Re wearing gloves to receive Holy Communion in the hand - I would see this being problematic because there are almost always fragments from the host left on the hand after receiving in the hand. At least when this happens on your skin you can lick or use your finger to pick up the loose fragments. I'm not sure whether this would be possible with a glove, particularly a lace glove as the fragments would quickly become embedded in the lace.
Thank you Julia. The whole situation is disturbing. I still remember my First Holy Communion classes when I was seven years old. I recall being taught that the Host was so sacred it must dissolve on your tongue, never touching the teeth. It is very concerning that sacredness for the Holy Eucharist is not taken seriously, and children are poorly instructed. Look how far we have fallen.
No, it is not. The same rules that allow for reception on the tongue also prohibit wearing anything on your hands when receiving by your hands.
Thank you, HH. Edited to add: Apparently I wasn't paying attention when the 'glove class' was taught.
When has anyone ever licked their hand after receiving Holy Communion. It appears Muslims lick shrines when they visit them in Iran, which is one of the reasons they have such a high incidence of coronavirus. If we lick our hands after receiving Holy Communion, we will be having a lot of disease spread by licking our hands with our tongue. We would be like cats licking their paws. Have you ever seen a Priest licking his hands after Holy Communion? Wouldn't it be nice to see our Priests believing God will protect them, or die trying like the saints of old. That is the chance we Lay people have taken when we share the Chalice at Holy Communion for the last 50 years. God has protected us and He has miraculously preserved us in that regard. Sorry, I must stay away from this topic, am too upset by the whole thing.
That was awful...could have happened to the priest as well! I’m sure he’d like the opportunity to explain to the congregation that it was possibly asthma. Sorry he did that to you...he “ judged” you! Hope he regrets his attitude! Try not to worry...God bless you,
It’s allergy season. Also, my church has mildew and mold, to which I am allergic. Plus I am allergic to dogs and sometimes I am close to people who have “dog” on their clothes. I sometimes get a paroxysm of coughing and I run out of the congregation. Our water fountain is turned off at church, so I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a disposable cup and took some water from the sink faucet. I am sorry you received such a problematic response. I am your age, btw, but sometimes it seems we get very little respect in spite of that.
So true. There is nothing worse than an allergy cough erupting in a place where silence is mostly required. The other dilemma is a drippy nose from allergies and no tissues. People look askance.
I have; in those days when I was receiving Holy Communion in my hand. There were, almost always, tiny crumbs left on my palm when I inspected it after returning to the pew. So, I used to carefully use the tip of my tongue to pick up the crumbs and consume them. This is the reason I stopped receiving in my hand. Fear of desecration of Our Lord in the Eucharist, who is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in every tiny crumb of the Eucharist. "If anyone denieth, that in the venerable sacrament of the Eucharist, the whole Christ is contained under each species, and under every part of each species, when separated, let him be anathema." - The Council of Trent. Desecration Of The Eucharist & Sacrilegious Communions http://christina-helena.blogspot.com/2012/08/desecration-of-eucharist-sacrilegious.html It is a bedrock Catholic truth, taught by the Church since the time of the Apostles, that Our Lord Jesus Christ is truly present in the Most Holy Eucharist: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. The Council of Trent defined dogmatically that Our Lord Jesus Christ is present in every part of the Blessed Sacrament. The Council taught infallibly: “If anyone denieth that, in the venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist, the whole Christ is contained under each species, and under every part of each species, when separated; let him be anathema.” This means that Our Lord is present even in the smallest particle of the Host, and in the smallest particle that may fall to the ground. Thus the reverence that we owe to the Blessed Sacrament demands that we take every precaution that no particle of the Host — not even the smallest — is left open for desecration in any way...This reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, and even for the smallest particles, was incorporated into the traditional Mass — the Old Latin Mass — which contained strict rubrics on this point: From the moment the priest pronounces the words of the Consecration over the Sacred Host, the priest keeps his forefinger and thumb together on each hand. Whether he elevates the chalice, or turns the pages of the missal, or opens the tabernacle, his thumb and his forefinger on each hand are closed. The thumb and forefinger touch nothing but the Sacred Host During Holy Communion, the altar boy holds the paten under the chin of those receiving Communion, so that the slightest particle does not fall to the ground. This paten is cleaned into the chalice afterwards After Holy Communion is distributed, the