MERGED: Recieving a blessing during communion/Rationale & Origins

[sw85]

My priest is also a Monsignor and he has now shown any objection to giving me a blessing during mass instead of communion when I can’t receive. Nor for that matter has any other priest. Why wouldn’t it be allowed, Rainaldo?

Paragraph 22 of the Sacrosanctum Concilium explicitly states that no priest may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority. Nothing in the present liturgy allows for blessings in the communion line; therefore, this practice is an addition to the liturgy, and thus is illicit.

Some more specific objections include (a) its redundancy, as the priestly blessing at the end of mass applies to everyone; (b) its distraction from the solemn occasion of the Eucharist; (c) the risk of scandalizing the faithful, who might see a known adulterer, divorcee, etc. appear in the communion line; (d) the fact that, in most places, this practice might unnecessarily lengthen the administration of the Eucharist; (e) the issue, already mentioned, of it leading to EMHC improperly giving blessings; etc. etc.

All that said, while I have never participated in this practice and would never endorse it, I do think there are bigger problems here and that is perhaps why nothing has been done about it. Worth noting, though, is that the Vatican is in fact studying the issue, meaning it does in fact see it as at least potentially a problem.

 

[Rainaldo]

This is not entirely true, what about those who are small children? Those who are working as hard as they can to join? It’s not my fault I was raised Protestant, and that RCIA is a lengthy process - I didn’t do something to automatically self-excommunicate myself. Not everyone who cannot receive can’t do it because of something that they have done purposefully.

I’ll stick to the part of my point that you did understand. You grew up Protestant, and you’re hurt that you’re not allowed to receive communion? Do you go up to receive a blessing because if you don’t, your feelings would be hurt? Please reassure me prospective converts aren’t that immature.

 

[YoungTradCath]

I think that is rather arrogant as there are numerous very good reasons for the blessing (which allows everyone to participate in that part of the mass), such as not wanting to leave a child alone in the pew or if the person has celiac disease and there is no wine or acceptable hosts.

Perhaps it allows “participation” inasmuch as reducing it to the symbolic act of receiving something.

Children do not have to be blessed in order to go up with their parents in the line.

If there was no wine, there would be no Mass. If you mean that the person did not request the chalice beforehand in a Mass that does not offer it, then that cannot be something levied against a priest who also refuses to bless people in the Communion line.

These are just observations.

And let us remember that this is not a passive or active omission of something. This is an active addition of something.

 

[misspriss]

I’ll stick to the part of my point that you did understand. You grew up Protestant, and you’re hurt that you’re not allowed to receive communion? Do you go up to receive a blessing because if you don’t, your feelings would be hurt? Please reassure me prospective converts aren’t that immature.

No, I just don’t see why I could not receive a blessing because I was in RCIA, learning and yearning to complete it and join the Catholic church. I wasn’t hurt. Before the RCIA director said to go up for a blessing (while we were practicing for the rite of acceptance), I quietly stayed kneeling in my pew.

I was asking why you were saying that those were self-excommunicated shouldn’t go up for a blessing. I was asking about young children (I don’t consider self-excommunicated) and those who are in the active, publicly declared process of joining the church (RCIA members, who I do not consider doing anything to self-excommunicate) should be denied from going forward for a blessing. Just asking. You were saying people who were not in the state required to receive communion must be self-excommunicated, I was simply stating that I felt you were wrong to make that statement. Some people who cannot receive communion, cannot receive it for other reasons than self-communication.

 

[Rainaldo]

No, I just don’t see why I could not receive a blessing because I was in RCIA, learning and yearning to complete it and join the Catholic church. I wasn’t hurt. Before the RCIA director said to go up for a blessing (while we were practicing for the rite of acceptance), I quietly stayed kneeling in my pew.

I was asking why you were saying that those were self-excommunicated shouldn’t go up for a blessing. I was asking about young children (I don’t consider self-excommunicated) and those who are in the active, publicly declared process of joining the church (RCIA members, who I do not consider doing anything to self-excommunicate) should be denied from going forward for a blessing. Just asking. You were saying people who were not in the state required to receive communion must be self-excommunicated, I was simply stating that I felt you were wrong to make that statement. Some people who cannot receive communion, cannot receive it for other reasons than self-communication.

But my point is, where would you get the idea that joining the communion line was also for non-communicants to receive blessings?

