Standing during Communion?

[Brendan]

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The Catholic Bishops came out with a statement that during the Lamb of God and until every one has received Communion you are to be standing. As I said previously, each Diocese does it onw thing,as in your case, you kneel, which is liturgical wrong because it simplyst ates you are to be standing during Holy Communion.eir
As I said before, the priests do not listen to their bishops and the bishops do not listen to the Pope.

May Almighty God bless you.

PROVIGIL, PhD

Provigil, you are incorrect.

Here is the appropriate instruction from the GIRM

43 … In the dioceses of the United States of America, they should kneel beginning after the singing or recitation of the Sanctus until after the Amen of the Eucharistic Prayer, except when prevented on occasion by reasons of health, lack of space, the large number of people present, or some other good reason… Those who do not kneel ought to make a profound bow when the priest genuflects after the consecration. The faithful kneel after the Agnus Dei unless the Diocesan Bishop determines otherwise.

The ‘default’ position after the Agnus Dei is kneeling, but the Diocesan Bishop is given the authority to set an alternate posture. Those bishops that have elected to have the faithful stand are within their authority to do so.

But after one recieves Communion, the bishops and Rome have said that the faithful are free to sit, kneel or stand as they personally see fit

From the request for clairification sent to Rome by +Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb.

Prot. N. 2372/00/L

1. Is it the case that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, by No. 43 of the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, intends to prohibit the faithfull from kneeling during any part of the Mass except during the Consecration, that is, to prohibit the faithful from kneeling after the Agnus Dei and following the reception oh the Holy Communion?

Resp.: Negative

Here is the transcript from when the bishops were discussing this, so you can see that they were all on board with this

adoremus.org/KneelingafterCommunion.html

 

[zab]

OK, something strange is going on. This is just too co-incidental. Someone is puttin icons on my topics.

 

[mdgspencer]

According to the General Instruction on the Roman Missal, the people can either stand or kneel during the silence after communion. It is up to the people which to do.
When the people sit all together after communion when the priest does, I notice that they all stop praying. However, I continue to kneel, because I prefer to pray. I would rather pray than sit without prayer during the mass then. However, other people of course are free to do as they please at this point in the mass. It is up to everyone what to do.

 

[zab]

According to the General Instruction on the Roman Missal, the people can either stand or kneel during the silence after communion. It is up to the people which to do.
When the people sit all together after communion when the priest does, I notice that they all stop praying. However, I continue to kneel, because I prefer to pray. I would rather pray than sit without prayer during the mass then. However, other people of course are free to do as they please at this point in the mass. It is up to everyone what to do.

You don’t know that people stop praying when they sit. In 1974 Rome gave the interpretation of General Instruction on the Roman Missal saying that the people can kneel, stand or sit.

 

[mdgspencer]

I think I will watch carefully to see next Sunday what they seem to be doing when they sit all at the same time during the communion silence. Are they looking about or what? You could watch yourself, by the way
Of course I agree with you, people can kneel, stand or sit then, as they choose. This occurs in a diocese neighboring mine and where I go to mass sometimes where the bishop has told them they should stand and not kneel after communion, though this is in violation of the GIRM. (But of course this is another matter besides the subject of this thread.)

You don’t know that people stop praying when they sit. In 1974 Rome gave the interpretation of General Instruction on the Roman Missal saying that the people can kneel, stand or sit.

 

[Irishmom2]

Reading the bulletin, talking to family members, rummaging through their pockets or purses, putting hair in or out of a pony tail, waving to people passing by them in the aisle, are just a few of the ways you can pretty much tell people aren’t praying after they get back from communion and are sitting in the pew. Of course, at least they came back to the pew unlike the ones that make a beeline from the altar to the exit door…

 

[zab]

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…When the people sit all together after communion when the priest does, I notice that they **all **stop praying…

I think I will watch carefully to see next Sunday what they seem to be doing when they sit all at the same time during the communion silence. Are they looking about or what? You could watch yourself, by the way

Reading the bulletin, talking to family members, rummaging through their pockets or purses, putting hair in or out of a pony tail, waving to people passing by them in the aisle, are just a few of the ways you can pretty much tell people aren’t praying after they get back from communion and are sitting in the pew. Of course, at least they came back to the pew unlike the ones that make a beeline from the altar to the exit door…

It sounds to me like it is not only some (I don’t know how you can say all) of those who sit after the priest sits that stop praying.

