What if your parish went to communion by intinction only?

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jssaxon said:
AVERAGE CATHOLIC PARISHIONER:

5’ 4" female, watches Grey’s Anatomy, loves sunsets, walks on the beach, schmaltzy movies, doesn’t think birth control is a mortal sin, 40 pounds overweight, loves chocolate. 😉
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:rotfl: I guess I’m not an average parishioner. That’s everything I’m not. 😛

(5’9", likes to watch EWTN, History Channel, and Discovery Channel, hates schmaltzy movies and shows (CSI Nevada is a recent one on my “list” now), and repeatative shows (too many reality TV shows, hospital dramas, crime dramas, etc.), thinks anything remotely related to “pro-choice” is a sin, probably 20 pounds underweight. Chocolate is ok, but I don’t overdo it).

Anyway, on topic, the only church I’ve been in that has done Intinction was my old Lutheran church, and that was done once or twice as an experiement.
 
I think the average parishioner (I’m coming from the Midwest US) would ultimately disfavor it.

1.) I think almost all of us of recent age were taught to receive in the hand and then stand to the side and wait for the cup. It would be confusing for awhile to put out your hands and then have them hold a dunked bread-chunk and stare at you until you stuck out your tongue.

2.) I think it would be perceived as less sanitary than the current system. Yeah, there is the potential for backwash in the chalice, but it is your choice to receive from it. Imagine the same hand going from ciborium > bread > chalice > wine > tongue times 400. I saw a Greek Orthodox church do this once and they used some sort of a little spoon. Cool idea, but germ city.
  1. I think it would be perceived as inefficient. Obviously, the OMHC to communicant ratio would be very low and Communion would take forever. Mass would take longer, more people would be tempted to leave after Communion than already are, and we’d have to drone another couple of lame Communion songs on our knees to fill the time.
4.) I think it would be perceived as clerical and elitist. The average parishioner would wonder “Why are we doing it this way when they used to have 5 more people get up there and help? Doesn’t the Church want us to get involved anymore? So much for that stewardship sermon.”
 
robert_ambrose said:
i would make sure there was a sheet on the floor,to catch any drops of our lord’s precious blood being trampled nto the carpet’
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Our parishes has intinction as the normal method of reception. The altarboys will use the paten to ‘follow’ the Eucharist from the ciborium to the recepient’s mouth.
 
If the members of my parish were educated about it, they would be in favour of it, but if it were to just start happening without solid catechesis ahead of time - and by “solid catechesis,” I mean throrough communication in every format known to man (brochures, bulletin inserts, classes, take-home videos and audio CDs, homilies, classes in the school with take-home pages for the kids, a tear-jerker movie being made on the subject based around the life of a Saint who received in that manner, and shown at least three times in the parish theatre, an article on the subject in the Monthly Missal, and so on) - if they don’t get at least the above, at a minimum, then they would be suspicious of it and assume that it had been introduced by a friend of mine (who gets the blame for all of the “bad innovations” in our parish, regardless of whether she had anything to do with it, or not) and denounced as “the Spirit of Vatican II. Again.” 🤷
 
jmcrae said:
If the members of my parish were educated about it, they would be in favour of it, but if it were to just start happening without solid catechesis ahead of time - and by “solid catechesis,” I mean throrough communication in every format known to man (brochures, bulletin inserts, classes, take-home videos and audio CDs, homilies, classes in the school with take-home pages for the kids, a tear-jerker movie being made on the subject based around the life of a Saint who received in that manner, and shown at least three times in the parish theatre, an article on the subject in the Monthly Missal, and so on) - if they don’t get at least the above, at a minimum, then they would be suspicious of it and assume that it had been introduced by a friend of mine (who gets the blame for all of the “bad innovations” in our parish, regardless of whether she had anything to do with it, or not) and denounced as “the Spirit of Vatican II. Again.” 🤷
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Are you in my parish???
 
lepanto said:
What if your parish went to communion by intinction only? (Assuming that there was some catechesis about what it is and how it is properly done.)

How would the AVERAGE parishioner accept intinction?

Catholic Answers forumites are not average parishioners…so I’m asking how you think that the AVERAGE person at your parish would accept intinction.
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The average parishioner would be accepting of it. But the “above average” parishioners such as the EMHC’s would really not appreciate being taken out of the loop by having their jobs eliminated.

The new policy would definitely have to be presented diplomatically in order to avoid the alienation of many of the very active parishioners.
 
I personally would really like it. I rather think that Joe or Josephine Average 😃 would like it since it not only would seem more hygienic but would speed up the process of receiving under both species (and speeding up the process means they can catch more of the game on TV or shop more or whatever).:rolleyes:

This speeding up of the process would mean tho’ that all the EMHCs would still be used, too. That would mean that those who are EMHCs and love being an EMHC wouldn’t be bothered by it also (as long as there was sufficient training)
 
brigid12 said:
I personally would really like it. I rather think that Joe or Josephine Average 😃 would like it since it not only would seem more hygienic but would speed up the process of receiving under both species (and speeding up the process means they can catch more of the game on TV or shop more or whatever).:rolleyes:

This speeding up of the process would mean tho’ that all the EMHCs would still be used, too. That would mean that those who are EMHCs and love being an EMHC wouldn’t be bothered by it also (as long as there was sufficient training)
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EMHCs are not allowed to distribute Holy Communion by intinction - only priests are allowed to do that. 😉
 
I clicked that most parisioners would be indifferent.

However, I would applaud, then open wide.😉

Priests AND deacons are allowed to intinct, BTW.
 
OutinChgoburbs said:
I clicked that most parisioners would be indifferent.

However, I would applaud, then open wide.😉

Priests AND deacons are allowed to intinct, BTW.
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Yes, I should have said that “only ordained clergy are allowed to intinct.” 🙂
 
Intinction in parishes is a bit of a rouse to force the faithful not to receive in the hand. I dont like communion in the hand, but at this moment it is a right of the ppl. Any move toward intinction to force a particular way of receiving is an imposition on the part of the pastor and when fully understood will be rejected by the “average parishioner” who receives communion in the hand. While it is in the perview of the bishop to regulate such aspects of the liturgy, it is not in the competence of a pastor.

If the bishop or the National Conference of bishops were to require intinction, I would be all for it. I regularly receive in a UGCC church and actually prefer that method myself.

I just do not think it is in the interest of the church to have every pastor deciding for his parishioners how they will receive as long as communion in the hand is legally acceptable in the Church.
 
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