Preferred Method of Receiving

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I personally don’t understand why more people choose to have it in the hand. From a logistical standpoint, you have to put your hands together, have it placed in the top hand, then take the Eucharist in the other hand and put it in your mouth vs just sticking out your tongue and then put it in your mouth.

I’ve seen people holding children in their arms stick out one hand and still receive with that one hand. Even though the Church prescribes that people use two hands to receive, these people are still given it on the hand. Would it not be easier in these instances to just stick out their tongue? Yet they do not do this. Why?

Do people feel that they should not be fed by another person? Do they just like having control? What is the lure of wanting to receive in the hand besides seeing everyone else doing it or being taught that way? I find the psychological aspect of this intriguing.
 
I find that most people do things because they think that is what they are supposed to be doing.

Why do people hold hands during the Our Father? Because someone taught them to do it that way, therefore, it is what they are supposed to do.

I don’t think there is really any sort of ulterior motive. It has been easy in our diocese, for example, to re-institute kneeling in places where kneeling had been forgotten about. They stopped kneeling because someone told them that was how it was going to be done now, they started kneeling again because someone corrected it.

I think people have the desire to do what they are supposed to do; just make it clear why they should be doing it and they will do it. For that reason, if a directive came out tomorrow that said we would be going back to communion rails and kneeling, I suspect most of the people would read it, say “okay” and go along. We should give people more credit than to just say that they are a bunch of heterdox who go a wandering off the path of their own free will. Proper teaching is the key.
 
MaryT777 said:
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Time to rethink the better approach and realize the most reverent position in\z the soul
that receives worthily.
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That may be, but it appears that kneeling is considered a more reverent posture for receiving communion by the Church. If standing were just as reverent, those who stand wouldn’t be required to make a sign of reverence before receiving.
 
GangGreen said:
Do people feel that they should not be fed by another person? Do they just like having control? What is the lure of wanting to receive in the hand besides seeing everyone else doing it or being taught that way? I find the psychological aspect of this intriguing.
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I’m with you. Newly marrieds usually feed each other at the reception, at least their first bite. There is indeed some significance to that.
 
From a thread I started 2 years ago on the subject, that suprisingly went on for over 460 posts before it was closed.
I am studying theology and last semester took a course in Sacramental Theology. In one of the books I read, The Sacraments: The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body, Fr. Louis-Marie Chauvet says the following:
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“It is in the very nature of the church to confess that the sacraments it celebrates in faith in the name of Jesus Christ have a spiritual efficacy called ‘grace,’ a beautiful term. The most forceful expression of this grace is no doubt that extremely sparing one given us in the diologue of eucharistic communion: to the statement, ‘The body of Christ’, Christians answer, not witht he description of their feelings or the difficulties that their intellect might struggle with, but simply with the ‘amen’ of faith. This amen comes from the mouth and the heart, of course, but also from the whole body since it is manifested by the opening of the hands into which the pure gift of God is placed. The gratuitous communication of God with the believers, such is the salient point of the sacraments.”
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This put words to what I have long felt when I receive. For one moment, I am touching God, and actually feeling His embrace. I believe to truly appreciate any gift, one must have a moment of private adoration of it, and then one must choose to make use of it.
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This is how I see CITH- I am opening my heart, mind, soul and body to receive the gift, and making the conscious decision to become what I receive.
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I wonder how long this one will last? :rolleyes:🤷
 
In a way I think of the standing/kneeling thing like this. If Jesus came appeared right in front of you right now, what would you do? I know I would get on my knees in praise of my Lord and my God. Could you imagine Jesus walking up to you and you just stand there? I can’t. As Catholics, we believe that the Eucharist is Jesus himself, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. So when we see him shouldn’t we get on our knees in praise of our Lord and our God?
 
I love this agrument because I love the look on a person’s face when I answer.
Sadly, I can’t get see the reaction on the internet! 😉

No, I would not fall to my kness! :eek:
My very first instinct would be to run up to Jesus, throw my arms around Him, giving Him the biggest bear hug I have ever given, all the while thanking Him for saving me! 😃
GangGreen said:
In a way I think of the standing/kneeling thing like this. If Jesus came appeared right in front of you right now, what would you do? I know I would get on my knees in praise of my Lord and my God. Could you imagine Jesus walking up to you and you just stand there? I can’t. As Catholics, we believe that the Eucharist is Jesus himself, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. So when we see him shouldn’t we get on our knees in praise of our Lord and our God?
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GangGreen said:
I personally don’t understand why more people choose to have it in the hand. From a logistical standpoint, you have to put your hands together, have it placed in the top hand, then take the Eucharist in the other hand and put it in your mouth vs just sticking out your tongue and then put it in your mouth.

I’ve seen people holding children in their arms stick out one hand and still receive with that one hand. Even though the Church prescribes that people use two hands to receive, these people are still given it on the hand. Would it not be easier in these instances to just stick out their tongue? Yet they do not do this. Why?

