How Do You Receive The Eucharist?

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='Apotheoun' post='1580008' date='Jun 23 2008, 03:21 AM']I receive the Eucharist on a golden spoon.[/quote]

[iggyjoan]

I receive it with my hands because that's simply the way I was taught.

[Vincent Vega]

I always try to get in the priest's 'line' so I can receive on the tongue...I don't like receiving in the hands, nor on the tongue by an EMHC...

[premed_jakey]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' post='1580463' date='Jun 23 2008, 05:22 PM']I always try to get in the priest's 'line' so I can receive on the tongue...I don't like receiving in the hands, nor on the tongue by an EMHC...[/quote]

I agree. Though, at my home Parish, I generally still recieve on the tongue, even when an EMHC is doing it, but not at other parishes, because I am not sure of how used to it they are.

[Resurrexi]

Here's an interesting [url="http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0800122.htm"]news story[/url] from a little while back.

Bishop says Catholics should kneel, receive communion on tongue

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The reverence and awe of Catholics who truly believe they are receiving Jesus in the Eucharist should lead them to kneel and receive Communion on their tongues, said a bishop writing in the Vatican newspaper.

"If some nonbeliever arrived and observed such an act of adoration perhaps he, too, would 'fall down and worship God, declaring, God is really in your midst,'" wrote Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, quoting from the First Letter to the Corinthians.

In a Jan. 8 article labeled a "historical-liturgical note," Bishop Schneider reviewed the writings of early church theologians about eucharistic reception and said the practice of laypeople receiving Communion on the tongue was the predominant custom by the sixth century.

The article in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, appeared under the headline, "Like a nursing child in the arms of the one who nourishes him."

Bishop Schneider said that just as a baby opens his mouth to receive nourishment from his mother, so should Catholics open their mouths to receive nourishment from Jesus.

"Christ truly nourishes us with his body and blood in holy Communion and, in the patristic era, it was compared to maternal breastfeeding," he said.

"The awareness of the greatness of the eucharistic mystery is demonstrated in a special way by the manner in which the body of the Lord is distributed and received," the bishop wrote.

In addition to demonstrating true adoration by kneeling, he said, receiving Communion on the tongue also avoids concerns about people receiving the body of Christ with dirty hands or of losing particles of the Eucharist, concerns that make sense if people truly believe in the sacrament.

"Wouldn't it correspond better to the deepest reality and truth about the consecrated bread if even today the faithful would kneel on the ground to receive it, opening their mouths like the prophet receiving the word of God and allowing themselves to be nourished like a child?" Bishop Schneider asked.

In 1969 the Vatican published an instruction allowing bishops to permit the distribution of Communion in the hand. While at papal liturgies most people who receive Communion from the pope receive Communion on the tongue, they also are permitted to reverently receive the Eucharist in the hand.



I'd also like to add the Holy Father's example of distributing the Blessed Sacrament to communicants only kneeling on the tongue as of late.

Edited June 24, 2008 by StThomasMore

[rckllnknny]

i do a back-flip afterwards.

[dominicansoul]

how do you do that without hitting the people in the line behind you?

[Resurrexi]

Maybe he receives at an altar rail, thus eliminating the line (sort of).

[Deb]

[quote name='StThomasMore' post='1580732' date='Jun 23 2008, 07:53 PM']Here's an interesting [url="http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0800122.htm"]news story[/url] from a little while back.

Bishop says Catholics should kneel, receive communion on tongue

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The reverence and awe of Catholics who truly believe they are receiving Jesus in the Eucharist should lead them to kneel and receive Communion on their tongues, said a bishop writing in the Vatican newspaper.

"If some nonbeliever arrived and observed such an act of adoration perhaps he, too, would 'fall down and worship God, declaring, God is really in your midst,'" wrote Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, quoting from the First Letter to the Corinthians.

In a Jan. 8 article labeled a "historical-liturgical note," Bishop Schneider reviewed the writings of early church theologians about eucharistic reception and said the practice of laypeople receiving Communion on the tongue was the predominant custom by the sixth century.

The article in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, appeared under the headline, "Like a nursing child in the arms of the one who nourishes him."

Bishop Schneider said that just as a baby opens his mouth to receive nourishment from his mother, so should Catholics open their mouths to receive nourishment from Jesus.

"Christ truly nourishes us with his body and blood in holy Communion and, in the patristic era, it was compared to maternal breastfeeding," he said.

"The awareness of the greatness of the eucharistic mystery is demonstrated in a special way by the manner in which the body of the Lord is distributed and received," the bishop wrote.