Ok, so you do it at the suggestion of your RCIA director. That makes a difference, and it’s a clue. It looks like it doesn’t spring from popular piety at all, but from a distorted concept of what we are doing in the broader context of the liturgy. Now the connection with the likes of Fushek is coming into focus.

At a high school graduation ceremony the eleventh-graders don’t process together with the seniors to get a congratulatory word from the headmaster in between seniors getting their diplomas. By your director’s reasoning, why should the juniors not receive an individual greeting, inasmuch as they are yearning and learning to complete high school?

As far as I can tell, the simple reason why the self-excommunicated shouldn’t go up for a blessing is that the communion line is for communion - the same for non-Catholics, indeed all non-communicants. It’s as though the practice of going up for a blessing was meant to be a consolatory compensation or a concession, as if it’s somehow not fair that they should be condemned to languish in the pews like second-class citizens. Could the practice ultimately be springing from a symbolic sociopolitical egalitarianism being imposed on the liturgy?

Children younger than the age of reason who have incurred latae sententiae penalties preventing them from receiving communion, such as through irregular marriages, procured abortions, ferendae excommunications, or who are under interdict, and so on, are exceedingly rare, so I’m leaving them aside for now. But it only stands to reason that they shouldn’t be left behind in the pew: they may make noise or otherwise create a disturbance, and we can’t have that Still, it would seem that the communion line is for communion, regardless of how “nice” it would be for them to get a special individual blessing of their very own. And a babe in arms is an excellent argument for communion on the tongue.

 

[paperwight66]

Rainaildo, what you need to do is simply admit that you were wrong when you called those in RCIA ‘self-excommunicated’. Never mind analogies about high school.

 

[Rainaldo]

you called those in RCIA ‘self-excommunicated’

No, I didn’t.

 

[etmom]

Children younger than the age of reason who have incurred latae sententiae penalties preventing them from receiving communion, such as through irregular marriages, procured abortions, ferendae excommunications, or who are under interdict, and so on, are exceedingly rare, so I’m leaving them aside for now. But it only stands to reason that they shouldn’t be left behind in the pew: they may make noise or otherwise create a disturbance, and we can’t have that Still, it would seem that the communion line is for communion, regardless of how “nice” it would be for them to get a special individual blessing of their very own. And a babe in arms is an excellent argument for communion on the tongue.

Can you explain the children under the age of reason who have incurred latae sententiae penalties comment?

 

[paperwight66]

No, I didn’t.

Further quote from Rainaldo : see post 34.

“Any hurt and separation, as I understand it, is 100% the responsibility of the prospective communicant, as is always the case with acts of automatic self-excommunication. But a rationale based on avoiding a time of hurt and separation implies the practice arose out of an emotional sense of entitlement.” End quote.

Emmmm… yes, you did.

 

[Rainaldo]

Can you explain the children under the age of reason who have incurred latae sententiae penalties comment?

Again, it was a joke. A six- or seven-year-old would have to consecrate a bishop without a pontifical mandate, or remarry without securing a decree of nullity for a prior marriage, and so on, for something like that. Someone thought I was including children and prospective converts among non-communicants who are barred from participation on grounds of excommunication or similar canonical penalty. I rolled with it and said I was excluding from consideration the case of grave canonical delicts committed by juveniles for the purposes of this discussion.

I have personally witnessed a seven- and a six-year-old attempt marriage, but I doubt it was valid. It ended in a bitter divorce a few hours later and I don’t think a marriage tribunal will have any difficulty returning a decree of nullity should either party ever wish to marry someone else in the future - after a much needed nap.

 

[Rainaldo]

Further quote from Rainaldo : see post 34.

“Any hurt and separation, as I understand it, is 100% the responsibility of the prospective communicant, as is always the case with acts of automatic self-excommunication. But a rationale based on avoiding a time of hurt and separation implies the practice arose out of an emotional sense of entitlement.” End quote.

Emmmm… yes, you did.

Right. People who commit grave delicts that incur automatic self-excommunication typically know exactly what they are doing, so the resolution of the matter is their responsibility. If their feelings are hurt because they can’t receive communion in the mean time, then it can only be because they think they have a right to have their cake and eat it too - pun intended. But assuaging the hurt feelings of people who have consciously separated themselves from the graces of the Church by allowing them to come up for a blessing in the communion line is … out of line, in my opinion.

