Kneeling at Communion vs. Standing with hand

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Recently, at my seminary, our Rector told us to stop kneeling and stop receiving by the tongue and receive it standing and by the hand.

His explanation is as follows:
  1. Reception of Communion is akin to feeding.
  2. Reception by the tongue is like feeding a CHILD
  3. Reception by the hand is more MATURE
  4. The tongue is more immature while the hand is more mature
  5. By the hand means that we are ready to take Jesus into our own hands
  6. By the tongue is very childish and very unbecoming for seminarians
After that day, many seminarians were disheartened myself included.
I don’t agree with our Rector’s “Theology” but I have to obey.
I told my Formator about it and he told me to use my conscience.

II want to know what others would think
 
It’s a shame you’re being put in that position, but as I understand it obedience to your Rector is the way to go.

Look on the bright side - you can offer this up and perhaps pray a lot of souls out of Purgatory! 👍
 
KnightOfSPUD said:
Recently, at my seminary, our Rector told us to stop kneeling and stop receiving by the tongue and receive it standing and by the hand.

His explanation is as follows:
  1. Reception of Communion is akin to feeding.
  2. Reception by the tongue is like feeding a CHILD
  3. Reception by the hand is more MATURE
  4. The tongue is more immature while the hand is more mature
  5. By the hand means that we are ready to take Jesus into our own hands
  6. By the tongue is very childish and very unbecoming for seminarians
After that day, many seminarians were disheartened myself included.
I don’t agree with our Rector’s “Theology” but I have to obey.
I told my Formator about it and he told me to use my conscience.

II want to know what others would think
Click to expand...
Just to be clear, this is a Catholic seminary, right?
 
That is a shame. This is his opinion, not fact, and if he really thinks it’s childish… well, didn’t Christ say that we were to become like little children?

It is the Church’s position that receiving in the hand is acceptable in the USA, but this is by special permission, not the norm around the world–the norm is to receive on the tongue. If it were me, I’d be inclined to ask him for documentation from the Church that supports his position, not just this subjective opinion. But I am not saying you should do that–I know not everyone can or should respond in that way. 😉

Perhaps you are being called to do something, or perhaps you are being called to just obey, let it go, and offer it up. I don’t know. That’s something you’ll have to work out with God’s help. Just remember that Rectors aren’t perfect and don’t know everything–but they are still Children of God and deserve respect.

Will say a prayer for you, for discernment, and for your Rector. :gopray2:

References: Memorial Domini 1277, GIRM 160-161

Btw, I am the mother of seven (soon to be eight) children. If this man really thinks giving the Eucharist to an adult on the tongue is anything like “feeding a child,” I suspect he has never actually fed any children. 😃
 
You would not believe the number of saints who got there just by obeying their superiors, even those not gifted with wisdom. There will be more important rubrics to grasp with than the cosmetics of custom. Show real reverence for the Eucharist by prostrating before the Most High in all you do rather than the minute you kneel or stand. I would prefer to receive my saviour on my knees as I know that is where I will be on the day of my judgement. I also will stand on my hands after jumping through the last five pews if it is deemed necessary to receive my Jesus.
Obey.
 
KnightOfSPUD said:
Recently, at my seminary, our Rector told us to stop kneeling and stop receiving by the tongue and receive it standing and by the hand.

His explanation is as follows:
  1. Reception of Communion is akin to feeding.
  2. Reception by the tongue is like feeding a CHILD
  3. Reception by the hand is more MATURE
  4. The tongue is more immature while the hand is more mature
  5. By the hand means that we are ready to take Jesus into our own hands
  6. By the tongue is very childish and very unbecoming for seminarians
After that day, many seminarians were disheartened myself included.
I don’t agree with our Rector’s “Theology” but I have to obey.
I told my Formator about it and he told me to use my conscience.

