Monday, August 3, 2009

Can you?

As my regular reader has learned, two of my biggest pet peeves are communion in the hand and laymen distributing communion.

Oh, and altar girls. But that would make it my biggest three pet peeves.

For some time now His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has required that communicants receiving from him do so only on the tongue, kneeling. As we see in this picture here.

Pope Benedict is not one to coerce, he teaches. This is exactly what he has been doing his entire Pontificate. And now he continues to teach us the proper way to receive our Lord.

So it would seem now that the Pope would like us to begin on our own, without an edict from him, receiving in the tongue, kneeling. Can you do this? In your Novus Ordo good time parish? Can you obey your Holy Father?

I can.

Leave me a comment if you can too.

From Newsblaze

"Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord... For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord" - 1 Corinthians 11:27,28

Pope Benedict to Catholics:
Kneel and Receive on the Tongue Only

Pope Benedict XVI does not want the faithful receiving Communion in their hand nor does he want them standing to receive Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. According to Vatican liturgist, Monsignor Guido Marini, the pope is trying to set the stage for the whole church as to the proper norm for receiving Communion for which reason communicants at his papal Masses are now asked to kneel and receive on the tongue.

The Holy Father's reasoning is simple: "We Christians kneel before the Blessed Sacrament because, therein, we know and believe to be the presence of the One True God." (May 22, 2008)

According to the pope the entire Church should kneel in adoration before God in the Eucharist. "Kneeling in adoration before the Eucharist is the most valid and radical remedy against the idolatries of yesterday and today" (May 22, 2008)

The pope's action is in accord with the Church's 2000 year tradition and is being done in order to foster a renewed love and respect for the Eucharist which presently is being mocked and treated with contempt. The various trends and innovations of our time (guitar liturgy, altar girls, lay ministers, Communion in the hand) have worked together to destroy our regard for the Eucharist, thus advancing the spiritual death of the church. After all, the Eucharist is the very life and heartbeat of the Mystical Body around which the entire Church must revolve.

Kneeling also coincides with the Church's centuries old ordinance that only the consecrated hands of a priest touch the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. "To priests alone has been given power to consecrate and administer to the faithful, the Holy Eucharist." (Council of Trent) This teaching is beautifully expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica: "Because out of reverence towards this sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest's hands, for touching this sacrament."

It is for reason that Pope Paul VI in his May 1969 pastoral letter to the world's bishops reaffirmed the Church's teaching on the reception of Communion, stating that: "This method on the tongue must be retained." (Memoriale Domini) This came in response to the bishops of Holland who started Communion in the hand in defiance of the centuries old decree from the Council of Rouen (650 A.D.) where this practice was condemned as sacrilegious. "Do not put the Eucharist in the hands of any layperson, but only in their mouths." To date this prohibition has never been overturned legally.

Today Communion in the hand is carried on illegally and has become a major tool of the enemy to destory the Faith throughout the world. For this practice serves no other purpose than to warp our conception of Jesus Christ and nourish a contempt for the sacred mysteries. It's no wonder St. Basil referred to Communion in the hand as "a grave fault."

That is to say, Communion in the hand is not tied with Catholic tradition. This practice was first introduced to the Church by the heretical Arians of the 4th century as a means of expressing their belief that Christ was not divine. Unfortunately, it has served to express the same in our time and has been at the very heart of the present heresy and desecration that is rampant throughout the universal Church. If we have 'abuse' problems today it is because we're abusing the Sacrament - it's backfiring on us!

Thanks to Communion in the hand, members of satanic cults are now given easy access to come into the Church and take the Host so that they bring it back to their covens where it is abused and brutalized in the ritualistic Black Mass to Satan. They crush the Host under their shoes as a mockery to the living God, and we assist it with our casual practice? Amongst themselves the satanists declare that Communion in the hand is the greatest thing that ever happened to them, and we do nothing to stop it?


Hence, the Holy Father is doing his part to try to purge the Church of abuse and we as members of Christ are called upon to assist him. For your encouragement we include the following quotation from Cardinal Llovera, the new prefect for the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments speaking to Life Site News on July 22, 2009: "It is the mission of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments to work to promote Pope Benedict's emphasis on the traditional practices of liturgy, such as reception of Communion on the tongue while kneeling."

Also worth considering is the recent decree from Cardinal Caffarra, the Archbishop of Bologna Italy, forbidding the practice of Communion in the hand: "Many cases of profanation of the Eucharist have occurred, profiting by the possibility to receive the consecrated Bread on one’s palm of the hand... Considering the frequency in which cases of irreverent behavior in the act of receiving the Eucharist have been reported, we dispose that starting from today in the Metropolitan Church of St. Peter, in the Basilica of St. Petronius and in the Shrine of the Holy Virgin of St. Luke in Bologna the faithful are to receive the consecrated Bread only from the hands of the Minister directly on the tongue." (from his decree on the reception of the Eucharist, issued April 27, 2009)

Technically all bishops and clergy are bound to follow the Holy Father's directive on this issue, but in the meantime the faithful are not obliged to wait for the approval of their bishop in order to kneel for God. The directives of the Holy Father are not subject to the veto or scrutiny of the bishops and therefore all pastors and laity have a right and duty to put these directives into practice for the edification of their communities.

