Communion In The Hand? Bad!

Another reason to ban communion in the hand. Watch closely as the girlfriend of the Costa Rican Presidential hopeful thoughtfully munches on Our Lord, then, having consumed too much white flour, she tucks the left over Jesus into the shirt pocket of her boyfriend. Perhaps some dip is in store for Jesus later in the day?

Isn't time the gutless shepherds who allow this sort of thing to continue take a stand to stop the sacrilege? This type of thing happening once should be enough, but our Bishops take a firmer stand on protecting modernism than protecting the Blessed Sacrament.

More scandal brought on the Church by modernism. Thanks Vatican II!

And thanks to Catholic Caveman who posted the vid.

Student steals Holy Eucharist

I've said it before. I'll say it again. In big bold letters:
COMMUNION IN THE HAND IS A SACRILEGE!!!!!!

'Body Of Christ' Snatched From Church, Held Hostage By UCF Student

wftv
July 5, 2008
http://www.wftv.com/news/16798008/detail.html


ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A University of Central Florida student, upset religious groups hold church services on public campuses, is holding hostage the Eucharist, an object so sacred to Catholics they call it the Body of Christ.

Church officials say UCF Student Senator Webster Cook was disruptive and disrespectful when he attended Mass held on campus Sunday June 29. It was during that Mass where Cook admits he obtained the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is a small bread wafer blessed by a priest. According to Catholics, the wafer becomes the Body of Christ once blessed and is to be consumed immediately after a minister passes it out to churchgoers.

Cook claims he planned to consume it, but first wanted to show it to a fellow student senator he brought to Mass who was curious about the Catholic faith.

"When I received the Eucharist, my intention was to bring it back to my seat to show him," Cook said. "I took about three steps from the woman distributing the Eucharist and someone grabbed the inside of my elbow and blocked the path in front of me. At that point I put it in my mouth so they'd leave me alone and I went back to my seat and I removed it from my mouth."

A church leader was watching, confronted Cook and tried to recover the sacred bread. Cook said she crossed the line and that's why he brought it home with him.

"She came up behind me, grabbed my wrist with her right hand, with her left hand grabbed my fingers and was trying to pry them open to get the Eucharist out of my hand," Cook said, adding she wouldn't immediately take her hands off him despite several requests.

Diocese of Orlando spokeswoman Carol Brinati said she was not aware of anyone touching Cook. She released a statement Thursday: "... a Catholic Campus Ministry student representative filed a complaint with the Student Union regarding the behavior of the two young men. A Student Government Representative called Catholic Campus Ministry to apologize for this disruption."

Cook filed an official abuse complaint with UCF's student conduct court regarding the alleged physical force. Following that complaint, Brinati said church members filed their own official complaints of disruptive conduct. Punishment for either offense could result in suspension or expulsion.

"The church feels that I'm the problem here," Cook said. "The problem is actually that this is a publicly-funded religious institution. Through student government here, we fund them through an activity and service, so they're receiving student money."

Cook is upset more than $40,000 in student fees have been allocated to support religious organizations on campus for the 2008-2009 school year, according to student government records. He denied he is holding the Eucharist hostage to protest that support.

Regardless of the reason, the Diocese says its main concern is to get the Eucharist back so it can be taken care of properly and with respect. Cook has been keeping the Eucharist stored in a plastic bag since last Sunday.

"It is hurtful," said Father Migeul Gonzalez with the Diocese. "Imagine if they kidnapped somebody and you make a plea for that individual to please return that loved one to the family."

Gonzalez said the Diocese is willing to meet with Cook and help him understand the importance of the Eucharist in hopes of him returning it. The Diocese is dispatching a nun to UCF's campus to oversee the next mass, protect the Eucharist and in hopes Cook will return it.

Cook said he'd consider returning the Eucharist if he gets an apology and a meeting with the Bishop's office to discuss the Diocese's policy on physical force.

Gonzalez said intentionally abusing the Eucharist is classified as a mortal sin in the Catholic church, the most severe possible. If it's not returned, the community of faith will have to ask for forgiveness.