II want to know what others would think
Click to expand...
What others think – least of all on an Internet forum – is completely immaterial. You are a seminarian. You are in formation for the priesthood by the grace of your religious superior, who has entrusted your formation to the rector of this seminary. The only one whose opinion matters on this issue is the one who entrusted you to this seminary.

Throughout my years in seminary, we always received Communion as the seminary rector prescribed it. It is a test of obedience, which you will need in a great and lifetime supply, should you attain the sacrament of Holy Order.
 
CatholicRaven said:
That is a shame. This is his opinion, not fact, and if he really thinks it’s childish… well, didn’t Christ say that we were to become like little children?
Click to expand...
In this case, the Rector’s opinion does matter because he is entrusted with their formation. He should be afforded the respect to know what is best for his seminarian’s formation at this moment.

I hope people would have more prudence when expressing their opinion when they themselves have not gone thru formation
 
How awful. Our Lord has told us to be like children, so it is appropriate to receive Holy Communion like a child. You should continue to receive Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue.
 
CatholicRaven said:
It is the Church’s position that receiving in the hand is acceptable in the USA, but this is by special permission, not the norm around the world–the norm is to receive on the tongue.
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Actually, receiving on the hand is the practice in the vast majority of countries round the world. Simply research on the various Bishops’ websites and you will find it is allowed, or else go by the results of a poll here on CAF at least ten years ago where posters recounted their experiences travelling. The only places posters had not observed CITH (Communion in the hand, as opposed to COTT - Communion on the tongue) were in a diocese in Brazil and a particular parish in Italy.
 
Confiteor_Deo said:
How awful. Our Lord has told us to be like children, so it is appropriate to receive Holy Communion like a child. You should continue to receive Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue.
Click to expand...
You do realise, I assume, that what you are counseling is legitimate grounds for a seminarian to be dismissed from the seminary?

This is not a matter of a layman in his parish. This is a seminarian under his rector – in which everything you say and everything you do and every action you take is evaluated by the formation team, led by the rector, in terms of your suitability to remain and progress in formation as well as for eventual ordination.

A seminarian will confront many of these types of issues over the years of his formation. And the seminarian must decide for himself as to his adaptability because he will have to adapt to far more than the posture or method of receiving Communion…both to successfully complete seminary and over the course of his priestly life.

To the original poster: This is a moment of discernment for you. If an issue as slight as this is causing you a crisis, you need to speak with your spiritual director. Those who have not themselves been in formation are very poorly placed to offer you any counsel on a matter of this sort. I will also point out that receiving standing and in the hand is what is normative for the deacon and for one who has the stable ministry of acolyte.
 
Googler said:
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/images/paintings/fve/large/nts_fve_84_49_large.jpg

If Saint John the Apostle said to the Blessed Virgin, stand up and receive Our Lord in Holy Communion with your hands like the others…
What do you think Our Lady would do?
Click to expand...
You do realise, I presume, that this artistic depiction is quite far removed from the reality of what this scene would have looked like in the years immediately after the Lord’s ascension to Heaven. This is using imagery of a much later era.

I would also hope you realise that there is no point of comparison between a seminary rector and his seminarian and an apostle and the Mother of Jesus – on too many levels for me to comment.
 
The first thing I’d say, as one seminarian to another, is that you have to obey your rector - just as you will, God willing, have to obey your bishop to whom you will in time promise obedience. A seminarian his who thinks he knows better than rector (regardless of whether or not he is in fact correct) is likely to become a priest who who thinks he knows better than his bishop - and there are more than enough of those as is! You don’t have to like it but, if you wish to continue in the seminary, you do have to follow the rector’s direction - it is for him to decide such things after all.

FWIW I think he’s right - albeit for the wrong reasons. As a priest, you will obviously receive standing in the hand yourself when concelebrating and you will also be required to administer communion to communicants who wish to receive on the hand themselves. So, given this, it seems to me at least that the point your rector may be trying to make is that it’s probably in your own interests to get used to this. By way of analogy, my preference for the sacrament of reconciliation would be screened but this is not available when the sacrament is offered in the seminary. following the advice of my Spiritual Director in my first year, I started basically forcing myself to go face to face (in the seminary and elsewhere) because, as he put it, as a priest I would have to hear confessions face to face so I should become comfortable with it myself.
 