 

[Irishmom2]

Ah zab,
How can you fail to notice when you are on your knees on the kneeler and hair is being swung in your face or people are talking 4 inches away from your ear? LOL

 

[zab]

Ah zab,
How can you fail to notice when you are on your knees on the kneeler and hair is being swung in your face or people are talking 4 inches away from your ear? LOL

As I said, my objection was to the word “all”.

 

[dashso40]

We kneel during communion in our parish in New York…

 

[zab]

We kneel during communion in our parish in New York…

Our congregation stands until coming back from Communion and then most kneel unless they have some physical problems that prevent them from kneeling. We do this in obedience to the directive of our bishop who has that authority.

 

[eccehomo]

This question is interesting. It is also a question that would be moot in a truly traditional parish. In the “old way”, pre-VII, kneeling would be the the order of the day, right? Now, however, we have a relative mass - too many rubrics left to the ideas of the locals.

I’m not sure what the “new way” is, so I follow that which worked for so many years, I kneel. Would you stand before the Lord, were He to appear in your church? Well, He IS there, and I would not be so bold as to stand before the Lord, I would at least kneel, and most likely lie flat on the floor, trying to hide my sinful nature from Him.

[edited] Does anyone know what the Magisterium directs on this subject?

Marv

 

[zab]

This question is interesting. It is also a question that would be moot in a truly traditional parish. In the “old way”, pre-VII, kneeling would be the the order of the day, right? Now, however, we have a relative mass - too many rubrics left to the ideas of the locals.

I’m not sure what the “new way” is, so I follow that which worked for so many years, I kneel. Would you stand before the Lord, were He to appear in your church? Well, He IS there, and I would not be so bold as to stand before the Lord, I would at least kneel, and most likely lie flat on the floor, trying to hide my sinful nature from Him.

[edited] Does anyone know what the Magisterium directs on this subject?

Marv

To read a quote from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) see post #17

I can understand the lack of trust that some Catholics have after having experienced such gross abuses of the Liturgy. But in this case, the local bishop has the authority to decide if the people in his diocese should kneel or remain standing after the Agnus Dei until after they come back from Communion and then they have the option to kneel, stand or sit. We should respect the valid authority of our bishop.

For a direct link to thewebsite vatican for the GIRM , see chapter II #43 CLICK HERE

 

[ewahawaii]

The majority of the parishioners in my church continue to stand after receiving communion.

As for me, I kneel after receiving communion in respect to our LORD still present on the altar. It is only when the priest puts the remaining hosts back in the tabernacle and closes the door…then I sit.

 

[EasterJoy]

In all of this, it almost goes without saying that spiritual pride is a worse sin even than spiritual insensitivity, although either can take on deadly proportions. I think we can agree that, of all liturgical abuses, spiritual pride is the worst. Our interior posture has its own rubrics, too, to which we are more strictly bound than the external ones. We are commanded to love one another, to consider others as better than ourselves. When we are called by the Holy Spirit to express inner reverence and piety in outward ways, though, the evil one will almost always try to entice us into pride, instead. That, too, is almost a given. Even at Mass, we’re not in Heaven yet. The devil will always try to use correctness in the outer duty to corrupt the intention of the inner duty. We must approach correct duty with the caution its dangers merit, just as we do not let our guard down around the fire we use to warm and inspire ourselves. We must keep the main thing the main thing.

Even if our brothers or sisters act in ways less noble than our shepherds teach us all that we should each be, we together as one have been chosen as the tabernacle for which the Blessed Sacrament is ultimately offered and where Jesus most ardently seeks repose, not the one bolted to the floor. Were others not to merit reverence for how they chose to act, they still merit reverence for the One has chosen that we all join in intimate communion with Him. For what loyal subject, freed from abject slavery himself, would dare to criticize the suitability of his master’s choice of habitat? How could we reject another slave as less worthy of adoption than we? When admonishment of anyone else is our duty, we have to walk that line…we may point to the act of the vessel, but must still bow to the One who has chosen that vessel as His own, for whom He thirsts, for whom He died. No tabernacle made by human hands can say that, but only those made by God and redeemed in order to hold Himself for eternity. So there is also that aspect of reverence that we may never safely neglect, something we must always keep in mind.