No More Communion Services

[RyanK]

So for the past two days our parish has had communion services because the priest has been absent. Now I’ve always felt that communion services, at least at our church, just don’t show enough reverence our Lord in the Eucharist and it always seems to be borderline abuse, if not abuse itself. So today when the woman leading the service gave her talk she announced that communion services will no longer be allowed. Which I thought was great! But then she continued speaking about how sad it is and how the women who lead the services’ group started off and such. She talked for a while about how dissapointed she is and how she’s not sad for herself but for our community as a whole. I thought it was pretty innapropriate for her to do such and was not her place to comment on the announcement while leading a communion service. Also at the part where the priest holds up our Lord and says “This is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, happy are those who are called to his meal.” She changed it completely to something else, I can’t even remember what she said, but it was just another reason why I’m glad that we are no longer having communion services. I’m curious to know if communion services are no longer allowed only where I am or if it’s universal?

 

[EasterJoy]

There are more and more bishops putting a restriction on the use of communion services, particularly in metropolitan areas where daily Masses are available every day in closely neighboring parishes. I’m sure the availability of these opportunities to hear the Liturgy of the Word for the day and to receive Holy Communion outside of Mass, the flexibility pastors have in how often to allow them, and the reasons for the local rules differs from one diocese to the next.

 

[Corki]

Liturgy of the Word with Communion services were always intended to be primarily for a parish that was not able to have a Sunday Mass due to the lack of priest. They just kind of took off on their own for daily Masses. More and more it seems that some bishops are putting out guidelines such as you describe.

 

[MissRose73]

I would much rather attend a Daily Mass (in either form) over a Word/Communion service. I am privileged that there are many churches near me that offer Daily Mass either every day or a few days a week.

I would rather see the laity getting involved in doing things like having Bible study (private or at church), devotions, and/or some form of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament if Daily Mass is not available.

 

[anp1215]

They still have them in my diocese (Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston). I’ve never been to one. I did go to a service on Ash Wednesday where they just distributed the ashes. I am pretty sure they did not distribute Communion at that. I remember that day they alternated between Mass and “ash service” and they had three of each I think (Mass at 6 am, service at 9, Mass at 10:30, service at noon, Mass at 5 pm, service at 7, or a similar schedule). It was a large parish.

From what I remember they just read the liturgy of the word and then distributed the ashes. So I suppose that wasn’t a communion service. I remember I chose to attend that rather than the Mass since I couldn’t participate in the Eucharist anyway.

 

[joanofarc2008]

The only Communion service I have ever been to was run by a deacon on a major feast day. (While not a Holy Day of Obligation it was one where many go to Church and would have expected the daily Mass to be there.) The only priest for that parish had woken up very sick and called on the deacon to please have the Communion service. It was very reverent as the deacon is still ordained and could still give a homily. He did apologize for the change and explain that it was a communion service and why and ask us all to pray for Father.

I have not been to one run by laity - but I guess as with all things it depends on the laity, the frequency and what kind of “spot” checking and accountability there is.

 

[Joannm]

The only place they can occur in our diocese is in nursing homes or assisted living facilities or in prisons if a priest is not available weekly.

 

[RyanK]

The only place they can occur in our diocese is in nursing homes or assisted living facilities or in prisons if a priest is not available weekly.

Yeah, it’s the same with us now and that’s how it should be. The letter that we had recieved about the end to communion services stated it was to “end abuses and calm down the laity” which made perfect sense to me.

 

[puzzleannie]

In my former diocese the rite for holy communion outside Mass was strictly interpreted, and they could not be done on weekdays, except holy days of obligation, and then only on the same condition as on a Sunday, namely, that no priest was present for Mass and sufficient consecrated hosts were available in the tabernacle. Lay women could in certain cases–there were few deacons there-- conduct such services if no religious sister was available, but absolutely no ad hoc comment, preaching or other commentary was allowed by the presider, except reading from an approved text a reflection on the days’ readings. Some other times it was permitted was in nursing homes, hospitals etc, but with the approved rite for communion for the sick.

so the abuses were rarer there.

Here we see them seldom but don’t know if that is because the rules are strict or they just don’t need them. Usually on the priest’s day off there is no service of any kind.

