For those who watch EWTN Live, Fr. Mitch touched on this topic last night with his guest, Abbot Nicholas Zachariadis from the community of Byzantine monks at The Holy Resurrection Monastery in St. Nazianz, Wisconsin. In the Byzantine Church, children are baptized, chrismated and receive communion on the same day. These are the Sacraments of Initiation.
“WHY CAN’T MY SON RECEIVE THE EUCHARIST?”
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I grew up in the Episcopal church, before it was corrupted by gays and socialist. To receive communion, one was to first be “confirmed”. I was in my young teens when I went through confirmation classes.
While I understand the rule, I think that in certain situations, anyone of any age should be allowed to receive the body and blood of Christ.
In the early church, infants received Communion. The practice is noted by Augustine,
1Cor 11
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
A two and one half year old is hardly a man.
What an idiot!
This actually DOES sound like a mother who cannot say “no.” I guess it’s now a civil right to be able to receive Communion anytime, anywhere, any age.
I'm going to call BS on the two-and-a-half-year-old behaving in quite this way.
My two-and-a-half-year-old son has never liked to be still.Not uncommon for children in their “terrible twos”. A small independent Baptist church in Pennsylvania had a nursery for small children during church service, my late wife was hired to run it. Every week I’d give her a bible story for the kids. She had group games to keep them occupied. It worked fine.
For what purpose? , a 2.5 year old thinks Bugs Bunny is real ... just not ready.
I would assume that for Eastern Rite Catholics they do in fact receive communion from infant age onward as the Orthodox do.
I don’t even think the 2 1/2 year old son should be taken to church. I remember back in the 70’s at the school I went to. They set up a special day care room on Sunday’s were parents could leave their children while they attended service (Lutheran, Missouri Synod).
Not a fan of the teach children about Jesus, Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny.
Because he’s not a pro-abort Democrat politician?
Because babies spit up.
There is no reason to change the way things are done, even if a mother writes an emotional article about it.
I find myself agreeing with the poster. As was pointed out the RCC did allow infant communion until the middle ages (or should we just assume the early Catholic Church was clueless not having enough time to distance themselves from Christ - please read that last comment as sarcasm, not an insult). I previously took a brief look at this and it was confirmed in the Vatican archives.
I think the real issue is 7 year olds receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord! The Eucharist is reserved for members of the church in good standing. Confirmation or Chrismation (West vs East) is required for membership. In the RCC most don’t get confirmed till about 17 (please correct if I have the age incorrect - however if in error, it will be slight and unintentional).
Until the Middle Ages the RCC, and still currently the Eastern Catholics and Orthodox will give infant communion, but there is a significant part that the author of the piece pointed out but was somehow relegated to cursory comment. The child was already a full member of the Church due to Confirmation/Chrismation! The order is Baptism, Confirmation and then First Holy Communion. The change to the RCC in the Middle Ages significantly altered this.
Maybe the question should be, “Should my child wait until they’re Confirmed to received?” and then followed up with, “When should my child be Confirmed?”