Where is My Mind?

To sum it all up, what generally happens during the Rite of Communion?

Once the priest(s) and other ministers (ordinary and/or extraordinary) make their way to their stations of distribution for communion, the congregation flows in an orderly and respectful way to the front of the church where they receive the Eucharist.  This should be done in a very reverent and prayerful way so that we can prepare our hearts and minds on our way up to receive the Risen Christ in the Eucharist.

How do we make sure we are reverently and prayerfully processing?  Well, for the most part, that’s between you and God.  Just talk to Him and ask for the gift of recognition of the gifts and blessings that come along with receiving Christ truly present in the Eucharist.  However, I CAN point out that a good way to DISTRACT yourself from what’s going on is to shake hands with and wave to everyone you see on your way up.  If you’re reading this, and you’re an usher at a church that uses ushers to guide each individual pew up to communion (which, for the record, seems a TAD unnecessary...most people sitting on the ends aren’t completely oblivious as to what’s going on with the pew in front of them…but that’s just my opinion—like so many other things I’ve said in this blog), PLEASE note that being an usher isn’t meant to be an easy way to mingle and say “hello” to everyone you see going up to communion.  Ushers shaking hands with people going up to communion is incredibly distracting to not only the people having their hands shaken, but also those who witness the conversation happening right in front of them while they’re trying to be prayerful.  It’s also distracting when you feel “obligated” to shake hands with an usher because you happen to know them and would normally shake hands with them under normal circumstances.  Just sayin’…

So once we prayerfully, reverently, and hand-shaking-less-ly make our way up to the Ordinary or Extraordinary Minister of Communion, this is where it gets back into our “lack of official guidance” category.  In the area I happen to live in, the norm directed by our neighboring archdiocese is that once you come face-to-face with the Minister of Holy Communion, you should bow to the Eucharist before you receive it, then once the minister says “The Body/Blood of Christ,” you respond, “Amen.”  After that, you consume the Eucharist, then make a sign of the cross (if you so desire), and make your way back to your pew to follow whatever post-communion activity your parish happens to partake in (see Too Much Confusion, I Can’t Get No Relief for that spiel). 

The Eucharist is regarded by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the “source and summit of the Christian life.” (CCC 1324)  The graces that are attached to receiving the Eucharist that were promised by Jesus are way too numerous to mention in this blog, but I’d encourage you to do a bit of reading on your own.  (The link to the Catechism of the Catholic Church page on the Eucharist above is a good start.)  With all the graces that come from the Eucharist, it’s important that we make sure our minds and hearts are in the right place when we go up to receive the sacrament.  If not, we fall into the general concept of the “vain repetition” St. Paul talked about in 2 Timothy 2:16.  We need to be ACTIVELY participating in the liturgy so that we don’t just “go through the motions,” but we fully understand and realize what blessings we’re receiving by participating in the liturgy.  Don’t forget, the Eucharist (paired with the Penitential Rite and a repentant conscience) forgives venial sins.  (Check out Please Forgive Me, If I Can't Stop Lovin' You for a refresher on that concept.)

So just remember next time you’re going up to communion, that who you see along the way is not at all important.  What’s important is what you’re about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen….wow…that just sort of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?  Anyway, what’s important is what you’re about to receive in the gift of the Eucharist.  Think about that, and ONLY that on your way up to communion, and you’ll be on your way to getting the most out of your Mass.

Too Much Confusion, I Can't Get No Relief

If you go to a different church parish for the next 8 weeks, you’ll probably see 8 different ways the congregation handles the whole process of receiving Communion and returning to their pews.  And since Christmas will be in that mix, you’ll have those twice-a-year Catholics who only go on Christmas and Easter that are going to make this process a REAL mess.  So what should and shouldn’t happen during this time?  To quote Spud McConnell, "Get a cup of coffee, we gotta talk:"

Some congregations all get up right when the priest and any other ministers come down to distribute Communion, and stay standing until they return to their pews, then kneel until priest sits down, and they, in turn sit down.  Other congregations kneel until the pew in front of them gets up to receive Communion, then they get up, but stay sitting on the edge of their pew like they’re perched and ready to strike until it’s their pew’s turn to go up, then they come back and kneel until the priest puts the remaining Eucharistic Hosts in the Tabernacle, then they sit.  Still Other congregations all stand at the beginning of Communion and stay standing until the Prayer After Communion. 

So who’s right?  Well, they all are…..and none are.  I’ll explain by first giving you the General Instruction of the Roman Missal’s guidelines for when to kneel, stand, receive Communion, kneel again, and sit again; then I’ll give you MY take on the whole thing.