 

[joanofarc2008]

In my former diocese the rite for holy communion outside Mass was strictly interpreted, and they could not be done on weekdays, except holy days of obligation, and then only on the same condition as on a Sunday, namely, that no priest was present for Mass and sufficient consecrated hosts were available in the tabernacle. Lay women could in certain cases–there were few deacons there-- conduct such services if no religious sister was available, but absolutely no ad hoc comment, preaching or other commentary was allowed by the presider, except reading from an approved text a reflection on the days’ readings. Some other times it was permitted was in nursing homes, hospitals etc, but with the approved rite for communion for the sick.

so the abuses were rarer there.

Here we see them seldom but don’t know if that is because the rules are strict or they just don’t need them. Usually on the priest’s day off there is no service of any kind.

This is the way it should be - IMO if the lines are clear they are a lot less likely to get crossed.

 

[Phemie]

We have them more often than I’d like, but always on a Sunday and always when there is no priest in the parish. We have no deacon and no Sisters, so a few of the parishioners have been trained to lead them. We have been allowed to give a reflection and most of the leaders make use of a homiletics service online. I prefer to leave a good long period of silence after the Gospel so I don’t search for a ‘reflection’, I let the congregation ponder what they’ve heard on their own.

 

[Victory9]

So for the past two days our parish has had communion services because the priest has been absent. Now I’ve always felt that communion services, at least at our church, just don’t show enough reverence our Lord in the Eucharist and it always seems to be borderline abuse, if not abuse itself. So today when the woman leading the service gave her talk she announced that communion services will no longer be allowed. Which I thought was great! But then she continued speaking about how sad it is and how the women who lead the services’ group started off and such. She talked for a while about how dissapointed she is and how she’s not sad for herself but for our community as a whole. I thought it was pretty innapropriate for her to do such and was not her place to comment on the announcement while leading a communion service. Also at the part where the priest holds up our Lord and says “This is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, happy are those who are called to his meal.” She changed it completely to something else, I can’t even remember what she said, but it was just another reason why I’m glad that we are no longer having communion services. I’m curious to know if communion services are no longer allowed only where I am or if it’s universal?

Wait a second ~ NO lay person can say the Consecration Prayer, not even an ordained deacon. ONLY a priest can consecrate the bread into The Body of Christ, and the same for the Precious Blood. A communion service is only supposed to consist of some opening prayers and the readings for the day, then Holy Communion, with the already-consecrated hosts taken from the tabernacle. A layperson cannot give a homily, or a ‘reflection’. You really need to confront your pastor (charitably), and if you receive no satisfactory response then notify your bishop. Even though these ‘services’ have been stopped, your pastor and bishop need to know what’s been going on.
On another note, this is exactly why women should not be conducting these ‘services’ ~ the political bent, the radical feminism that has permeated the Church, the ‘priestess factor’. Women have their place in the Church, as do laymen, but only a priest may exercise priestly duties.

 

[RyanK]

Wait a second ~ NO lay person can say the Consecration Prayer, not even an ordained deacon. ONLY a priest can consecrate the bread into The Body of Christ, and the same for the Precious Blood. A communion service is only supposed to consist of some opening prayers and the readings for the day, then Holy Communion. A layperson cannot give a homily, or a ‘reflection’. You really need to confront your pastor (charitably), and if you receive no satisfactory response then notify your bishop. Even though these ‘services’ have been stopped, your pastor and bishop need to know what’s been going on.
On another note, this is exactly why women should not be conducting these ‘services’ ~ the political bent, the radical feminism that has permeated the Church, the ‘priestess factor’. Women have their place in the Church, as do laymen, but only a priest may exercise priestly duties.

Well no, she didn’t consecrate the host. She did give a reflection though and an innapropriate one at that. I’m sure our priest will find out about what happened.

 

[Phemie]

Wait a second ~ NO lay person can say the Consecration Prayer, not even an ordained deacon. ONLY a priest can consecrate the bread into The Body of Christ, and the same for the Precious Blood. A communion service is only supposed to consist of some opening prayers and the readings for the day, then Holy Communion, with the already-consecrated hosts taken from the tabernacle. A layperson cannot give a homily, or a ‘reflection’. You really need to confront your pastor (charitably), and if you receive no satisfactory response then notify your bishop. Even though these ‘services’ have been stopped, your pastor and bishop need to know what’s been going on.
On another note, this is exactly why women should not be conducting these ‘services’ ~ the political bent, the radical feminism that has permeated the Church, the ‘priestess factor’. Women have their place in the Church, as do laymen, but only a priest may exercise priestly duties.

A lay person may certainly give a reflection. It is only within Mass that a layperson can’t do that. Now, obviously, what she did was not a reflection but an opinion of something she didn’t like. Not appropriate.

