Would YOU like to know the results of the removal of communion rails

  • Thread starter Thread starter PJM
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
You’re right. I didn’t mean to imply that receiving in the hand, alone was the disturbing part. Whether one chooses to receive in the hand or on the tongue isn’t necessarily the focal point or the main issue. My point was to illustrate that there is a divide in the church between what is proper and what is improper.

I feel that a lack of understanding about church teachings is what lead to this rift. It’s hard to have reverence for a belief that you do not understand.
 
It is ironic that you say this, because you yourself have just judged me inaccurately.
Are you saying I was inaccurate in saying: “And because that is in your heart, you show respect and reverence?”

Or are you mistakenly confusing a warning with judging?
 
(name removed by moderator) is correct.

That is Church teaching.
 
Last edited:
The rule is one hour before communion. It’s nearly impossible to break the fast unless you bring food into church with you, since communting time plus Mass time before communion generally comes to about an hour.
You poor unfortunate soul.

I’m lucky to be in an urban parish. If I’m going to the 9:00 Mass, I can roll out of bed at 8:30, shower, shave, get dressed, walk to the church and be in the pew on time.

Makes fasting a lot easier, since I can do half of it in my sleep.😁
 
Last edited:
Fasting while sleeping is pretty easy. Of course that was also true when the fast was from midnight. I was never quite fully awake before arriving at church.
 
But back in the Pre-Vatican II days, 6:00AM Masses were commonplace.
This is true.

Way back when I was an altar boy, we dreaded getting assigned to those Masses. It meant we had to get up a couple of hours earlier. Weekday Masses were assigned in blocks of three (Monday to Wednesday, Thursday to Saturday), so it wouldn’t just be one morning, it would be three in a row.

Painful.
 
Small crumbs would be Christ. Very minuscule particles (not visible to the human eye) would not be Christ.

As long as it is invisible to the human eye, it is not Jesus. If it is very small, but still visible, it is Jesus.
 
Last edited:
I know someone who grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schools and didn’t even know there was a communion fast. She had no idea she shouldn’t eat immediately before Mass or for that matter that she should not eat for a time after receiving communion.

.
We are not forbidden to eat for a time after receiving. Where did you get that idea from? Or do you mean only for a minute or so, given that many parishes have coffee and donuts after Mass?
 
There is a post communion fast because Christ is still present as our stomach digests. It is not defined as a set time. I wouldn’t say it is a few minutes. I wait twenty minutes but less time may be fine. Depending on how quickly someone rushes to eat after Mass they may not be honoring this fast. Again, it isn’t explicit like the pre communion fast, but it is a real thing.
 
Joe, this is a very inaccurate statement. Removing Communion railing was and is not agenda driven politics.

@Joe1. If you ask pianistclare, she might tell you why rails were installed. It’s an interesting part of history.

In my opinion, all this divisiveness in mouth vs hand, kneel vs stand, rail vs no rail is just driving people away from Mass. And that, my friends, is what evil is attemptng to achieve.

Until your Parish, Diocese has been through this experience , you will have no concept of how loud or subtle the tricks of evil are.
Isn’t it’s main aim to destroy the Mass, and get people questioning their faith?

Any talk of one Mass, one environment over another is quite self absorbed in humanity. This talk ignores the relevant details of Mass.
Jesus is there with us,
We are there to Worship God.
We do this in obedience to our Shepherd, the Bishop.
Inferring Bishops had agenda driven politics that caused the removal of rails is a sign of the illness creeping into the Church in 2018.

Ps @Joe1 no photos of rails today, I am in at the Cathedral. I might pm you a link to the Cathedral web page so you can see how it’s set up. If that’s ok with you. To compare to the small rural Church photos next week.
It’s a great example of Gothic 1800s architecture in Australia.
 
Last edited:
Lets not be too scrupulous about the normal “fallout” involved in normally attempted non wasteful eating of any human food.

If Jesus can be “hurt” in any way in the Eucharist I suggest its not by being dropped on the floor etc in all the habitual ways usually considered tolerable in other respectful food eating situations.

If we are going to get too obsessive about these non intentionally disrespectful realities then we have to get obsessive about how we deal to the linen that contacts the sacred species also.

Anyone who has administered the Communion chalice in the 1970s or 1980s when lipstick and packed Sunday Churches were at their peak will attest to the mess that the purificator is left in at the end. Personally I think Jesus understands even if it seems very unseemly.

Lets not get into the washing of such linen, especially when in 1970 it was no longer required that a priest must do so and all manner of techniques were no doubt employed at home - including non dedicated washing machines or vessels and the use of drains connected to septic tanks or council sewerage systems rather than the consecrated ground beneath the foundations of the Church.

I think Jesus had something to say about over scrupulous washings of the outside of golden vessels, and forgetting to clean our own interiors.
 
Last edited:
There is a post communion fast because Christ is still present as our stomach digests. It is not defined as a set time. I wouldn’t say it is a few minutes. I wait twenty minutes but less time may be fine. Depending on how quickly someone rushes to eat after Mass they may not be honoring this fast. Again, it isn’t explicit like the pre communion fast, but it is a real thing.
You say it is a real thing. Can you quote a source, please?
 
Come to think of it, this is why I’m glad it isn’t from midnight anymore. I work overnight now. My lunch break is always after midnight. I remember one overnight shift I had to fast from midnight for a medical test, and I was miserable and cranky and feeling sick by the time I got off because of how hungry I was.
 
A side note, and some advice from one who has been doing this for decades, set fasting blood work and such in the afternoon if you can and go to it when you wake up. That is a better analogy of how the normals do it.
 
When I was doing that one I was told they only had the staff available in the morning and I couldn’t schedule the test after noon. That was a smaller area though. When I had it here they just had “fast for X hours before the test” and could schedule it whenever.
 
I’m lucky to be in an urban parish. If I’m going to the 9:00 Mass, I can roll out of bed at 8:30, shower, shave, get dressed, walk to the church and be in the pew on time.
Used to be a lot more folks who could run on that kind of schedule here in Pittsburgh. But they’ve been closing a lot of buildings, now its like 10 blocks to the formerly German church. When I moved here it was 2 blocks to the Polish church.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top