Don_Ruggero said:
You do realise, I assume, that what you are counseling is legitimate grounds for a seminarian to be dismissed from the seminary?

This is not a matter of a layman in his parish. This is a seminarian under his rector – in which everything you say and everything you do and every action you take is evaluated by the formation team, led by the rector, in terms of your suitability to remain and progress in formation as well as for eventual ordination.

A seminarian will confront many of these types of issues over the years of his formation. And the seminarian must decide for himself as to his adaptability because he will have to adapt to far more than the posture or method of receiving Communion…both to successfully complete seminary and over the course of his priestly life.

To the original poster: This is a moment of discernment for you. If an issue as slight as this is causing you a crisis, you need to speak with your spiritual director. Those who have not themselves been in formation are very poorly placed to offer you any counsel on a matter of this sort. I will also point out that receiving standing and in the hand is what is normative for the deacon and for one who has the stable ministry of acolyte.
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A wise post from a very wise man. Obey.
 
Whatever the potential reasons, I do think the way the rector has expressed this is unfortunate. Maybe there are reasons that priests need to be comfortable with receiving on the hand, but to describe the age old practice of receiving on the tongue as childish is not the way to get that point across.
 
I do not agree with the assertion that the rector might be imposing this rule to get seminarians ready for when they are ordained. This is not a practice which takes six or seven years to perfect. The difference, traditionally, is that a priest’s hands are consecrated and therefore permitted to touch the sacred species - what St. John Paul II called “A privilege of the ordained” (Dominicae Cenae, 11, February 24, 1980).

While I certainly do not wish to encourage disobedience - and, believe me, I have been in similar situations with my superiors - not even a seminary rector can legitimately impose something on his seminarians which is contrary to the norms of the Church. The norm of the Church for the reception of Holy Communion is that it is to be received on the tongue - the fact that Communion in the hand has become widespread has not changed this. The same letter of St. John Paul, quoted above, laments the practice of refusing communicants to receive on the tongue: “It also happens, on occasion, that the free choice of those who prefer to continue the practice of receiving the Eucharist on the tongue is not taken into account in those places where the distribution of Communion in the hand has been authorized.” (D.C.11).

Sadly, even though it pains you - as it would me - you may well have to obey the rector in order to get ordained. You yourself will have to discern whether it is true or false obedience to follow your superior’s directive (see, for example, Summa Theologica II,ii,q.104). I do not believe that you are being disobedient if you follow the norms of the Church. However, I think the real question here is, how much are you willing to suffer (and “obey”) in order to get ordained for this particular diocese/congregation?
 
InThePew said:
The first thing I’d say, as one seminarian to another, is that you have to obey your rector - just as you will, God willing, have to obey your bishop to whom you will in time promise obedience.
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That is the ‘kicker’ right there. As a parent, I recognize that I have no authority to compel any of my children to receive Holy Communion in a particular way. If I told my 9 year old daughter that she is to stand for Holy Communion, and receive in the hand, and she elected to receive Communion kneeling and on the tongue, I could not honestly
state that she is being disobedient. I simply do not have authority in this matter. As a parent, I have substantial authority over my child, this is simply an area where the Church gave her particular authority, and gave me none.

Likewise, if I attached any consequences to this non-existent disobedience, I would be acting in an unjust manner. There would be no disobedience, ergo, there cannot justly be consequences from an fault that did not happen.
FWIW I think he’s right - albeit for the wrong reasons. As a priest, you will obviously receive standing in the hand yourself when concelebrating and you will also be required to administer communion to communicants who wish to receive on the hand themselves. .
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I agree 100% here. It is certainly Prudent to practice the means by which one will normally Communicate. But that is a different Virtue than Obedience.
 
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