The OP said nothing about the woman saying the Eucharistic Prayer, he said she showed the Host and said something where the priest normally says “This is the Lamb of God, happy are those who are called to his supper.” In the Canadian Rite what is said at that point is closer to what the priest will be saying with the new translation, something along the lines of “This is the Lamb of God, happy are those who are called to the Banquet of the Lamb.”

 

[anruari]

I havent double checked the order of the mass.I’m working from my (not great) memory:

But if my memory serves me correctly, that point (“This is the Lamb of God, Happy are those who are called to His supper”/ or new translation “Happy are those who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”)
comes after the Angus Dei. as such, a Communion service goes from the Liturgy of the Word, to the Communion Rite, starting with the Our Father, then the Angus Dei, & therefore SHOULD include this section.

 

[RyanK]

I havent double checked the order of the mass.I’m working from my (not great) memory:

But if my memory serves me correctly, that point (“This is the Lamb of God, Happy are those who are called to His supper”/ or new translation “Happy are those who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”)
comes after the Angus Dei. as such, a Communion service goes from the Liturgy of the Word, to the Communion Rite, starting with the Our Father, then the Angus Dei, & therefore SHOULD include this section.

Yeah, but she said something like “May the Lord fill us all with his joy and love…” or something weird. It was nothing even close to the original.

 

[Elizabeth502]

I would much rather attend a Daily Mass (in either form) over a Word/Communion service.

Me, too. Communion Services have never done anything for me. And I agree with some other posters (and obviously with bishops) that these services are superfluous in metropolitan areas where daily Masses are plentiful. I also think that too often they are abuses waiting to happen. I’ve seen this in a parish near me.

 

[Phemie]

Me, too. Communion Services have never done anything for me. And I agree with some other posters (and obviously with bishops) that these services are superfluous in metropolitan areas where daily Masses are plentiful. I also think that too often they are abuses waiting to happen. I’ve seen this in a parish near me.

That’s why Redemptionis Sacramentum 165 &166 say that while the Community should gather on Sundays when there is no possibility of attending Mass elsewhere, the bishop “should prudently discern whether Holy Communion ought to be distributed in these gatherings” and if Communion is distributed it says that bishops “must not easily grant permission for such celebrations to be held on weekdays, especially in places where it was possible or would be possible to have the celebration of Mass on the preceding or the following Sunday.”

So RS doesn’t really envision a ‘Communion Service’ if there’s a possibility of having Mass celebrated every second Sunday. All this in an effort “to avoid any sort of confusion between this type of gathering and the celebration of the Eucharist.”

In case you think the possibility of ‘confusion’ is low, don’t kid yourself. I’ve heard life-long Catholics refer to laity ‘saying Mass’ and I’ve heard enough comments about how we don’t need a priest as long as we can have these services. In my area, the Community simply won’t bother to observe Sunday unless Communion is distributed. The idea of gathering simply to give praise to God and hear his word is foreign to them, they have to ‘get something out of it’ and that something is Communion. That’s why I’ve known Hosts to be consecrated in one parish and mailed to another community which doesn’t see a priest for months at a time.

 

[Elizabeth502]

That’s why In case you think the possibility of ‘confusion’ is low, don’t kid yourself. I’ve heard life-long Catholics refer to laity ‘saying Mass’ and I’ve heard enough comments about how we don’t need a priest as long as we can have these services.

…building on that, I have not heard the phrase “saying Mass” used, but I have heard it implied that “now that women can lead Communion Services, and preach (at those),” soon they will be ordained as well. (“This is just the interim step.”) In my area, Communion Services have been almost strictly a vehicle for female liturgical “participation.” One woman told me she would no longer attend the parish if there couldn’t be Communion Services on the one delegated day of the week. What the parish was doing was replacing the Daily Mass on that one day only, with a Communion Service, despite a fully clerically staffed parish.

 

[RyanK]

…building on that, I have not heard the phrase “saying Mass” used, but I have heard it implied that “now that women can lead Communion Services, and preach (at those),” soon they will be ordained as well. (“This is just the interim step.”) In my area, Communion Services have been almost strictly a vehicle for female liturgical “participation.” One woman told me she would no longer attend the parish if there couldn’t be Communion Services on the one delegated day of the week. What the parish was doing was replacing the Daily Mass on that one day only, with a Communion Service, despite a fully clerically staffed parish.

Yeah, it’s weird because the woman who led the communion service hasn’t showed up to daily mass since the day this all happened.