Profound Bow or Profound Gaffe

[nsm]

Thank you all for your posts! They are most helpful!

 

[consumedconvert]

Hmmm, it is unusual for anyone at my Parish not to take a “profound bow” before receiving the Eucharist.

We have never been corrected for it. I tend to think it is within the spirit of the quoted text of the GIRM. But really, I don’t know much about rubrics.

Perhaps I’ll ask the Pastor what I’m supposed to do, I try to obey the Ecclesiastics in all things Catholic…but really, maybe I just won’t worry about it. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t constitute an “abuse”…

 

[Pug]

When our parish was generally instructed on this bow thing, they modeled it for us. The bow that was modeled was a slight bow that came a bit from the waist but also involved the head. Now the whole parish does it that way, just as we were taught, with some variation of depth and body involvement. Obviously there may have been either a problem in the passing down of the instruction or passing down its intent or just an intersection with common American physical gestures. I would not call whichever way you end up doing this a “gaffe”. Myself, I would need to train to make a mere head bow. My waist just naturally gets involved in most bows. I suppose I ended up using a variant of a type of bow or nod that I might give to a person in certain social situations. But, since it was to Jesus, I unconsciously make it a little deeper than I would for a social situation, because HE is more than a regular social peer.

I guess I’m saying that this is perhaps conditioned by the types of bows that one uses socially, and this could have interacted with how the parishes were instructed to do this.

 

[Tsuwano]

I wouldn’t say you made a profound gaffe, but I can certainly understand why the Bishop was slightly confused. I have never seen anyone make a bow from the waist before receiving communion and , if there is no communion rail at which to kneel, very few people kneel either. It is customary to make a slight bow with the head and respond “amen” when the priest announces “The body of Christ.” Actually, my question is to whom were you bowing? Was it the Bishop or to the Lord present in the eucharist? Wouldn’t it be unusual to bow to a mere human when you are in the presence of the Lord?

 

[CatholicCajun]

Hubby and I both make profound bows before receiving the Eucharist, don’t know or care what the others around us think. God Bless.

 

[nsm]

I wouldn’t say you made a profound gaffe, but I can certainly understand why the Bishop was slightly confused. I have never seen anyone make a bow from the waist before receiving communion and , if there is no communion rail at which to kneel, very few people kneel either. It is customary to make a slight bow with the head and respond “amen” when the priest announces “The body of Christ.” Actually, my question is to whom were you bowing? Was it the Bishop or to the Lord present in the eucharist? Wouldn’t it be unusual to bow to a mere human when you are in the presence of the Lord?

I was hoping that this was not what I was communicating. I was not bowing to the Bishop, but rather to Christ who is Lord of All and who was present fully before me. I had been doing (what I did not realize) is a profound bow every time I received the Eucharist since my first communion this past December. I think that a combination of seeing other people make a profound bow and a misunderstanding of my priest’s directive in this matter when I was taking RCIA was at work here. I only realized that it might be off when the Bishop looked slightly confused, before then nobody had made any signal about what was proscribed so I thought nothing of it. Then afterwards I spoke to my husband (who is also a new Catholic) and he said that he too was confused about this matter. So, because of the diversity of posture that led me to slight confusion, and because I thought that the Bishop’s reaction might hold some correction for me (but due to my newness I wanted to be sure that I got it right), I thought that I would post here.

 

[Lovemyfaith]

And if you walk past the Precious Blood but do not recieve, genuflect or bow. Most people don’t, but our priest recently lectured us on this; the Blood is just as much Christ as the Hosts in the tabernacle, and we genuflect to it, right? We need to show reverence to the Blood as well. Profound bows and genuflection are appropraite for this.

I have always wondered about this. After I receive Communion the Precious Blood is about 3 steps away. I don’t receive the Precious Blood, but have wondered, since I have Jesus present in me, would that take away the need to bow, as Special Minsiters are instructed not to bow to the Tabernacle when they are holding Jesus walking back to the Altar. I have the same question about entering my pew after receiving, since I don’t genuflect then either.

 

[kathy313]

AS I pass by Jesus in The Most Precious Blood I make the sign of the Cross. I do not receive since I believe I already have received Jesus in the Eucharist & to me it’s almost the same as receiving Communion twice.

 

[peary]

I have looked around online and I saw that a bow of the head is what is normal. Did I make a really big gaffe by making a profound bow? And in front of the Archbishop! Being a former Baptist the Eucharist means so much to me because I hungered and thirsted for it for so long.

!!

Some archbishops are confused regardless And I don’t think you did anything wrong. We should all pray to receive the gift of such reverence as you displayed for Our Lord.

 

[Claire_from_DE]

It’s okay to genuflect too- or even kneel to receive Communion. If you do any of these, priests, parishoners, bishops, etc, might look at you weird, but it is perfectly acceptable and should not be considered any different than bowing the head, receiving standing on the tongue, or in the hand. All are legitimate ways of receiving the Blessed Sacrament.

And if you walk past the Precious Blood but do not recieve, genuflect or bow. Most people don’t, but our priest recently lectured us on this; the Blood is just as much Christ as the Hosts in the tabernacle, and we genuflect to it, right? We need to show reverence to the Blood as well. Profound bows and genuflection are appropraite for this.

No, the GIRM doesn’t permit standing on your tongue. That would be very distracting to everyone, as well as painful.