 

[PatriceA]

No, I just don’t see why I could not receive a blessing because I was in RCIA, learning and yearning to complete it and join the Catholic church. I wasn’t hurt. Before the RCIA director said to go up for a blessing (while we were practicing for the rite of acceptance), I quietly stayed kneeling in my pew.

I was asking why you were saying that those were self-excommunicated shouldn’t go up for a blessing. I was asking about young children (I don’t consider self-excommunicated) and those who are in the active, publicly declared process of joining the church (RCIA members, who I do not consider doing anything to self-excommunicate) should be denied from going forward for a blessing. Just asking. You were saying people who were not in the state required to receive communion must be self-excommunicated, I was simply stating that I felt you were wrong to make that statement. Some people who cannot receive communion, cannot receive it for other reasons than self-communication.

Because NOBODY should be going up for a blessing. Including, children, RCIA candidates, converts and cradle Catholics. NOBODY, doesn’t matter what process you’re in or if you were born Catholic or in the process of becoming Catholic. Its a practice that the Rome has specifically instructed not to do.

RCIA directors and even priests can get it wrong and allow practices within the liturgy that we as the faithful have been instructed not to do, which seems to be the case in your experience.

 

[misspriss]

Because NOBODY should be going up for a blessing. Including, children, RCIA candidates, converts and cradle Catholics. NOBODY, doesn’t matter what process you’re in or if you were born Catholic or in the process of becoming Catholic. Its a practice that the Rome has specifically instructed not to do.

RCIA directors and even priests can get it wrong and allow practices within the liturgy that we as the faithful have been instructed not to do, which seems to be the case in your experience.

I’m not arguing with you on that, I agree that there could be a degree of unintentional ignorance on the issue here. I am absolutely positive that my RCIA director had no malice in her heart when she told us to do it, she is a wonderful, sweet, loving woman who would never do anything that she felt was liturgically incorrect. Perhaps I will send her an email when I fully understand the topic, however, I’m not quite to that level of understanding yet.

Anyway, I was arguing with Rainaldo’s point that everyone who couldn’t receive communion must have self-excommunicated themselves. I found substantial reasoning against that argument, in my mind, and brought it up. That’s all.

 

[paperwight66]

Because NOBODY should be going up for a blessing. Including, children, RCIA candidates, converts and cradle Catholics. NOBODY, doesn’t matter what process you’re in or if you were born Catholic or in the process of becoming Catholic. Its a practice that the Rome has specifically instructed not to do.

RCIA directors and even priests can get it wrong and allow practices within the liturgy that we as the faithful have been instructed not to do, which seems to be the case in your experience.

No, I don’t think it is true to say that ‘Rome has specifically instructed not to do’ this practice.

Please see one of the stickies at the top of this Liturgy and Sacraments forum. Here are some quotes.

'Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
…
We have addressed this topic on a couple of occasions (May 10 and 24, 2005) in which we expressed misgivings regarding this practice. At the same time, we pointed out that the legal situation of the usage is murky with bishops making statements falling on both sides of the argument.
…
Recently, however, a document has appeared in several Internet sources which indicate that the Holy See is tending toward a negative view of the practice. The document is a letter (Protocol No. 930/08/L) dated Nov. 22, 2008, sent in response to a private query and signed by Father Anthony Ward, SM, undersecretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship

As a private reply the letter is not yet a norm with legal force and, as it makes clear, is not a definitive reply. However, it provides some valuable pointers on the legitimacy of this practice and the mind of the Holy See regarding it.

The letter said that "this matter is presently under the attentive study of the Congregation’.
End of quotes.

So, if the matter is ‘presently under the attentive study of the Congregation’, and the letter of 2008 on which you place much importance is 'not yet a norm with legal force and ‘is not a definitive reply’ the claim cannot be made that Rome has spoken finally and universally.

 

[Rexlady]

It is my understanding that the giving of blessings to people not receiving communion does seem to be allowed by priests and deacons. But it is not a good idea, IMO. The priests conferrs a blessing on the whole congregation at the end of mass, so giving a blessing individually during communion is both redundant and downplays the significance of the blessing at the end of mass . This would be whay I have a problem with it.

It is certainly not allowed for a lay eucharistic minister to do so, I think the Vatican has said so explicitly. But this is largely ignored.

