How to receive?

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wonderingCatholic

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Whenever I receive communion now I always make sure to receive it on the tongue while kneeling. I am the only one in mass that kneels, I can feel everyone looking at me. I heard this was the way Catholic’s should receive unless they can’t kneel down.
 
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If you want to receive on the tongue while kneeling, go on right ahead and pay no mind to what others think.
 
I applaud you for receiving our Lord this way, especially being the only one doing it. It can be intimidating if you are alone. But Holy Mother Church still holds this as the universal norm, and the preferred method of receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord.
 
I have to disagree with that. As Bishop Athanasius Schneider put it, when we get in a lunch line and receive our ordinary food we stand there and stick out our hands and receive it and go about our day. We do this with everyone from every walk of life and every religious back ground because it is ordinary. Whenever we receive the God of the universe, who feeds us with his own body and blood so that we might inherit eternal life, we kneel and open our mouths to be fed by the man who is In Persona Christi. We receive in this posture because it is a sign of humility, a sign that this is not ordinary food, a sign of submission. When we read the book of Revelation and we see the imagery of the Divine Liturgy taking place, all there are not only on their knees, but prostrate before the God of the universe, the same God we receive daily in the Eucharist.
 
Traddy1962 said:
I have to disagree with that. As Bishop Athanasius Schneider put it, when we get in a lunch line and receive our ordinary food we stand there and stick out our hands and receive it and go about our day. We do this with everyone from every walk of life and every religious back ground because it is ordinary.
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When Jesus demonstrated the manner of receiving to the Apostles at the Last Supper, it wasn’t placed on the tongue. Hence I don’t buy this explanation as theologically accurate.
 
Traddy1962 said:
I have to disagree with that. As Bishop Athanasius Schneider put it, when we get in a lunch line and receive our ordinary food we stand there and stick out our hands and receive it and go about our day.
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Bishop Schneider is a bishop in another country. The bishops of the United States requested and received a variance to the universal norm, and in the United States standing is the norm. The bishops did not invite his opinion and I suspect they do not see it as welcome.

Various countries have received permission for Communion in the hand, and it has a very long history from the time of Christ, forward. It may well be that in his country, people do not receive in the hand, but that is a matter for his country and we don’t need to go abroad looking for opinions that run contrary to the US and our bishops. Both on the tongue and in the hand are permitted in the US, and we don’t need a flame war based on personal devotions.
 
A Bishop is a Bishop. Whether they want his opinion or not, he has a right to teach and to promote the teachings of the church. The norm in the USA is still Communion on the tongue, with the EXCEPTION being in the hand, because of the Indult from the 70’s. If the universal church has a norm for something, certain areas don’t some how get to trump that. We just saw this with the German bishops and their synod they held. They held it without the approval of the Vatican and their “norms” don’t trump that of the universal church. They wanted married priests and women deacons(I believe), but just because they wanted this as their new norm for their area doesn’t mean they get to do it against what the church teaches. That’s a dangerous game to play.
 
As I recall, we aren’t the original 12 bishops of the Catholic Church that Jesus chose either. They had an authority that we do not hold.

I suppose the scene from the word of God that we have is just thrown out the window too then.

Also, I guess the bishop of the Catholic Church, who is a very learned and educated man, who holds an authority none of us do, and who knows and promotes the teachings of the church is just to be ignored too. I suppose we should just disregard what he is teaching, since we don’t buy this explanation. I certainly wouldn’t want to listen to the man with The teaching authority and who has the church and tradition on his side.

There are reasons for this practice, and he is teaching in defense of the practice.
 
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My recollection is that Rome requested that Bishop Schneider return to Kazakhstan. He is assigned a diocese there in which to teach, and the bishops in the US are assigned a diocese in which to teach.

You seem to change your mind about norms depending on the subject matter; it is also the norm in the US to receive standing; in another thread you brought up the universal norm, as if that trumped the norm in the US.

I understand you have opinions on the matter; perhaps we can leave these matters to the teaching of our bishops. I suspect that each bishop assigned to a diocese has enough to tend to in his own diocese that each may stay fruitfully busy there.

And the subject here is not what some of the German bishops wanted or didn’t want, or whether they had a synod approved or not approved, or norms trumping anything, In the US the norm is standing; exceptions being made for parishes which use an altar rail, and kneeling to receive is not to be sanctioned; and the indult to receive in the hand appears to be how somewhere between a majority and a very large majority of parishioners receive in the 17,000+ parishes in the US.
 
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Other Bishops feel differently and have preached and teached that receiving standing and on the tongue or in the hand is also acceptable. Are they wrong? Should they not be listened too, even if it is my own Ordinary? Should all Catholics just obey and listen to Bishops they agree with, even if they are not their Bishop, or even an Ordinary of a diocese?
 
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I believe a universal norm of the church takes seniority, therefore the norm in the U.S. isn’t standing. I’ve got something to look into now though. Standing and on the hand is permissible, didn’t say it wasn’t. Also, don’t know what you mean by I change my mind on Norms, because As I recall I have not. They stay consistent.

Bishops are assigned to certain diocese in which to teach, but that doesn’t some how bar them from publicly teaching via internet or another means to reach others outside their diocese. I didn’t come on here to argue and say only communion on the tongue, but I will defend the good bishop when he teaches truth.
 
They are not wrong, considering Communion in the hand and standing is permissible. You should listen to your local ordinary so long as they are teaching things in line with the teachings and traditions of the church. Obviously if they start going off the wall in their teachings then you are not bound to listen to them. This does not keep you from listening to other bishops though whenever they teach. If you agree with them then good, if not, oh well.
 
Traddy1962 said:
They are not wrong, considering Communion in the hand and standing is permissible. You should listen to your local ordinary so long as they are teaching things in line with the teachings and traditions of the church. Obviously if they start going off the wall in their teachings then you are not bound to listen to them. This does not keep you from listening to other bishops though whenever they teach. If you agree with them then good, if not, oh well.
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So you are saying that bishops approving reception standing and in the hand is “going off the wall?” I can draw no other conclusion from your statement. The same Church that teaches Christ as being truly present in the Eucharist has also taught that receiving standing and in the hand is permissible. You accept one teaching and constructively reject the other.
 
Wow. No offense, but you really should go back and read the statement. It blows my mind you even managed to come to that conclusion. The only thing I can think, is that you wanted to come to that conclusion.

I clearly stated that the bishops are not wrong in teaching that communion in the hand and standing is permissible. I also stated that you should listen to your local ordinary, AS LONG as they don’t go off the walls in their teachings.

I did not say that teaching that communion in the hand and standing is going off the walls.
 
So…the universal norm in the Latin Rite is to stand during most of the Eucharistic Prayer. In the U.S., an indult has been granted for the faithful to kneel after the Lamb of God through the Great Amen.

If we should follow the universal norm, that means I should stand and not kneel during mist if the Eucharistic Prayer, right?
 
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