Sunday Meditation: Prepare for Holy Communion and Receive with Joy and Reverence!

In Chapter 12 of The Catholic Mass, Bishop Athanasius Schneider offers a long quote from St. Peter Julian Eymard, Apostle of the Eucharist. One could meditate on this passage every Sunday before Mass without exhausting its richness.

The Eucharist, according to the Council of Trent, is a divine antidote that delivers us from common faults and preserves us from mortal sin....Jesus comes to us to destroy the vestiges of our sins, to counteract our evil tendencies, and to prevent the Devil from re-establishing his power over us. 

Of course, we have an obligation to approach the table of the Lord with a proper disposition, ensuring to the degree possible that we are in the state of grace so as not to commit a sacrilege by inviting the immaculate Lord into a literal cesspool. But when we are properly disposed, the Eucharist diminishes all the temptations that plague us and helps us overcome those venial sins that often become habitual and hard to root out.

More Bad News from the Vatican: Catholics Told Not to Kneel or Receive Communion on the Tongue

Pope Francis Confers Lay Ministries Upon Ten People in St. Peter’s Basilica

What has been considered a "right" of the laity was soundly squashed Sunday when Francis conferred the ministry of lector and catechist on ten lay people at St. Peter's, four men and six women. In the protocols before the event, the laity were instructed (mandated) that they could not kneel or receive Communion on the tongue.  It's unclear from reports whether the mandate applied only to the ten or to all those attending the event (5,000).

Priest Refuses Communion on the Tongue to Kneeling Catholic

To be fair, there were other priests (You can see them in the video.) who gave Communion on the tongue. But this rogue priest knows better than God and felt he had the right to deny the Eucharist to someone because he dared to kneel and try to receive on the tongue. Well, I hope someone identifies the priest and he receives the censure he deserves for denying the canonical rights of the man. Perhaps soon, the priest's action will be the norm, but for now it was a canonical violation that should be exposed. It's especially ironic since Benedict encouraged Communion on the tongue. Lord, have mercy on us for the curse of arrogant priests who inflict their personal desires on Your flock, diminishing reverence for Your sacred. Body and Blood.

A member of the faithful is denied Holy Communion at the Funeral of Pope Benedict XVI because he wanted to receive Our Blessed Lord in the traditional manner, as was often advocated by Benedict himself; on the tongue and kneeling. pic.twitter.com/s8CWVJnE1T

— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) January 5, 2023

Do You Discriminate against those with Special Needs?

Read The Sneetches to your kids and
remind them to respect others.

In my experience, two subjects on Facebook bring out the big guns among Catholics: diocesan mandates about masking and Communion in the hand and the SSPX. Sad to say, the shooting begins almost immediately whenever these subjects come up.

I'm going to focus on the mask-on/mask-off controversy in this post with an analogy from Dr. Seuss and his story, The Sneetches. 

For those who've never read The Sneetches, there were two groups: the sneetches who had "bellies with stars" and the "plain-bellied sneetches with none upon thars." Best on the beaches were the star-bellied sneetches. They wouldn't play with the unstarred sneetches or invite them to their weenie roasts. In fact they treated the poor starless sneetches abominably. I won't ruin the story for you; but it's a great lesson in true tolerance and respect for differences and also a warning about the temptation to be social climbers and snobs who look down on your neighbors.

Want a Sure Litmus Test to Measure Your Bishop? Is He Forcing Communion in the Hand?

Archbishop Wester "presided" at the
2018 Assembly Mass of AUSCP.

US archbishop bans Communion on tongue, claims it’s ‘not crucial’ how Catholics receive

How many liberal bishops like Wester will use the coronavirus as a pretext to ban Communion on the tongue and demand parishioners receive in the hand?

Well...how many bishops enabled the sex abuse scandal with coverups and moved abusers around? I expect to see more liberal bishops follow Wester.

One good thing is that he can hardly ban Communion in the hand without banning Communion under both species. How can he claim putting the host on the tongue is a risk while allowing a communal cup to be passed from mouth to mouth? I wish that practice would disappear forever! Intinction yes, communal cup with hordes of LEMs (lay extraordinary ministers) NO!

Our Lover Comes; How Will You Receive Him?

In 2010 I posted this article by a dear priest, Fr. Robert Lange, who went to his eternal reward in 2015. On this Holy Thursday, I think it is worth repeating. I will be praying for Father at the service this evening. I hope you will too. 

And did you know that The Law of the Church is Communion on the Tongue? Receiving in the hand is an indult, an exception to the law, that was given to the bishops of the United States because of widespread disobedience by the flock, disobedience that many of the bishops encouraged. Sad, isn't it, the damage done by false shepherds acting more like the hireling? May we all pray and fast for our bishops and clergy that they will be able to say with Christ, "Zeal for your house consumes me." (Psalm 69:9, John 2:17)

Respect For Christ In The Eucharist – One Priest’s Perspective

[The picture above is of my home in Fort Valley, Virginia, and the light is coming from my chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. There is not light in the window and there is no sun out on the day of the picture.]

by Rev. Robert Lange

Think About It!