Do people feel that they should not be fed by another person? Do they just like having control? What is the lure of wanting to receive in the hand besides seeing everyone else doing it or being taught that way? I find the psychological aspect of this intriguing.
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I think you’re reading way too much into it. I expect that most people receive in whichever is:
a) the most common way to receive in their parish; or
b) the way they were taught growing up (or when they were received into the Church, for adults).

Pretty simple, really. IMHO, those of us who ponder and analyze (and re-analyze, and re-analyze . . . ) this are in a distinct minority.
 
For one moment, I am touching God, and actually feeling His embrace.
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Okay but I would think one could more fully reflect on the precious gift if he doesn’t consume Him right away. However, I believe the instructions are that one must consume immediately when accepting in the hands. Hard to reflect fully when you’re trying to find your way back to your pew. But I guess it’s possible for some.
 
And yet, when you watch a Papal Mass at St Peter’s, or even Mass on EWTN, MOST of the communicants receive standing and in the hand. So, since most Catholics have never read the GIRM, they look to sources such as the above for clues on what to do. Until you can convince your average Catholic to read all of the documents that many here have read and can quote, nothing will change and CITH will be - at least in the US - the norm. The only way to change things is for the bishops to change how things are done.
 
If I may be so bold to suggest while handling the eucharist with one’s hands isn’t inherently “less” than receiving it on the tongue, it leads to a natural inclination to less awe and less reverence. I hand my friend a cookie, but I am not worthy to hold the Lord in my hand.

To bring some Syriac theology into this, did Isaiah grab the coal from the seraphim? Or was it receive on his lips? Why, then, should be actively hold what is being sent down from heaven to purify us. It is a hold statement to say that we should or rightfully can hold it. It is in the physical consumption that we are made worthy to bear it.

That being said, in theory if one can remain absolutely reverent and mindful when receiving the eucharist in the hand and it is out of some kind of inherent discomfort from receiving it in the mouth that disrupts their prayer then it is of equal validity. But there is a certain inclination to equate things with equal piety too quickly based on not wanting to upset preference, which I don’t think is very sound or valid.
 
I have never received in the hand, nor do I think I ever will. That being said, if others want to, for whatever reason, thats really up to them.

I just wish someone could explain to me why the practice was re-introduced in the first place in a manner that shows clearly why it was done.
 
I actually like the idea of receiving on the tongue, just due to my PERSONAL issues of shaking people’s hands at the sign of peace, then immediately receiving my Lord afterwards. I used to receive on the tongue all the time at my former parish. Since moving to a different parish (and this is also expanded to my new geographical area in general), I find that the ministers if Holy Communion (both ordinary and extraordinary) either don’t know how to or don’t seem comfortable with giving Communion on the tongue. It’s usually placed too far on the tip of my tongue or on my bottom lip. Because this increases the chance of me dropping the host, I’d rather not take that chance with my Lord, so I just resign myself to receive in the hand, despite my personal preference.

Either way is liturgically correct, though.
 
pamnbam said:
I actually like the idea of receiving on the tongue, just due to my PERSONAL issues of shaking people’s hands at the sign of peace, then immediately receiving my Lord afterwards. I used to receive on the tongue all the time at my former parish. Since moving to a different parish (and this is also expanded to my new geographical area in general), I find that the ministers if Holy Communion (both ordinary and extraordinary) either don’t know how to or don’t seem comfortable with giving Communion on the tongue. It’s usually placed too far on the tip of my tongue or on my bottom lip. Because this increases the chance of me dropping the host, I’d rather not take that chance with my Lord, so I just resign myself to receive in the hand, despite my personal preference.

Either way is liturgically correct, though.
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If I missed the following reason in this thread, I apologize. It is done both ways at my parish.However, during the outbreak of the flu, the Monsignor asked that the Host be received in the hands only, for all, and after using hand sanitizer himself…and to not partake in the blood if anyone was sick in that family…
 
Is there any evidence of a pope distributing communion in the hand?
 
GangGreen said:
I personally don’t understand why more people choose to have it in the hand. From a logistical standpoint, you have to put your hands together, have it placed in the top hand, then take the Eucharist in the other hand and put it in your mouth vs just sticking out your tongue and then put it in your mouth.

I’ve seen people holding children in their arms stick out one hand and still receive with that one hand. Even though the Church prescribes that people use two hands to receive, these people are still given it on the hand. Would it not be easier in these instances to just stick out their tongue? Yet they do not do this. Why?

Do people feel that they should not be fed by another person? Do they just like having control? What is the lure of wanting to receive in the hand besides seeing everyone else doing it or being taught that way? I find the psychological aspect of this intriguing.
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Perhaps because they read the Gospel accounts where Christ says “Take and eat…” instead of “Open your mouth and I will feed you…” (my emphasis)?

Perhaps because both ways of receiving are ancient?
 
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