8 comments:

Al said...

Here in DBQ at most Churches, given the problems with my knees it is impossible for me to kneel, but I haven't had anyone refuse me on the tongue. Over in E DBQ is another matter. Last year Fr. Parker restored the communion rail so anyone who wants to can kneel. & almost everyone does.

Anonymous said...

But ...I can't. *fail* You know, the gluten intolerance thing....

- L

Anonymous said...

Dear Traddy,

The new priest in our parish (good priest, nice guy and all) gets confused each time I approach and my hands are not out to receive. It is an awkward moment. Last week I was sure the host was going to end up on the floor. (No. The altar girls were NOT there with the paten to protect against such a thing happening.) So, I can't imagine what will happen when I kneel to receive.

I am only one of few at the 11:30 mass who receives on the tongue (Standing). It has been a hard adjustment since I have been kneeling to receive at our latin mass(which our new priest does not know how to do).

A very orthodox person I know belongs to another parish and was told by his pastor (quite a while ago) that he did not want to have the parishioners kneeling to receive because it would be hard on his (the Pastor's) back ....!(??)

And that priest is considered one of our more conservative in town.

In answer to your query, "can you"? I'll let you know how it goes.

A traditional mom

The Rockin' Traddy said...

L - What happens to you when you consume a a tiny little consecrated host.

And I think you mentioned you found out you were gluten intolerant two years ago?

Have you thought about talking with your priest about your problem, and asking if you can take the Precious Blood instead?

Anonymous said...

We should not kneel in fear, but stand in joyful greeting!

That being said, there is a woman at my parish who kneels, and no priest gives her a hard time at all.

I will continue to stand, in the Catholic Christian tradition of the early church and Vatican II.

Proud Catholic

Anonymous said...

I am a member of a parish merging with a more trad parish in the Cleveland diocese. The trads both kneel at the altar and have a line for those receiving standing, and receiving on the tongue seems to be the norm for their communicants.

Our parish church will be where the newly-merged parish will worship, and our priest is vehemently opposed to kneeling for Communion (please note this opposition is not coming from our parishioners - I think most of us love and respect the people from the trad parish.) As members of merger committees, we contacted the Diocese for some kind of guidance (which served to anger our priest, unfortunately), and we were given documentation from the USCCB stating that the norm in the US is to receive standing, but that anyone who kneels cannot be denied, and of course, receiving on the tongue is perfectly correct.

Our priest appears to think he will be named the new pastor, and we are hoping the parishioners from the other parish will not be discouraged, because I think we will be a strong parish - we need each other, and each parish has fine attributes and good, decent parishioners. Please pray for us.

The Rockin' Traddy said...

Proud - We kneel in adoration of our Lord. We don't stand and extend a hand as if we were meeting a two-faced politician.

Anonymous said...

Traddy,

Gluten intolerance and/or Celiac disease is something where you can't just eat a little bit of gluten and not be affected. Some people, if they have a crumb touch their mouth they get a full blown reaction. I haven't noticed it that dramatic with me ... (for example, I've seen someone with gloves touch something with flour and then touch my food container at Chipotle, but I haven't reacted. But some people might react to just that.) But taking a whole wafer to me...*wince* I mean, it's not something where I can just say...ah, read this if you're interested. It's a pretty good summary: gluten-ness

And trust me, the suffering and pain I had is bad enough that I don't want it at all. I was even at a point of despair a few years back about it, before I knew what it was. I kept cutting out all these foods but kept randomly getting those 'attacks' and thought to myself "how can I even look forward to wanting to live if I have to deal with this all the time?" not even 'woe is me', just matter-of-fact. so lol. And in addition, I don't know if I have full-blown Celiac or just gluten intolerance. To be able to tell, I'd have to eat gluten again and get a biopsy. BUT for those with Celiac, ingesting gluten, even small amounts, actually damages your intestines and increases the risk of cancer quite a bit. So it's not something to be messed with.

In any case...I do take the Blood now though. It's awkward standing in line and skipping the communion but so far no one's questioned me. The thing is, I have to watch the priest like a hawk when he breaks the communion into the chalice. To make sure I don't drink out of that chalice, lol. I've dodged lines if they have the communion-chalice before. But the main parish I go to, usually the chalic with the communion in it is given to the eucharistic ministers and is gone before it gets to the rest.

Anyway, more than you wanted to know probably, sorry for rambling. :P

But to any church-goers or priests that may be reading this -- if you see a person randomly duck past the Communion and go straight to the wine -- they might have a health problem like I do!!

- L