Father Z’s article also mentioned how the row by row communion can more or less force someone into a communion line - particularly if whoever is in charge is purposefully cotinuing the unapproved practice of having everyone come forward and those who do not feel themselves well disposed to receive Holy Communion to come anyway, cross their hands over their chest and receive a blessing.
I think other factors that contributed to this psychological pressure to go forward even if you shouldn’t are
a) row by row Communion processions and
b) the reduction of the Eucharistic fast to only one hour before Communion.
By conducting row by row communion in a parish this way , a well-meaning pastor could possibly be interfering with the working of his parishoners’ private consciences.
Even Fr. Edward McNamara in
this EWTN response to Communion Blessings by both ordinary and extraordinary ministers , while considering some aspects a little more openly, didn’t have too many words of commendation for the practice of orderly row by row communion lines. When considering the idea of a non-communicant being singled out in the view of others, he says:
In some cases a blessing might help such people attend Mass by avoiding an embarrassing moment. But it could also have exactly the opposite effect by singling them out for a blessing when others receive Communion. Likewise, this situation is more often than not provoked by the bad habit in many parishes of insisting on an orderly pew-by-pew communion procession when a bit of confusion would be enough to help such people pass unnoticed .
What we fail to understand in our frailty is that a person who refrains from Holy Communion according to their conscience, is a good source of edification to all of us ; he /she provides us with an occasion of practicality to pause and ponder the state of our own soul and of
Who it is who actually comes to us in person at this moment . They are showing our loving Lord a profound respect in the Blessed Sacrament. And it is they who also add so much meaning to
“Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof” , and who subsequently remind us that the sacrament of Reconciliation is a sacrament of
healing.
I can’t find it now, but when researching these questions I came upon a comment in the form of a question, which was phrased in a way that we should ask ourselves : Just how is it that today we have such an abundance of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, while not that many of us are benefitting from frequent Confession , if any Confession at all ?
