KatarinaTherese:
I have been reading
Story of a Soul by St. Therese lately. I just got to the part where she recieves her First Communion, and I’ve really been enjoying it. But then I was puzzled when I read that she asked permission to recieve the Eucharist again. I was even more confused when I found out she got permission to recieve on all feast days. How come she just couldn’t receive Jesus as often as she wanted, like we do today? Didn’t the Church always encourage reception of the Eucharist?
It’s varied through the ages. In the Middle Ages, it was the custom for most lay people to receive once a year, at Easter, although devout people might receive far more often - this wasn’t Church policy, so to speak, but what had grown up over the centuries. The Council of Trent (mid-16th century) tried to change this, and to encourage far more frequent reception, but it took time: even in religious orders, those who weren’t priests would generally only receive once a week and on major feasts.
In France, things were then complicated by the movement called ‘Jansenism’, which arose in the 17th century: this was a sort of Calvinist approach to Catholicism, in which the greatness of God, his ‘irrestible grace’ and His unalterable decrees were the main focus, often to the exclusion of His love and mercy. In the early days of the movement, a book by Antoine Arnauld called ‘De la Frequente Communion’ argued that most of us, however apparently repentant, were unworthy to approach the altar, and that abstaining from Communion was a meritorious action when done out of humility.
Although Jansenism was eventually condemned by Rome, it had by that time affected the Church in France very seriously: even great saints, like the Cure d’Ars, couldn’t entirely escape the fall-out. It rightly insisted on holiness, but wrongly taught that Communion is the reward of holiness rather than the medicine for those who are contrite, however imperfectly so. It meant that one had to go to Confession before any reception of the Blessed Sacrament, and get permission from one’s confessor to receive: and it also meant that the laity generally didn’t receive very often. Even in religion, it’s extraordinary how many convents and monasteries restricted reception. I think that Ste Therese was upset at one point when in Carmel because someone - I can’t remember if it was a new chaplain or a new Superior - cut down reception to Sundays and once mid-week.
The whole thing was finally blown apart by Pope St Pius X (1903-1914), who brought down the age of First Holy Communion to seven (the ‘age of reason’) from ten or twelve (in some counties, even older), and encouraged daily reception - though one was still meant to go to Confession each week, of course, if one was intending to receive that often). Now, it’s so normal that (as you’ve found) we find the older customs simply weird.
Sue
