Which hand to take communion with

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I’m a lefty and when I was first receiving communion as a youngster, the priest made an example out of me for taking communion with my left hand. Recently I’ve been reading a lot on the internet, and coming across articles saying that righties use their right hand and it’s the opposite for left handed people. Is this true now?
 
Love_Divine said:
I’m a lefty and when I was first receiving communion as a youngster, the priest made an example out of me for taking communion with my left hand. Recently I’ve been reading a lot on the internet, and coming across articles saying that righties use their right hand and it’s the opposite for left handed people. Is this true now?
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This matter is not, to my knowledge, strongly regulated.

It makes sense to me to receive the host in one’s non-dominant hand and to transfer it thence to the mouth with the dominant hand. :twocents:

tee
 
Love_Divine said:
I’m a lefty and when I was first receiving communion as a youngster, the priest made an example out of me for taking communion with my left hand. Recently I’ve been reading a lot on the internet, and coming across articles saying that righties use their right hand and it’s the opposite for left handed people. Is this true now?
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Ask your priest, O Love Divine. 🙂
 
Across many cultures the right has a positive significance, and the left a negative one. This is even evident in some of the words - I believe “right” in English in the sense of “right and just” comes from the right as in “right hand.” Or maybe it’s vice versa. Similarly, in Latin, the word for left is sinister, which obviously has developed its own negative meanings. Being at someone’s right hand is an idiom meaning in a favored position. Priests bless with their right hands. In the near and middle East, it is often the case that one eats, greets, writes, etc with the right hand, while performing toilet activities with the left. So there is a long tradition of symbolism favoring the right hand over the left.

However, as TFM noted, I don’t think this is really regulated in regard to individual communion, and like say numerology the symbolism is not viewed with the same importance today as it once was. So it’s fairly common and accepted for people to receive in the way you describe.
 
JRKH said:
You beat me to it. :D:thumbsup:😃

Receive on the tongue and it solves all of the problems. After all, you only have one of them, 😛

Peace
James
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I agree with the COTT suggestion although I’ve heard some accused of speaking with forked tongues! Just joking about the forked tongue.
 
I see several beat me to it. And I was going to say something clever too, ah well. 👍
Don’t receive in the hand, show true devotion as Aquinas argued and receive on the TONGUE! 😉
 
Fine:

You could refrain from frequent reception entirely – If you limit yourself to the Easter Duty, the question would only come up once per year and cause much less anxiety. “:D”":D"

But that hardly answers the question: In those places where reception of Communion in the hand has been legitimately indulged, is there a correct hand in which to receive it and if so, which one?

tee
 
tee_eff_em said:
Fine:

You could refrain from frequent reception entirely – If you limit yourself to the Easter Duty, the question would only come up once per year and cause much less anxiety. “:D”":D"
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tee

I’m not even a Christmas and Easter Catholic anymore. I don’t get Easter Monday off from school and I go home to celebrate Easter with my family. It takes a full day to drive one way, so I have to travel on Sunday. My instructors don’t care and require me to be back on Monday for classes.

I started going back to church regularly on Sundays a couple years ago, but I just started getting frustrated with going to church and want to yell at the people there to put some clothes on, turn off their cell phones and stop texting. There’s a lot of other things that led to my great frustrations, but I just lost my zest for going to something that was once respected and is now something you just do because you’re obligated.

As for communion on the tongue, it’s not something I’m familiar with, and I’m not really fond of the idea of someone’s dirty fingers coming near my mouth. I’ve seen far too many nose pickers, and people who don’t wash their hands after using the washroom. I don’t mind the Orthodox way of taking communion by the mouth, as the alcohol in the wine kills the pathogens on the spoon.

Actually, during the H1N1 over exaggeration, communion via the mouth wasn’t permitted, or chalice, nor was handshaking and the holy water at the entrances. Actually, it was shortly after that which I stopped going to church weekly again.
 
I’d once like to see a thread that doesn’t include the obilgatory “COTT solves every problem” post(s). 😃

Assuming that one is going to receive in the hand, 😉 there are no guidelines for which hand to use. Tee’s comments are spot on, though. If one is a lefty the argument could be made that receiving in the right hand and using the left to transfer the host from hand to mouth is less likely to result in a dropped host.
 
