Would you like to have kneelers for communion back in style?

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Dude…
I see where you’re coming from, but - fun fact- pews with kneelers were first made common in Protestant churches right after the Reformation. Some Catholic churches dont have kneelers for pews today. Its important, but there are bigger fish to fry.
 
We have two pre dieu for Communion at our parish, they receive alot of use:+1:🙏
 
There are quite a few Churches around here without kneelers. None are in schism, and one is sending its 12th young man to seminary. The parish has been open 20 years.

So, that blows that idea out of the water.
 
I don’t think it would be required for those who have trouble kneeling, to kneel. The Church understands the needs of the flock.
 
The woman you replied to specifically specified that she could not kneel… I would say your reply implied that she was irreverent.

Also, focusing on others when you reccieve Christ, rather than focusing upon Him, is a great way to really reduce the graces reccieved in the Eucharist.
 
I’m okay with it either way. It’s a bit hard on people who physically have trouble kneeling and getting up. Then again the priest or EMHC usually brings them communion at their seat.

I also think that for very large gatherings where there is simply not room for everyone to kneel or it would add a huge amount of time to the service, the standing option works much better. If you are at Mass in a huge open-air space, or in a sports stadium, or at a very crowded cathedral, shrine or other Standing Room Only Mass, people are not going to be able to easily kneel or get to a kneeler. Easier to just send the priest or EMHC into the crowd.
 
NO. It would be disastrous for most of our parish, many who are old. Even the EMHC’s mostly stand at the altar, not kneel because they can’t get back up.
It’s not holier to kneel. We kneel when we return to pray. God understand, I mean, the Apostles SAT (reclined at table) when they received. They didn’t kneel. This was a centuries later innovation. Early Christians stood for the entire Mass.
 
I know this. But why make it harder, and then give people something to complain about?

In the US, the normative posture is to stand.
People can kneel if they want.

Why go backward?
 
Standing was chosen as the norm most likely because most in the United States were already doing it, and they chose it to have a united posture.

But the very fact that communion in the hand while standing was born out of disobedience, I would say, speaks volumes. I’m not sure how things progressed from communion on tongue while kneeling to communion in hand while standing, but from what I see, there wasn’t much of a choice to kneel when it was decided by many to rip out communion rails. That was never mandated and never desired by the Vatican II council.
 
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That happened with a lot of things after the Council… the ‘spirit’ of v2 is far different than the actual council.
 
Standing for communion has been the norm my whole life and I am pushing 50. The only time I ever kneeled for communion was when I attended the Episcopal Church.
This thread is about kneeling. In the US, the norm is standing. On the tongue, in the hand is the choice of the communicant, and has nothing to do with kneeling or standing.
The Bishops of the US made the decision, it was approved by the Vatican. That is good enough for me.
 
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Communion in the hand/tongue and standing/kneeling actually go hand in hand as far as when certain practices sprang up. My mom is 56 and was taught to receive kneeling, most likely because communion rails were still in place at her parish. I was never taught kneeling was an option or communion on the tongue was an option. Though some like to say there is a choice to kneel, technically for most people, no because many have no idea it even is a practice. Disciplines such as these, of course, can be changed because they are just that: disciplines, not dogma or doctrine. But just because it has been changed that doesn’t make it better necessarily.
 
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evangelical said:
Would you like to have kneelers for communion back in style?
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What do you mean? Do you mean kneelers in the pews? If so, the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Catholic Churches have them.

If you mean having an altar rail with padding, then I say yes.
 
Why weren’t you taught?
Wouldn’t have that been your mother’s responsibility, as your primary catechist. Especially if she thought that it was important.
 
We aren’t a very vocal Catholic family. I don’t believe she thought it was important, probably. I’m not sure why I never knew about kneeling, but I do know that if I would ask any of my former ccd classmates if they know about kneeling during communion, they would give me a blank stare.
 
My parish still has the old altar rail - it was never taken out. If people can’t kneel they just stand at the altar rail - no problem.
 
No, my parish church is too small.

People would be tripping over the legs of people kneeling as they returned to their pews.

Jim
 
For me they also have never gone “out of style.” I couldn’t imagine Mass without them in fact. I drove through more than a dozen US states and attended Mass through many of them and found them used everywhere I visited. I can’t imagine where they wouldn’t be used though would avoid attending Mass in such places if I were to come across them.

If you’re talking about kneeling at the reception of communion, that is another story but is an option for anyone wanting to receive that way nonetheless.
 
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