Posted on 06/26/2008 9:22:38 AM PDT by rrstar96
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Receiving the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling before the pope will become the norm at papal liturgies, said the Vatican's liturgist.
While current norms allow the faithful to receive the Eucharist in the hand while standing, Pope Benedict XVI has indicated a preference for the more traditional practice, said Msgr. Guido Marini, master of papal liturgical ceremonies.
Kneeling and receiving Communion on the tongue highlights "the truth of the real presence (of Christ) in the Eucharist, helps the devotion of the faithful and introduces the sense of mystery more easily," he said in a June 26 interview with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
Pastorally speaking, he said "it is urgent to highlight and recover" these aspects of the sacredness and mystery of the Eucharist in modern times.
Generally at papal Masses, those receiving Communion from the pope stand and the majority choose to receive on the tongue.
But starting with a May 22 Mass outside the Basilica of St. John Lateran, two ushers placed a kneeler in front of the altar and the chosen communicants all knelt and received on the tongue.
At a June 15 Mass in the southern Italian port city of Brindisi, the pope again distributed Communion to the faithful on the tongue while they were kneeling.
In the Vatican newspaper interview, Msgr. Marini was asked if this practice was destined to become the norm in all papal celebrations, and he replied, "I really think so."
He said "it is necessary not to forget that the distribution of Communion in the hand, from a juridical standpoint, remains up to now an indult," which is an exemption from a general requirement that is granted by the Vatican to the bishops' conferences which have requested it. He said the pope's adoption of the traditional practice of distributing Communion "aims to highlight the force of the valid norm for the whole church."
However, the pope's preference for the traditional practice is not meant to "take anything away from the other" permissible form of standing or receiving the Eucharist in the hand, he said.
Msgr. Marini told the Vatican newspaper that Pope Benedict also would be introducing another change to future papal liturgies during his June 29 Mass marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Rome.
He said the pope would begin wearing a shorter pallium -- a circular woolen band worn over the shoulders with a shorter strip hanging down the front and back -- similar to the kind worn by Pope John Paul II.
Pope Benedict had been wearing a pallium similar to ones worn by popes in the first millennium, when the woolen band was wrapped around the pope's shoulders and hung down his left side to just below his knees.
Msgr. Marini said the new pallium was chosen for two reasons: "to more heavily underline the continued development this liturgical vestment has had over the span of more than 12 centuries" and to be more practical.
The longer pallium the pope had been using created "different and troublesome problems," he said.
The newer, shorter pallium is decorated with six red crosses instead of black ones. Like other palliums, the end piece is made of black silk, a symbol of the black sheep which the shepherd rescues and carries over his shoulder back to the flock.
The white woolen pallium is a sign of the pope's and an archbishop's authority over the Christian community and the Gospel authority of a shepherd called to carry his sheep, to lead them and to feed them.
Faith of Our Fathers ping
The whole in hand while standing thing is one of the ways in which liberals weaken the faith of the followers by forcing the ceremony to adapt to the less faithful. How liberals think that they can force the church to allow priests to marry or whatever escapes me. We know the why: It is the church's opposition to abortion and birth control. They will use whatever means to diminish the compliance of the faithful to church doctrines, so as to weaken the church, like dry rot or termites, ever so slowly
It is possible? The Mass will finally be restored to its mystical and spiritual form? The communion rail will be reinstated?
I have never been comfortable with putting the Host in one’s hands, or the giving of the Host by lay people. When I was growing up, when it came time for communion, a second priest would enter the nave and assist at the rail. Now you have this “5 lines - no waiting!”
I’m probably being a stick in the mud, I know.....
It speeds things up, but I’ve never been a big fan of standing. And I hate receiving Eucharist in the hand. The EM’s always do a double-take when I receive the traditional way.
Actually, communion used to be pretty speedy in the old days, when you had a communion rail and the people knelt at it while the priest moved along it. If there were two priests, they would each take a side (on the sides of the gate in the center of the rail). Because the priest was the only one moving, it was quite fast.
Excellent.
Now can we work on turning the altar back around ? :-)
May God bless us all, now that we have started to focus back on Him, and not on guitar Masses and Wiccan nuns and liberation theology. One of our objectives should be on ending the Schism. Not by strongarming the Orthodox, but by reclaiming our orthodoxy.
The Latins saved the Church from the heretics in the East the first millennium; the East can save the Church from the heretics in the West over the last millennium. Including the heretics spawned from Vatican II.
So Mark, are you saying that the elimination of worship practices you find distastefull will bring the individual to Christ?
Was there ever a pure church? Is a pure church necessary or even possible? Does the church save men’s souls?
Don’t get me started.
Tom
***So Mark, are you saying that the elimination of worship practices you find distastefull will bring the individual to Christ?***
Unlike the children of the Reformation, I do not pretend to be my own Pope. I do, however, prefer to listen to the Church rather than the practices of men. I categorize the receipt of the Eucharist on the tongue in a kneeling position rather than the receipt on the hand in the standing position to be an indication of respect and spiritual receptiveness.
***Was there ever a pure church? ***
The purity was as pure as Simon Peter was, for instance.
***Is a pure church necessary or even possible? ***
It is a goal of every individual who wishes for salvation.
***Does the church save men’s souls?***
Jesus does.
***Don’t get me started.***
I’ll take the key out.
Wonderful! Now that I have had a hip operation and can kneel.
Mark,
Your lack sir of biblical understanding is , how shall I say, huge.
Tom
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