Kneeling/bowing before the Eucharist

[AnnieM]

If you receive the Eucharist at a Communion rail, is it still necessary to bow your head before receiving? I figure since you are kneeling and already in a position of reverence, you wouldn’t need to, but I don’t know the official teaching on this.

Love,
Annie

 

[_veritas]

I don’t have an official answer, but I would think it would not be necessary, only a personal decision of piety. The kneeling on both knees is generally considered a “higher” display of reverence than a simple head bow.

Some would say that a complete solemn bow of the body is equivalent to a single-knee genuflection, but this genuflection traditionally is not as symbolically reverent as the complete kneeling posture. (This is why traditionally the Exposed Eucharist is honored with a full kneeling posture.)

Therefore… I would say that if you are kneeling at the communion rail, there is no “need” to make any other gesture, though I’m sure it is perfectly ok to do so if you choose.

Just MHO

+veritas+

 

[system]

AnnieM:

If you receive the Eucharist at a Communion rail, is it still necessary to bow your head before receiving? I figure since you are kneeling and already in a position of reverence, you wouldn’t need to, but I don’t know the official teaching on this.

Love,
Annie

I must have been going to the wrong church all these years. I haven’t seen a communion rail since pre Vatican II. The General Instructions of the Roman Missal say we are to receive Communion standing and make some sign of reverence- like bowing. In my parish we do have some who choose to kneel. I will not refuse them Communion even though GIRM says they should stand.

Blessings and Peace,
DigitalDeacon

 

[_veritas]

DigitalDeacon:

I must have been going to the wrong church all these years. I haven’t seen a communion rail since pre Vatican II. The General Instructions of the Roman Missal say we are to receive Communion standing and make some sign of reverence- like bowing. In my parish we do have some who choose to kneel. I will not refuse them Communion even though GIRM says they should stand.

I don’t have my GIRM on me at the moment but I have always thought that, while the norm in America (and elsewhere I guess) after VII was standing, there was always still the option of priests choosing to make use of the communion rail?

In our diocese one of the parishes near me still offers Communion in the traditional way, by having people go up to kneel at the rail and receive on the tongue. This is in the context of a Novus Ordo Mass said in Latin though so I would assume they use the universal Roman Missal and not the American-indulted one… does that make a difference?

 

[JNB]

The CDW documents on the liturgy trumped the USCCB documents on it. While the norm in the US now is standing for communion, it is by now means a law, so parishes that have retained the prictice of kneeling for communion such of the one I attend can and will continue to do so. It also depends on the Bishop, I know of only one Bishop, and that is the Bishop of Arlington VA, who has forced a parish to stand for communion, needless to say the dispute there has yet to be resolved, and it has caused a severe amount of damage to the life of the parish(Christendom College).

 

[AnnieM]

DigitalDeacon:

I must have been going to the wrong church all these years. I haven’t seen a communion rail since pre Vatican II. The General Instructions of the Roman Missal say we are to receive Communion standing and make some sign of reverence- like bowing. In my parish we do have some who choose to kneel. I will not refuse them Communion even though GIRM says they should stand.

Blessings and Peace,
DigitalDeacon

LOL! Yes, we still have a rail, and it is not a TLM, just regular Novus Ordo. Some take in the hand at the rail and some on the tongue. Does this mean that the Parish has received some sort of indult to continue to have Communion rails?

Love,
AnnieM

 

[system]

AnnieM:

LOL! Yes, we still have a rail, and it is not a TLM, just regular Novus Ordo. Some take in the hand at the rail and some on the tongue. Does this mean that the Parish has received some sort of indult to continue to have Communion rails?

Love,
AnnieM

No, AnnieM none needed.

Bless You,
DigitalDeacon