In addition to demonstrating true adoration by kneeling, he said, receiving Communion on the tongue also avoids concerns about people receiving the body of Christ with dirty hands or of losing particles of the Eucharist, concerns that make sense if people truly believe in the sacrament.

"Wouldn't it correspond better to the deepest reality and truth about the consecrated bread if even today the faithful would kneel on the ground to receive it, opening their mouths like the prophet receiving the word of God and allowing themselves to be nourished like a child?" Bishop Schneider asked.

In 1969 the Vatican published an instruction allowing bishops to permit the distribution of Communion in the hand. While at papal liturgies most people who receive Communion from the pope receive Communion on the tongue, they also are permitted to reverently receive the Eucharist in the hand.



I'd also like to add the Holy Father's example of distributing the Blessed Sacrament to communicants only kneeling on the tongue as of late.[/quote]

I agree. If it was up to me, we would all be prostrate. I won't accept it in my hand. I will never consider myself on the same level as the servant of Christ who is ordained and who consecrates the host. I may be stricter than the church but, that is how I was taught when I was young. It was the normup until recently. I do not receive the precious body from anyone other than a Priest.
I think it is about time we restore to the office of the Priest what was given to him by Christ. Yes. I am hardcore about this. We are talking about the body of our beloved Christ here. I see the awe and power and mystery of this. This isn't romper room and no, everyone does not get a turn to handle and give out the snacks.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Deb

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Deb' post='1580849' date='Jun 23 2008, 07:02 PM']I agree. If it was up to me, we would all be prostrate. I won't accept it in my hand. I will never consider myself on the same level as the servant of Christ who is ordained and who consecrates the host. I may be stricter than the church but, that is how I was taught when I was young. It was the normup until recently. I do not receive the precious body from anyone other than a Priest.
I think it is about time we restore to the office of the Priest what was given to him by Christ. Yes. I am hardcore about this. We are talking about the body of our beloved Christ here. I see the awe and power and mystery of this. This isn't romper room and no, everyone does not get a turn to handle and give out the snacks.[/quote]
+J.M.J.+
thank goodness the Church decides what's up, and not us.

[Jaime]

[quote name='rckllnknny' post='1580766' date='Jun 23 2008, 08:10 PM']i do a back-flip afterwards.[/quote]

since he's not Catholic, I'm hoping not

[MissScripture]

[quote name='StColette' post='1580282' date='Jun 23 2008, 12:55 PM']I receive on the tongue. Sometimes I'm a little scared to do so though because many EMHC's aren't trained or used to people receiving that way. It's almost caused Jesus to be dropped a few times because they aren't aware of the fact that you can either receive on the tongue or in the hands. I try to go to a priest or deacon for that reason because they are more accustomed to both of the norms for receiving. If I do receive from a EMHC I have my hands ready to catch Jesus just in case they aren't used to the norm or paying attention to the fact that I don't have my hands out and I'm receiving on the tongue.[/quote]
Where I am right now, generally people recieve on the tongue, and the altar boys have the plates to hold under to catch if Jesus is dropped. Well, I take care of a lady who uses a wheel chair to go to Mass, so she's in front of me, even when I try to push her out of the way, so I really can't recieve on the tongue, because I can't stretch that far (not that I did before, but I don't have much of a choice now). Anyway, the altar boy almost hit me in the face with it once, because he went to put it under my chin, while I reached out my hands and so then he was trying to get it out of the way. The priest just looked bewildered. lol.

[Dave]

It's been said on here that the Church allows reception of Holy Communion on the tongue and also in the hand. Not exactly. Reception on the tongue is the norm. But reception in the hand is only allowed in areas where bishops choose to allow it (Communion in the hand is an indult). Thus, in many parts of the world, receiving in the hand is forbidden.

Nowadays it seems most people are basically taught that receiving in the hand is the ONLY way. That, to me, is a tragedy.

[kujo]

[quote name='rckllnknny' post='1580766' date='Jun 23 2008, 09:10 PM']i do a back-flip afterwards.[/quote]

Hahahaha.

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='Dave' post='1581151' date='Jun 23 2008, 10:27 PM']It's been said on here that the Church allows reception of Holy Communion on the tongue and also in the hand. Not exactly. Reception on the tongue is the norm. But reception in the hand is only allowed in areas where bishops choose to allow it (Communion in the hand is an indult). Thus, in many parts of the world, receiving in the hand is forbidden.

Nowadays it seems most people are basically taught that receiving in the hand is the ONLY way. That, to me, is a tragedy.[/quote]

Very true about Communion in the hand being an indult. I nearly forgot about that.