Saturday 13 August 2011

Kneeling for Communion


It is well-known that the Pope now only gives Holy Communion on the tongue to people who are kneeling.
Last month the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Canizares Llovera, has explicitly seconded this. He recommends that all Catholics receive Communion on the tongue and also while kneeling:
"It is the sign of adoration that needs to be recovered. I think the entire Church needs to receive Communion while kneeling.
If we trivialize Communion, we trivialize everything, and we cannot lose a moment as important as that of receiving Communion, of recognizing the real presence of Christ there, of the God who is the love above all loves, as we sing in a hymn in Spanish.
It is to simply know that we are before God himself and that He came to us and that we are undeserving".
Certainly it is noticeable that more people in the parish here are rediscovering the practice of receiving on the tongue.
Last month the bishops of England and Wales also pointed out that all Catholics in this country have a right to receive kneeling. This would present a challenge at the moment, as the altar rails were removed in both churches decades ago.  It is going to require a little thinking about...

2 comments:

  1. It is about time that human beings who believe in God give respect and humble themselves by kneeling in God's presence at the alter to receive him. What has happened to society?

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  2. Having no altar rail doesn't stop one from kneeling. At the Evangelium conference, everyone knelt to receive Holy Communion despite their being no altar rail. And I always kneel wherever and whenever I receive Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, altar rail or no altar rail. When I did this at Bodmin when we came to visit Neil last month, I was asked by a visiting priest whether I belonged to Opus Dei!

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