It confounds me how my argument seems to be going over your head. Everything I’ve posted here shows how kneeling is a more reverent gesture than standing. Jesus Christ is our Lord, therefore you should kneel before Him. Before you tell me “it’s in the GIRM” how do you account for all the centuries prior when it was. Was the Church wrong? Why the change?
The reason that you are confounded is that you hav a closed mind to anything I say. If you would care to listen, we could dialogue. But if you insist that you are right and everyone else is wrong, we will get nowhere.
You want to try it again? Then lets go.
Both kneeling and standing are signs of respect and reverence in the Roman rite; we stand at certain times of the Mass, and we kneel at certain times.
Throughout the history of the Church, including the Estern rites, standing to receive the Eucharist has been the norm at times, and kneeling has been the norm at times.
The simple fact, the one you seem so hung up on, is that for a long period of time we have knelt in the Roman rite.
that does not make it holier than standing; nor does it make it less holy. It simply makes it what we have done mroe recently in the Roman rite than standing.
You seem to feel that there is a progression of “holiness quotient” in postures such that what we have done more recently (kneeling) is holier than what we did previously (standing) for no other reason than we progressed from one to another. You back that up with all sorts of quotes, many if not most of which are irrelevant to the specific issue of kneeling vs. standing to receive Communion.
As a very practical matter, it is much more difficult to receive the Cup while kneeling at an altar rail. It is also awkard and difficult to receive in the hand while kneeling there.
For whatever reasons the Church has had to change the posture from kneeling to standing, I would submit that the individuals who have been involved in that, including two popes either of whom are more billiant as theologians on their worst day than posters herein on their best day, have seen fit to say that we shall stand. If that fact doesn’t answer it for you, then I would submit that getting over your pride of being right and being holier than anyone else here, you try to humble yourself by following the Bishop and the Pope whom the Holy Spirit has seen fit to make your shepards, do as they have set the rules, and as my grandmother would say, offer it up for the poor souls.
Was the Church wrong? No, and the Church is not wrong now either. the Church does not have to be wrong in order to change a rule; changing the rule does not imply what came before was wrong. Nor, if it changes it, does that mean the new change is wrong. It just means it is different. You want kneeling for Communion to be wrritten in stone and made a doctrinal level truth. It isn’t.
The church has seen fit to change it because if for no other reason, some circumstances have changed. At least one of those is receiving from the Cup. Which you don’t have to. But you are not the sum and substance of the Church; you are just one member.
What I ahve indicated as a reason may not be the only reason or even the primary reason. On occasion the Church tells us why they are changing a rule; but they don’t always explain the reasons. That does not mean they do not ahve reasons; but why do you think you need to have an explanation? Is your obedience to Church rules subject to them providing an explanation sufficient to pass your judgment as to its wisdom or lack thereof?
