing wrong with anticipating where the priest will be for Communion, but there’s no need to run halfway around the church.

My vote is for bringing back the Communion rail… It solves the problem of EM’s and is a much more reverent way to receive our Lord. I wonder if priests can get a dispensation to distribute Communion in this way? If I were a priest, I’d look into it.

 

[mullenpm]

I agree with Paladin about bringing back the altar rail. My church has not removed the altar rail but it is not used for receiving Holy Communion. But, a church just down the street also has their altar rail and it is used for Holy Communion. No. EMHC’s at that church.

I always sit on the right side of my church because that is the side where Father lines up.

I do not wish to receive from a EMHC either male or female. And the analogy about people in foreign lands having no priest to give them the Holy Eucharist or the one about a drowning person are irrelevant.

The use of EMHC’s has gotten out of hand and they seem to swarm all over the place. Sometimes it seems as though each EMHC gives Communion to only a half dozen persons.

I never understood also why a Priest would step aside for an EMHC but my Rector does that. When an EM comes from the back of the church to the front after finishing giving Communion to people in the back, my Priest steps aside so the EM can finish distributing Communion to his line, and it causes confusion.

People who only want to receive from a Priest try to get to him and they end up bumping into the people leaving the EM’s line.

I must ask him why he does that and try to point out to him that some people only want to receive from a Priest.

 

[dixibehr]

In a church where I was choir director, the priest borrowed a chalice to have two Communion stations when the Bishop came–and the Bishop insisted on giving Communion to everyone in the parish himself.

 

[ruslan]

I found a more conservative parish to attend for the rest of high school and I was loving it until I realized they have this impossibly complicated way of leading people to the (all female) EM’s except for about 2 rows that receive from the priest who are elderly or disabled folk. They have an usher come to your row who “escorts” you to the EM. There’s literally no way to get to the priest to receive. I mean I really do sort of have a problem with receiving Communion from a non priest when a priest is present. Anyone else ever encountered this type of thing?

pax

No, we line up. There are no ushers involved.

:heaven: :harp:

 

[Cat]

In my city in several parishes, including mine, if you want to receive kneeling from a priest, you sit in the front row and kneel at the proper time in the Mass, and the priest will come and serve you Communion.

LilyM, your posts in this thread are so beautiful. Thank you. I will try to remember to pray for more priests and religious, especially in deprived areas of the world, when I receive Communion from now on. I have no objection at all to receiving from an EM, but I know that the reason they are there is that there are not enough priests.

 

[larousser]

I make it a point to go to the Priest to receive Holy Communion. As soon as Father stands ready to distribute I start to walk up because if he runs out of Communion he just turns around and sits down and lets the EMHC to take over. I have other people in my Parish do this too. In our Cathedral here when I attend there, I have seen nuns and people go clear across the Cathedral to receive Holy Communion from a Priest. .

I always do the same thing. I personally would not receive from an EMHC so I boycott them.

 

[BayernAnhaenger]

I would just walk around the EMHC.

It is not a sin to receive from a priest over an EMHC, especially since EMHCs are almost ALWAYS overused.

 

[dixieagle]

A sensible person who is drowning is happy for someone - anyone - to throw them a rope. It would be more than a little odd, would it not, to waste even a moment’s thought on whether it was your preferred person throwing it?

We’re all drowning here, people. Holy Communion is the rope. To worry about who distributes it (providing the priest is fulfilling his responsibility and taking part in the distribution as much as he can) seems to me to be missing the point of the exercise entirely.

Lily, you are always such a voice of charity and reason! :clapping:

 

[palmas85]

I found a more conservative parish to attend for the rest of high school and I was loving it until I realized they have this impossibly complicated way of leading people to the (all female) EM’s except for about 2 rows that receive from the priest who are elderly or disabled folk. They have an usher come to your row who “escorts” you to the EM. There’s literally no way to get to the priest to receive. I mean I really do sort of have a problem with receiving Communion from a non priest when a priest is present. Anyone else ever encountered this type of thing?

pax

To tell you the truth, as far as I know an usher occupies no position of authority in the Church as a whole, even if they think that they do. What do you think would happen, if you just went and stood in the line for the Priest? I somehow doubt that the usher would drag you away. What I do, is walk over the the priests line and stand there. If the ushers don’t like it tough. I don’t particularly care what these tremendously officious and self important people want, think or do. As far as I can see, they serve no real purpose at all except in some vague sense giving some people the sense that they are more active in the community than are others.