Who are fed by others? Those who are dependent and those who are in love. Babies and the elderly often need assistance from those who love them. Lovers feed one another -- think of the tradition of sweetly feeding each other the wedding cake (and not smashing it disrespectfully in each other's faces).

We are dependent on God and we want to be in a relationship of deep and intimate love with Him. That is what receiving on the tongue is all about. It is a humble, loving, and reverent gesture of our love for God and dependence on Him. Think about it....

Deepen Your Love for the Eucharist

The letter below was published last Sunday on the Feast of Corpus Christi in the bulletin for St. Ann's Catholic Church in Charlotte, N.C. by its pastor, Fr. Timothy Reid. I was thrilled to read it, especially since my own pastor preached the same message on the feast day. More and more priests are urging greater respect for the Eucharist and asking their parishionsers to return to the venerable practice of receiving on the tongue. It is a humble act reminding of our dependence on the God who feeds us with His own Body and Blood.

The Real Presence is the center of our faith and as more Catholics devote themselves to the person of Jesus in the Eucharist we will see a spiritual renewal in our parishes, our families, and our world. God bless Fr. Reid, my pastor Fr. Ettner, and Fr. Robert Lange who recently wrote a beautiful article on this subject. Thank you, dear fathers, for your love for the Holy Eucharist. May Jesus Christ be praised now and forever.


Dear Parishioners,


This weekend Holy Mother Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, a feast instituted in the late 13th century to commemorate our Lord’s institution of the Eucharist, which is the “source and summit of the Christian life” (Catechism #1324). As such, this is a day in which we are called to give rightful honor to our Lord’s true presence in the Blessed Sacrament. It’s also a good day for us to consider our own particular relationship with the Eucharist, most especially how reverent we are in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament and particularly our reverence in receiving Holy Communion.

To this end, I’d like to invite you to deepen your own love for our Eucharistic Lord by prayerfully considering receiving Holy Communion on the tongue. I have several reasons for this. While Roman Catholics in the U.S. and most other countries have been given an indult (an ecclesial permission for a particular situation) to receive Holy Communion in the hand, the universal norm for the reception of Holy Communion is on the tongue. In fact, as a means of fostering greater devotion to the Eucharist, the Holy Father now requires that those who receive Holy Communion from him do so kneeling and on the tongue.

No doubt many of our older parishioners will remember before the 2nd Vatican Council when everyone received Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. Contrary to popular belief, Vatican II did not call for a change in this practice. Sadly, Communion in the hand came about through the disobedience of many priests and bishops. Observing that in some places Communion in the hand was being introduced (in disobedience to the universal laws of the Church), Pope Paul VI sent out a questionnaire in 1968 to the bishops of the world asking whether there should be a change in the Church’s practice of distributing Holy Communion. The vast majority of bishops voted against a change in practice (cf. Memoriale Domini). Undaunted, some dioceses petitioned the Holy See to officially permit Communion in the hand, and it was in 1973 that the Church granted this wider permission (cf. Immensae Caritatis).

While Communion in the hand is permitted, the Church’s experience the past 40 years has shown that it may not be the most prudent practice. When I was parochial vicar at St. Matthew, we regularly found consecrated hosts in the pew racks or even stuck to the bottom side of the pews. Sadly, there has been one time in my tenure here at St. Ann that I found a consecrated Host in a pew rack. My dear friends: this is a terrible sacrilege! I have also had the terrible experience of having to “chase” communicants who received in the hand but did not consume the Host. The Eucharist is our Lord’s greatest gift to us because it is our Lord Himself! To treat Him with such casual disregard is truly an outrage and a scandal. However, reception on the tongue helps to eliminate the possibility of desecration.

Furthermore, please keep in mind that there is always the danger that particles from the Host may remain in the hand when one receives that way. And even though they are small, the Council of Trent infallibly taught that our Lord is truly present even in the particles as well. This is why priests go to such lengths (through the use of corporals, purificators, and the purification of his hands after Communion) to catch any particles from the consecrated Hosts. If you ever find particles in your hands after receiving Holy Communion, you should consume them immediately.

In addition to giving prayerful consideration to how you receive our Lord in Holy Communion, I also encourage you to be mindful of our Lord’s presence whenever you are in the church. Making sure to genuflect whenever you pass before the tabernacle, maintaining a prayerful silence in the church, dressing modestly, and silencing cell phones are practices that we would all do well to follow – not simply out of  respect for our Lord, but for the benefit of our fellow parishioners as well.

Prayerfully yours,
 
Fr. Reid