priest scrapes the corporal (the small linen cloth on the altar) with the paten, and cleans it into the chalice so that if the slightest particle is left, it is collected and consumed by the priest Then, the priest washes his thumb and forefinger over the chalice with water and wine, and this water and wine is reverently consumed to insure that the smallest particle of the Sacred Host is not susceptible to desecration. ...what happens with Communion in the hand? The Host is placed in the hand, which is not consecrated. The communicant picks It up with his own fingers, which are not consecrated. The sacred particles fall to the ground, are stepped upon and desecrated. -- J. Vennari We can see with our human reason that when receiving Holy Communion in the hand, particles are left stuck to the hand and after the communicant makes the sign of the cross are then brushed onto the floor. The communicants behind them do the same and then step on the particles that are brushed onto the floor in front of them. If a communicant chooses to receive on the tongue out of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, they are still walking behind those who are receiving on the hand, and therefore stepping on the particles which contain Jesus Christ whole and entire. This is widespread, weekly - often daily desecration by the parish community. Even though most of them have good intentions and have no idea they are desecrating the Eucharist, this is what is happening. St. Teresa of Avila tells us that desecration of the Eucharist and/or receiving a sacrilegious Communion can result in a complete loss of the theological virtue of faith. Also, it can result in diabolical possession. This is not only happening with lay people but with the clergy. When people hear what St. Teresa of Avila said about diabolical possession, desecration of the Eucharist, and receiving sacrilegious Communions, they think "well that's not going to happen, that's not possible." It's not like when you receive Communion unworthily the devil is going to come out drooling all over the place. That's not the case. Signs of spiritual infestation are not [drooling and convulsing] - those are rare circumstances. The real signs are: hardening of heart denial of the truth resistance to the truths of our faith Where do we see these? Everywhere! -- Gabriel Castillo We have an obligation to encourage our parish community to carefully examine their hands for particles if they insist on receiving Communion in the hand. We cannot say they cannot receive in the hand, because the bishops have allowed this, but we must point out that desecration is occurring and therefore the faith of the parish community is at stake. The hardening of heart, denial of truth, and resistance to the truths of the faith can already be seen in the phenomenon of cafeteria Catholicism and rejection of Divine teaching revealed to us by God. Undeniably, there is a prevalent spirit of "picking and choosing" infallible teaching and dogma. I believe that this is a direct result of desecration of the Eucharist. +
Forget gloves! I attended a funeral Mass today for a friend. I received in my clean hand and brought my cupped hand to my mouth and "received on the tongue". I then discretely licked my palm.
Sg, I don’t think priests keep their fingers together in the Ordinary Form of the Mass. That is done in the Extraordinary Form.
Constant, no. They brush them off into the Chalice by rubbing the thumb & index finger together. I pay closer attention to how they revere Him after Consecration.
Yes, it is in the Tridentine mass that the priests do this. It's in the article I posted above. Another reason I go to this mass. +
I'm all over the place on this. One minute I agree with the grin and bear it approach to Communion in the hand. I justify that by reminding myself that sin entered creation through pride and sin entered mankind through disobedience. I question my own motivation: whether it's a case of spiritual pride mixed with disobedience to lawful authority. That's where I was yesterday and went to Mass with my usual cowardly strategy of watching to see if anyone received on the tongue. If they had, I would have followed suit, otherwise I might well have received in the hand. Unlike some of you, I had been receiving in the hand since the practice was introduced and my reversion to receiving on the tongue has been relatively recent. As it turned out, I saw one girl refused Communion on the tongue. She received in the hand but appeared visibly upset. It bothered me so much that I ended up receiving neither a spiritual nor actual Communion. At the same Mass, more than a few people in the pews adopted the orans position during the Our Father. The altar servers held their hands up in the air with their fingers spread out as though they were about to launch into one of those hand waving, hip swaying Gospel Church performances. Thankfully, they settled for the save us from drowning position. Why is that kind of melodramatic attention seeking acceptable while kneeling before our Lord and Saviour is frowned upon? Even when there's no virus scare, some priests let it be know by their attitude that they don't like Communion on the tongue. "We have no God but Caesar" seems to be the unspoken message coming from far too many of our clergy. I honestly don't know what I'll do in future. The only thing I'm certain of is that I'll never set foot in that church again.