Very few if any Churches at all have congregations so disruptive that they need to have someone controlling the Communion lines. Think about it for a second.

 

[Brendan]

I think you should humbly and gratefully receive Our Lord from whoever is distributing communion (same Lord in each case, after all).

Yes, but a priest during Mass is in persona Christi, he is Christ Himself. That is not true for a layperson.

So recieving from the priest is recieving from Christ Himself.

Suppose you were an EMHC and Christ Himself was standing next to you with a Ciborium, also ministering Holy Communion.

Would you be surprized in anyway if everyone went to recieve from Him? What attempts would you make to get people to get in your line instead of Christs? Would you resent the people who chose to recieve the Body of Christ from Christ Himself?

That is exactly what happens when a priest ministers Holy Communion.

Think of those living in remote areas, or places where the Church is persecuted, who are unable to receive Him from anyone at all - and ask Him for MORE EMHCs, if necessary, if it would help those poor people to be able to receive more often.

A priest friend noted that every prayer for vocations is a prayer that the role of EMHC’s come to an end.

And he is correct in that.

 

[maryjk]

Let me start with, I have to receive from the Priest. So I always sit so I am one of the first to receive from him. Once you know where the Priest will be, it is generally not a big deal to make sure you sit in the right place.

Now, when it was really crowded, on Palm Sunday, I couldn’t sit in the right place to receive from the Priest. So when it was time to receive, I lined up with everyone else in front of the EMHC, bowed, went past her, bowed, went past the Chalice, down the aisle, through the pew with the people that were going up next for Communion, to receive from the Priest. Then I received from the Priest, received from the Chalice, back down the aisle, through another pew of people going up to receive from the EMHC, into the line again, then into my seat, which was just before the EMHC. If someone had been watching me, they had to have thought I was crazy. ( Think figure 8, to get me around and back to where I needed to be.)

So, if you really want to receive from the Priest, make sure you are in the right spot to do so. If you are not, be willing to figure out how to get to the Priest. You don’t need an usher to direct you.

All of that said, I just realized that this thread was in the traditional section. Which means it is really a thread about how terrible it is that we even have EMHC, rather than how to receive from the Priest when the ushers direct you toward another line.

But I will leave this post, just to let you know that it is possible to receive from the Priest even if you aren’t in his line.

 

[BayernAnhaenger]

Let me start with, I have to receive from the Priest. So I always sit so I am one of the first to receive from him. Once you know where the Priest will be, it is generally not a big deal to make sure you sit in the right place.

Now, when it was really crowded, on Palm Sunday, I couldn’t sit in the right place to receive from the Priest. So when it was time to receive, I lined up with everyone else in front of the EMHC, bowed, went past her, bowed, went past the Chalice, down the aisle, through the pew with the people that were going up next for Communion, to receive from the Priest. Then I received from the Priest, received from the Chalice, back down the aisle, through another pew of people going up to receive from the EMHC, into the line again, then into my seat, which was just before the EMHC. If someone had been watching me, they had to have thought I was crazy. ( Think figure 8, to get me around and back to where I needed to be.)

So, if you really want to receive from the Priest, make sure you are in the right spot to do so. If you are not, be willing to figure out how to get to the Priest. You don’t need an usher to direct you.

All of that said, I just realized that this thread was in the traditional section. Which means it is really a thread about how terrible it is that we even have EMHC, rather than how to receive from the Priest when the ushers direct you toward another line.

But I will leave this post, just to let you know that it is possible to receive from the Priest even if you aren’t in his line.

Well, if you read the OP’s post… you see it has nothing to do with his commentary on the usage of EMHCs, but rather him being “forced” by the ushers to receive from them.

But hey, we appreciate your attitude towards traditional Catholics.