"We have to make acts of reparation," Gonzalez said. "The whole community is going to turn to prayer. We'll ask the Lord for pardon, forgiveness, peace, not only for the whole community affected by it, but also for [Cook], we offer prayers for him as well."

More on communion in the hand!

You may remember this post on communion in the hand. Well, I came across some quotes on this infamous practice I thought you might like. And since the argument in favor of this sacrilege I hear most often is "that's how they did it in the early church", I have some early church fathers here as well to give you their feelings. Good reading, this!

Pope St. Sixtus I (circa 115)
He prohibited the faithful even to touch the Sacred Vessels: "Statutum est ut sacra vasa non ab aliis quam a sacratis Dominoque dicatis Contrectentur Hominbus..." (Read Num. 4: 15 Only the priests).


Pope St. Eutycbian (275-283 AD)
He forbade the faithful to take the Sacred Host in their hand.


St. Basil the Great (330-379 AD)
"The right to receive Holy Communion in the Hand is permitted only in time of Persecution." He considered Communion in the hand so irregular that he did not hesitate to consider it a grave fault.


The Council of Saragossa (380 AD)
It was decided to punish with EXCOMMUNICATION anyone who dared to continue the Practice of Holy Communion in the hand. The Synod of Toledo Confirmed the Decree.


Pope St. Leo the Great (440-461 AD)
The practice of administering Holy Communion on the tongue of the Faithful was energetically defended and faithfully obeyed.

The Synod of Rouen (650 AD)
"Do not put the Eucharist in the hands of any layman, but only in their mouths." Thus, again Communion in the hand was condemned as an abuse.


The 6th Ecumenical Council, III of Constantinople (680-681)
It forbade the faithful to take the Sacred Host in their hand, threatening transgressors with Excommunication.


St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD)
"The Body of Christ must not be touched by anyone, other than a Consecrated Priest. No other person has the right to touch it, except in case of extreme necessity.” (Read “Inestimabile Donum”).


The Council of Trent (1545-1565 AD)
"The fact that only the Priest gives Holy Communion with his consecrated hands is an apostolic tradition."


Pope Paul VI (1963-1978 AD)
" ... This Method [on the tongue] must be retained..." ("Memoriale Domini").


Pope John Paul II
"To touch the sacred species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained." (Dominicae Cenae, 11).

Sacrilege of the day: Communion in the hand

"I will tell you a secret, since we have just a thousand close friends together, and also because we have the Missionaries of Charity with us...

"Not very long ago I said Mass and preached for their Mother, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and after breakfast we spent quite a long time talking in a little room. Suddenly, I found myself asking her -- don't know why -- 'Mother, what do you think is the worst problem in the world today?' She more than anyone could name any number of candidates: famine, plague, disease, the breakdown of the family, rebellion against God, the corruption of the media, world debt, nuclear threat, and so on.

"Without pausing a second she said, 'Wherever I go in the whole world, the thing that makes me the saddest is watching people receive Communion in the hand.'"

- Father George William Rutler, Good Friday, 1989 in St. Agnes Church, New York City (a precise transcript taken from a tape of his talk available from St. Agnes Church)


Communion in the hand is another of the myriad innovations permitted in today's liberal Church. I am hoping the Church will move to clamp down on this, to help return some reverence to our "eucharistic meal". "Meal" Haha.

At my NO Church everyone from the lector, to the "extraordinary minister", to the altar girls all receive in the hand. Then they twirl their patens around and hold them as if they were tennis racquets. I get mad whenever I see the faithful hold out their grimy, unconsecrated hands to receive our Lord, who then proceed to munch on Him as if He were a cheez-it. And most of the parishoners receive in the hand.

Here is a bit of an article on the sacrilege of communion in the hand. If you attend an NO church, please don't do it.

You make baby Jesus cry.

