Receiving Communion While Kneeling

  • Thread starter Thread starter CatholicLife
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
If they’re receiving on the tongue, their hands never touch the host…good explanation for the reception on the tongue and for not using EMHCs, I guess.

But it has more to do with the Priest consecrating the wine and hosts than with the distribution, otherwise Deacons would have to wash too.
 
Ockham said:
I realize I’m splicing two sentences together, but I’ve puzzled by people who receive from an EMHC on their tongue.
Click to expand...
I guess i am confused on why it would be odd to recieve on the tongue from an EMHC? I don’t like to receieve in the hand because of the particals that might be left on my hand. If they put it in my mouth then that is less spreading of the host.

Like i said i don’t have this problem anymore because i go to a church with rails and no EMHC’s.
 
would you want to take the host from unclean hands? the host is holy, the body of CHRIST
 
One should also note that the CDW ruling also applies only to the Roman Rite; in the Byzantine Rite, the only proper position to receive is standing.

The CDW is the moderator of liturgical rules for the Roman Catholic Church, one of the 23 Catholic Churches united under the Pope. Each of the others has the right and duty to set their liturgical praxis. Including communion posture.

For Byzantines, it is in fact forbidden to kneel at all during prayer from Pascha (Easter) until Pentecost!
 
Ockham said:
The thing is, receiving in hand while standing did break Church laws. Our obedience is to the Church Christ founded for He is the way, truth, and life. When obedience to a man whether that be a priest or bishop supercedes the Church then we are in danger of falling away into a sect or cult. Pope Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI along with many other popes, saints, and theologians warn against receiving CITH while standing. The indult was probably granted from pressure due to the threat of schism in Europe. The norm for receiving the Blessed Sacrament is kneeling and on tongue. To which should you be more obedient, an indult or a norm?
Click to expand...
From the GIRM
Prot. N. 2235/02/L
Click to expand...
The United States of America
Click to expand...
At the request of His Excellency, the Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, Bishop of Belleville, President of the Conference of Bishops of the United States of America, in a letter of November 13, 2002, and in virtue of the faculties granted to this Congregation by the Supreme Pontiff JOHN PAUL II, we gladly confirm and approve the English translation of the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, excerpted from the third typical edition of the same Missal, as in the attached copy.
Click to expand...
Two copies of the printed text should be forwarded to this Congregation.
Click to expand...
**All things to the contrary notwithstanding. **
Click to expand...
From the offices of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, March 17, 2003.
Click to expand...
  • Francis Cardinal Arinze
    Prefect
Click to expand...
  • Franciscus Pius Tamburrino
    Archbishop-Secretary
    Email us at bcl@usccb.org
    Secretariat for Divine Worship | 3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington DC 20017-1194 | (202) 541-3060 © USCCB. All rights reserved.
Click to expand...
  1. The priest then takes the paten or ciborium and goes to the communicants, who, as a rule, approach in a procession.
Click to expand...
The faithful are not permitted to take the consecrated bread or the sacred chalice by themselves and, still less, to hand them from one to another. **The norm for reception of Holy Communion in the dioceses of the United States is standing. Communicants should not be denied Holy Communion because they kneel. Rather, such instances should be addressed pastorally, by providing the faithful with proper catechesis on the reasons for this norm. **
When receiving Holy Communion, the communicant bows his or her head before the Sacrament as a gesture of reverence and receives the Body of the Lord from the minister. The consecrated host may be received either on the tongue or in the hand, at the discretion of each communicant. When Holy Communion is received under both kinds, the sign of reverence is also made before receiving the Precious Blood.
Click to expand...
  1. If Communion is given only under the species of bread, the priest raises the host slightly and shows it to each, saying, Corpus Christi (The Body of Christ). The communicant replies, Amen, and receives the Sacrament either on the tongue or, where this is allowed and if the communicant so chooses, in the hand. As soon as the communicant receives the host, he or she consumes it entirely.
Click to expand...
If, however, Communion is given under both kinds, the rite prescribed in nos. 284-287 is followed.
Click to expand...
Lux
 
mdbaker46 said:
would you want to take the host from unclean hands? the host is holy, the body of CHRIST
Click to expand...
The lavabo of the priest is not a “real” hand-washing. Hopefully the priest has washed his hands thoroughly before Mass began. And hopefully other ministers of Holy Communion have done so too.
 