Alternatively to the above three pages, I think it’s a good thing. See, I have Celiac disease, and can only receive Eucharist via the Chalice. There’s only ONE communion line. In order to GET to the Chalice, I must go through the “host line”, and somehow communicate to the priest there, that I do NOT wish to receive communion via the Host. It is very awkward, without an obvious, accepted gesture (arms crossed over my chest), and prevents awkwardness when someone pushes it towards my mouth.

Sometimes, by the time it’s my turn, the Chalice is empty. What to do, besides receive the sign of the cross on my forehead?

We do what works. Cutting off people to “butt in line” to receive ONLY via the Chalice, does not add to the spirit of worship.

 

[maryjk]

Alternatively to the above three pages, I think it’s a good thing. See, I have Celiac disease, and can only receive Eucharist via the Chalice. There’s only ONE communion line. In order to GET to the Chalice, I must go through the “host line”, and somehow communicate to the priest there, that I do NOT wish to receive communion via the Host. It is very awkward, without an obvious, accepted gesture (arms crossed over my chest), and prevents awkwardness when someone pushes it towards my mouth.

Sometimes, by the time it’s my turn, the Chalice is empty. What to do, besides receive the sign of the cross on my forehead?

We do what works. Cutting off people to “butt in line” to receive ONLY via the Chalice, does not add to the spirit of worship.

Get in line.
When you are up next for the Host but you still haven’t stepped up, bow, with your hands folded.
Do not approach the priest, as you bow, slowly shake your head.
Step to the side, never approaching the priest.
Walk to the Chalice, and receive.

Also, sit up front, that way the Chalice won’t be empty when you get there.

(Yes, I have Celiac and have often received only from the Chalice.)

 

[YoungTradCath]

Alternatively to the above three pages, I think it’s a good thing. See, I have Celiac disease, and can only receive Eucharist via the Chalice. There’s only ONE communion line. In order to GET to the Chalice, I must go through the “host line”, and somehow communicate to the priest there, that I do NOT wish to receive communion via the Host. It is very awkward, without an obvious, accepted gesture (arms crossed over my chest), and prevents awkwardness when someone pushes it towards my mouth.

Sometimes, by the time it’s my turn, the Chalice is empty. What to do, besides receive the sign of the cross on my forehead?

We do what works. Cutting off people to “butt in line” to receive ONLY via the Chalice, does not add to the spirit of worship.

If possible, you can notify the celebrating priest before the Mass starts that you would like to receive from the chalice so that he knows. Then it will not be awkward. That is what people I know with Celiac disease do.

 

[Canto]

The Archbishops and Bishops of my country encourage it.

Yet it is not found anywhere in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal as adapted by the English-Welsh Conference of Bishops and approved by the Holy See.

 

[Kathryn_Ann]

It is my understanding that the giving of blessings to people not receiving communion does seem to be allowed by priests and deacons. But it is not a good idea, IMO. The priests conferrs a blessing on the whole congregation at the end of mass, so giving a blessing individually during communion is both redundant and downplays the significance of the blessing at the end of mass . This would be whay I have a problem with it.

It is certainly not allowed for a lay eucharistic minister to do so, I think the Vatican has said so explicitly. But this is largely ignored.

tafan, I agree. Some posters on previous threads have pointed out that although some are coming forward only for a blessing, it is not a “Blessing” line but one for receiving the Blessed Sacrament, since the entire congregation is blessed at the end of Mass by the priest.

Whatever our Holy Father says, and the CCC, is what I will follow. Perhaps some here know if our U.S. Bishops are given leeway on this?

I have read also, as you stated above, that EM’s are not allowed to give the blessing, but I have seen it done, and wondered about it. I go with the Rules set down by Holy Father and CCC. If someone here knows if we in the U.S. are given the place to allow some of these “customs” I would be interested to know.

May God help us all to abide by what the Church teaches.
Blessings,
Kathryn Ann:heaven:

 

[lovesnow0729]

Wow we are filling up nice on the members page, just wanted to take a moment and say hello, and welcome to the club :lol:

perhaps we should all take a moment and write down a little somthin about ourselves,

I am Larry (AKA, 00RS) I am 26 From Freddy beach.

If any of you come by Fredericton, you can find me usually @ my Families Restaurant called - Aggies Restaurant And Catering
open all yr around
Peace.

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