Receiving in a Specific Hand?

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alcuin18

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Hello. I recently read, in the Ask an Apologist section, that when you receive the Eucharist in the hand, you should receive in your non-writing hand, i.e. since I am left-handed, I should receive in the right hand, so that I can then place the Eucharist in my mouth with my writing hand. Since being baptized 6 years ago, I have always received in my left hand and placed the Eucharist in my mouth with my right hand simply because I find it easier and my right hand tends to be more agile, so there’s less chance of me dropping Him. Is this wrong? Should I change how I receive the Eucharist? Thank you and God bless. 🙂
 
alcuin18 said:
Hello. I recently read, in the Ask an Apologist section, that when you receive the Eucharist in the hand, you should receive in your non-writing hand, i.e. since I am left-handed, I should receive in the right hand, so that I can then place the Eucharist in my mouth with my writing hand. Since being baptized 6 years ago, I have always received in my left hand and placed the Eucharist in my mouth with my right hand simply because I find it easier and my right hand tends to be more agile, so there’s less chance of me dropping Him. Is this wrong? Should I change how I receive the Eucharist? Thank you and God bless. 🙂
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What you’re doing is fine. No need to change.

The instructions are to pick up the Host with the dominant hand simply because the assumption is that the dominant hand will be more dextrous (pardon the pun!) If you’re more comfortable using your right hand instead of your write hand, go right ahead. You’ll still be within the rite.
 
One can always receive on the tongue, if hand dexterity is the issue. Or even if it isn’t. Just sayin…
 
Beryllos said:
A nice wordplay. 👍
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You didn’t mention the pun, which I thought was noteworthy. After all “dextrous” comes from “dexter” which is Latin for “right.” I don’t want to tell you what the Latin for “left” is. 🙂
 
ProVobis said:
You didn’t mention the pun, which I thought was noteworthy. After all “dextrous” comes from “dexter” which is Latin for “right.” I don’t want to tell you what the Latin for “left” is. 🙂
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Are you trying to hide something sinister from us?
 
alcuin18 said:
Hello. I recently read, in the Ask an Apologist section, that when you receive the Eucharist in the hand, you should receive in your non-writing hand, i.e. since I am left-handed, I should receive in the right hand, so that I can then place the Eucharist in my mouth with my writing hand. Since being baptized 6 years ago, I have always received in my left hand and placed the Eucharist in my mouth with my right hand simply because I find it easier and my right hand tends to be more agile, so there’s less chance of me dropping Him. Is this wrong? Should I change how I receive the Eucharist? Thank you and God bless. 🙂
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Traditionally, Catholics that were left-handed were taught (and dare I say, in the past, beaten) into writing with their right hands therefore, the writing hand is the right hand in all cases.
Therefore, it would be traditional to receive the Eucharist in the left hand and pick it up with the right hand; although, now that people don’t “insist” that one writes with the right hand, it is common to receive the Eucharist on whichever is your non-writing hand (traditionally and most commonly left) and pick it up with the other.

There is no strict rule, however.
 
ProVobis said:
I have two sinister hands. I drop about as equally using either one. 🙂
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It is so interesting to me the “sinister” angle. There is a reason we say “your right hand does not know what your left hand is doing”

Or why salt was through over the left shoulder. Or why southpaws were accused of witchcraft.
 
ProVobis said:
One can always receive on the tongue, if hand dexterity is the issue. Or even if it isn’t. Just sayin…
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That is how I receive but it still does not solve my problem as I am often told I have a forked tongue.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
That is how I receive but it still does not solve my problem as I am often told I have a forked tongue.
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:rotfl:

I was wondering why a specific question about which hand to receive in was answered with a completely different method of reception. It seemed to unnecessarily confuse things for the OP.
 
grasscutter said:
:rotfl:

I was wondering why a specific question about which hand to receive in was answered with a completely different method of reception. It seemed to unnecessarily confuse things for the OP.
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“Consider the source” comes to mind. 😉
 
grasscutter said:
It seemed to unnecessarily confuse things for the OP.
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In my experience at CAF, I’ve observed that the level of confusion usually correlates with the number of posts within a thread. So a little levity can’t do that much harm IMO.
 
tommydude2112 said:
Traditionally, Catholics that were left-handed were taught (and dare I say, in the past, beaten) into writing with their right hands therefore, the writing hand is the right hand in all cases.
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Actually, it was all children. Not Catholic children.
 
ProVobis said:
In my experience at CAF, I’ve observed that the level of confusion usually correlates with the number of posts within a thread. So a little levity can’t do that much harm IMO.
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I apologize. :o I didn’t realize it was meant as levity. I read it as, “I wondered about doing this or that”, and a response said “well, I always do another, so therefore no problem or need of question”. Again, I’m sorry for misreading… 🙂
 
FrDavid96 said:
What you’re doing is fine. No need to change.

The instructions are to pick up the Host with the dominant hand simply because the assumption is that the dominant hand will be more dextrous (pardon the pun!) If you’re more comfortable using your right hand instead of your write hand, go right ahead. You’ll still be within the rite.
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Thank you very much for clarifying my issue, I’m glad I haven’t been doing it wrong all this time. 😛
 
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