Newbie2 said:
Wait until you’re 85 years old with arthritis or with a walker. 😉

If receiving communion while kneeling is a “should do” or “must do” in some people’s minds…I’m not being argumentative here, just putting this out there for an answer…why does not the priest, deacon or bishop take the body and blood when kneeling?
Click to expand...
Actually, years ago, the only one who did not receive kneeling was the celebrant. Everyone else, except for those physically unable to do so received kneeling. That included Priests, Bishops Cardinals etc, if they were not the celebrant. Remember that the Priest acts in persona Christe when at the Altar.

We don’t.
 
japhy said:
The lavabo of the priest is not a “real” hand-washing. Hopefully the priest has washed his hands thoroughly before Mass began. And hopefully other ministers of Holy Communion have done so too.
Click to expand...
 
your not getting the Big picture about hand washing with holy water before touch the host, all servers should have their hands wash in holy water before giving out the host
 
mdbaker46 said:
your not getting the Big picture about hand washing with holy water before touch the host, all servers should have their hands wash in holy water before giving out the host
Click to expand...
I don’t even think the lavabo water is holy water. I don’t know of a holy-water-hand-washing rite for priests.

I’m not a big fan of Communion in the hand, nor the habitual use of EMHCs. But I don’t know of any necessity for ministers of Holy Communion to wash their hands in holy water before distributing the sacrament. Maybe this is something from the Extraordinary Form that I’ve never known about?
 
Cardinal Cañizares: As is known, the current universal discipline of the Church requires that as a norm Communion is distributed into the mouth of the faithful. Then there is an indult that allows, at the request of episcopates, to distribute Communion on the palm of the hand also. This is worth remembering. The pope, then, to give greater prominence to the due reverence with which we must approach the Body of Christ, wished that the faithful who receive Communion from his hands do so on their knees. This seemed to me a beautiful and edifying initiative of the Bishop of Rome. The present norms do not require anyone to do the same. But neither do they prevent it.

adoremus.org/0409CDW_Kneeling.html
 
It is baffling how so many Catholics argue so vigourously for their ‘right’ to receive the Lord in their hands while standing. Why is the greatest reverence something so repulsive? It should be embarrassing that some Protestant churches require reverence in the form of kneeling and the Catholic Church doesn’t. What started as a liturgical abuse was granted an indult and now the normal practice in most Western countries. CITH does not stand up to theological or Traditional criteria and our Holy Father won’t do it. What more evidence is required? To what end is this practice serving? Will defence of liturgical dance be as strong if it creeps into normal practice in the modern Mass?
 
Ockham said:
It is baffling how so many Catholics argue so vigourously for their ‘right’ to receive the Lord in their hands while standing. Why is the greatest reverence something so repulsive? It should be embarrassing that some Protestant churches require reverence in the form of kneeling and the Catholic Church doesn’t. What started as a liturgical abuse was granted an indult and now the normal practice in most Western countries. CITH does not stand up to theological or Traditional criteria and our Holy Father won’t do it. What more evidence is required? To what end is this practice serving? Will defence of liturgical dance be as strong if it creeps into normal practice in the modern Mass?
Click to expand...
But-but-but-but!

It was mentioned a small handful of times by someone! So it must be OK!!!

We need to bring back anathema, and declare CITH it. Then we’d see what would happen.
 
BayernAnhaenger said:
Rather, such instances should be addressed pastorally, by providing the faithful with proper catechesis on the reasons for this norm.

What ARE the reasons for this norm?
Click to expand...
Communion procession, which is a flowing reverent procession, rather than the kneel and wait of the rail or up & down of individual reception

The age of both the priests and congregation—all who can kneel can stand, but notall who stand can kneel, plus a kneeling communicant is much harder on the priest’s back.

and many others which have been rehashed many times, if you care to do a search. The bottom line is that standing is the norm chosen by the USCCB and approved by the Vatican.

Lux
 
The Communion rails were taken out to make it easier on the priest’s back?

Good grief.

I suppose that’s why there is less genuflecting by all?

This is one of the silliest defences for CITH I’ve seen yet. It makes me think of a comparison between standing versus kneeling like drive through versus going into the restaurant.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top