It is a bedrock Catholic truth, taught by the Church since the time of the Apostles, that Our Lord Jesus Christ is truly present in the Most Holy Eucharist: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

The Council of Trent defined dogmatically that Our Lord Jesus Christ is present in every part of the Blessed Sacrament. The Council taught infallibly:

“If anyone denieth that, in the venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist, the whole Christ is contained under each species, and under every part of each species, when separated; let him be anathema.”

This means that Our Lord is present even in the smallest particle of the Host, and in the smallest particle that may fall to the ground. Thus the reverence that we owe to the Blessed Sacrament demands that we take every precaution that no particle of the Host — not even the smallest — is left open for desecration in any way.

First of all, Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that “out of reverence for this Sacrament, nothing touches it but what is consecrated.” Thus, he said the sacred vessels of the altar are consecrated for this holy purpose, but also, the priest’s hands are consecrated for touching this Sacrament. And St. Thomas said that it is therefore not lawful for anyone else to touch it, except to save it from desecration. (Summa, III, Q. 82. Art. 3)

This reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, and even for the smallest particles, was incorporated into the traditional Mass — the Old Latin Mass — which contained strict rubrics on this point:

1) From the moment the priest pronounces the words of the Consecration over the Sacred Host, the priest keeps his forefinger and thumb together on each hand. Whether he elevates the chalice, or turns the pages of the missal, or opens the tabernacle, his thumb and his forefinger on each hand are closed. The thumb and forefinger touch nothing but the Sacred Host;

2) During Holy Communion, the altar boy holds the paten under the chin of those receiving Communion, so that the slightest particle does not fall to the ground. This paten is cleaned into the chalice afterwards;

3) After Holy Communion is distributed, the priest scrapes the corporal (the small linen cloth on the altar) with the paten, and cleans it into the chalice so that if the slightest particle is left, it is collected and consumed by the priest;

4) Then, the priest washes his thumb and forefinger over the chalice with water and wine, and this water and wine is reverently consumed to insure that the smallest particle of the Sacred Host is not susceptible to desecration.

Communion in the hand and so-called Eucharist lay-ministers make a mockery of the Divine Truth that Our Lord is truly present in every particle of the Eucharist, and make a mockery of the holy rubrics used by the Church for centuries as a safeguard against desecration.

Because what happens with Communion in the hand?

The Host is placed in the hand, which is not consecrated. The communicant picks It up with his own fingers, which are not consecrated. The sacred particles fall to the ground, are stepped upon and desecrated.

Likewise with so-called Eucharistic lay-ministers, their hands are not consecrated; they should not be touching the Sacred Host. The sacred particles of the Host fall to the ground, are stepped upon and desecrated. The fingers of “lay-Eucharistic ministers” are not washed, so any particle remaining will also be desecrated.

No authority in the Church, not even the highest, can dispense a Catholic from the duty of preserving the necessary reverence owed to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Any Church leader who does so labors under the “diabolic disorientation of the upper hierarchy” warned against by Sister Lucy of Fatima, and is derelict in his duty.

Only forty-five years ago, Communion in the hand was unthinkable in Catholic churches. It was recognized for the sacrilege that it is. Only forty-five years ago, Eucharistic lay-ministers were unthinkable in Catholic churches. It was recognized for the sacrilege that it is.

But now, these abuses are permitted and promoted by a liberal hierarchy who — in this area and in many other areas — suddenly approve what the Church always rightly condemned. This “suddenly blessing what the Church always condemned” is the hallmark of the Vatican II reforms.

The truth, however, is that God does not change, and man’s duty of reverence toward the Blessed Sacrament does not change, even if we have many leaders who in their destructive liberalization of the Catholic Church, seem to care little or nothing for the true reverence we owe to Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist.

Thus, anyone who receives Communion in the hand, or who receives Communion from a Eucharistic lay-minister, or who is a Eucharistic lay-minister himself or herself — in the objective order — is committing a sacrilege. It is a misuse of a holy thing. It is a mockery of what the Church has taught and practiced. It is a desecration of the greatest gift that God has given us: the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist.

Read the rest of the article here