Newbie2 said:
I’d once like to see a thread that doesn’t include the obilgatory “COTT solves every problem” post(s). 😃
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I had a feeling someone was going to bring up COTT.
Assuming that one is going to receive in the hand, 😉 there are no guidelines for which hand to use. Tee’s comments are spot on, though. If one is a lefty the argument could be made that receiving in the right hand and using the left to transfer the host from hand to mouth is less likely to result in a dropped host.
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I thought that’s what those plates the altar servers stick under your mouth are for.:confused:
 
Love_Divine said:
I thought that’s what those plates the altar servers stick under your mouth are for.:confused:
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The purpose of the paten is to *catch *a host (or particle) after it has been dropped. Usage of the dominant hand is my supposition to *prevent or minimize *dropping in the first place.

tee
 
Love_Divine said:
I’m a lefty and when I was first receiving communion as a youngster, the priest made an example out of me for taking communion with my left hand. Recently I’ve been reading a lot on the internet, and coming across articles saying that righties use their right hand and it’s the opposite for left handed people. Is this true now?
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in the instruction given by the Vatican, you should make your right hand a throne of your left which is to receive our Lord

so left hand on top, right hand at the bottom.

but traditionally, how they do it in the early Church was the other way around. the right hand receives our Lord. i would say follow what the Church has recommended today, and that is the left hand receives our Lord
 
choy said:
in the instruction given by the Vatican, you should make your right hand a throne of your left which is to receive our Lord
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I spent at least an hour yesterday online trying to figure out what they meant by make a throne. I was like, "it doesn’t look like a chair to me? Am I doing that right?:confused:

I had a messed up Catholic upbringing. I was never taught the proper way to do reconciliation either. We were taught you go in there and tell the priest your sins, he’ll give you his blessing, and tell you to say a couple Hail Marys. Things like Penance, Act of Contrition, examination of conscience, confessional, going behind the screen, and having to recite the, “bless me Father for I have sinned” were all things I learned on the internet over the past few years. Just yesterday I learned the Act of Contrition. Something’s seriously wrong here.:eek:
 
Love_Divine said:
I spent at least an hour yesterday online trying to figure out what they meant by make a throne. I was like, "it doesn’t look like a chair to me? Am I doing that right?:confused:

I had a messed up Catholic upbringing. I was never taught the proper way to do reconciliation either. We were taught you go in there and tell the priest your sins, he’ll give you his blessing, and tell you to say a couple Hail Marys. Things like Penance, Act of Contrition, examination of conscience, confessional, going behind the screen, and having to recite the, “bless me Father for I have sinned” were all things I learned on the internet over the past few years. Just yesterday I learned the Act of Contrition. Something’s seriously wrong here.:eek:
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“throne” doesn’t necessarily mean your hand should be shaped like a chair. but that your left hand is on top of your right hand like a throne. Jesus is King, therefore he only sits on a throne. so make your hand a throne, meaning know that the one who sits on your hand is the King of kings. a throne anyway is just a fancy chair. anyone can have a fancy chair but only what is recognized as a throne is where a king sits

i’ve been searching for the document that provides the instructions, but whenever i google all i get are never ending debates between COTT and CITH
 
choy said:
i’ve been searching for the document that provides the instructions, but whenever i google all i get are never ending debates between COTT and CITH
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I found that too. I tried looking up when the Catholic Church came to North America, but instead I found a bunch of different denominations of Roman Catholics claiming to be the only true Catholics because they still do mass in Latin. Apparently, by not saying the consecration in Latin, it changes it from it’s original form because certain words don’t translate, and transubstantiation can’t actually occur.🤷
 
I never touch it with my hand. It is THE Body of Christ. I have it placed on my tongue.
 
I was taught both how to receive on the hand and on the tongue when I went through first communion prep in 1992 ?:eek: Even though I was (and am :p) a lefty I was taught to place my right hand under my left and then pick up the Eucharist with my right hand. It is really no big deal, I have to shake hands, use computer mice(?), and most scissors with my right hand so it is really just something you learn. We were taught this had the proper symbolism as others have mentioned.
 
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