So here’s the GIRM’s guidance for how to handle the flow of Communion…ready?  Here it is:

Ok, got that?  Now there should be no question about how to handle Communion, right?  Oh, wait, you didn’t see any guidance?  No, it’s not an “Emperor’s New Clothes” sort of deal—there IS no guidance.  Well, almost none.  There’s a short reference in GIRM 43 that says, “The faithful should sit, on the other hand, during the readings before the Gospel and the Responsorial Psalm and for the Homily and during the Preparation of the Gifts at the Offertory; and, if appropriate, they may sit or kneel during the period of sacred silence after Communion.”  This, however, HARDLY clears anything up.

Ultimately, it’s left up to individuals, congregations, or even the bishop to establish a “norm” for the flow Communion.  So before I go any further, let me throw a disclaimer out there:  the rest of this post is my PERSONAL thoughts on this matter.  This is in no way, shape, or form reflective of what the church officially says SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be the way to handle the flow of Communion.  It’s just what I find makes the most sense.

First, let’s take the “standing the whole time” route.  Our posture (the way we situate our whole bodies) at Mass are directly reflective of the level of respect and honor we give to what’s happening at the time.  The Eucharist, being the source and summit of the Christian life, should be given the utmost respect and honor.  For practical purposes at Mass, we best show respect for the Eucharist in the form of kneeling.  So while I understand and appreciate the goal of everyone standing the entire time—that being that it is the only way to have everyone do the same thing the entire time as one body and one community—I believe that it lacks the level of respect we should be showing God and his gift of himself that we get to experience in the Eucharist.  Nice thought, but I’d argue that it’s not the “best” option here.

The other options are all fairly similar in that you begin by kneeling, then at some point you stand, follow the line to receive Communion, and then return back to your pew to kneel until some later time in the Mass.  Whether everyone stands all at once or stands row-by-row really doesn’t bother me, although if I had to pick one, I’d say that kneeling longer and getting up row-by-row would be “best.”  (Again, this is just my opinion, and in no way reflects any “official position” of the Catholic Church...because there IS no “official position” on this subject.)  Either way, you go up to receive Communion, then return to your pew and kneel for a time of private prayer. 

The next big question is when to get up after your time of private prayer following Communion.  Again, there is absolutely no guidance on this, so we have to think it through and decide what makes the most “sense.”  To me, if we’re deciding the best time to get up from our kneeling posture, we should pinpoint why we were kneeling in the first place.  The answer is the Eucharist.  So it seems fair to say that the point we should stop kneeling is the point when the Eucharist is no longer present.  Now, theologically, this is an incredibly tricky concept, because technically (and realistically), God never “leaves” the room just because we lock up the Eucharist in the Tabernacle for safe and respectful keeping until the next Mass.  God is always present.  But it’s not realistic to think that we should go through life constantly on our knees.  If that’s what God wanted, why would he have given us feet?  For our purposes, though, I’d say that the separation of events at this point in the Mass happens when the Priest takes the remaining Eucharistic hosts over to the Tabernacle, closes it, then genuflects.  The priest getting up after genuflecting is what I’d say is our signal to break that kneeling posture and sit back down in our pews.  Plenty of churches I’ve been to wait for the priest to sit down in the presider’s chair before sitting back down.  To me, this seems like we’ve been giving the respect to the PRIEST the whole time, and that now that he’s decided to sit, we can do the same.  Don’t get me wrong…I like priests…but I like the Eucharist more.  It just doesn’t make sense to make the priest sitting down our cue to do the same.  Even worse is when the “norm” for the parish is to sit when the priest does, but people can’t even seem to make it that far, so they just start randomly sitting down when the priest is walking to his chair.  Wouldn’t those congregations feel a little ridiculous if they THOUGHT he was walking to his chair, but he took a quick detour to the Sacristy to get a sip of water?  So my summarized suggestion is to kneel until your pew gets up for Communion, receive Communion, then go back to your pew and kneel in silent prayer until the priest genuflects after reverently storing the Eucharist in the Tabernacle.  Again, there is no official guidance from the church on how to handle this…this is just my suggestion as to what makes the most sense.  And if you couldn’t tell by the slight presence of frustration in my tone, I (usually) attend a church that kneels when the priest is on his way to his chair to sit down after all this goes down, and I’ve never been ever to figure out the reasoning for this.

Whatever you decide to do, just remember to have a REASON for doing it OTHER THAN the sheer fact that it’s what everyone else does and has been doing for as long as you can remember.

Oh My God, We're Back Again

Ok, I fully understand that I am the worst blogger in history: 1 post in late November, NONE in December, and finally getting back into things 1/3 of the way through January.  What can I say?  Life.  Anyway, let's just jump right in and pick up where we left off, shall we?

Now that the Priest has received Communion, it’s our turn.  First of all, you may have noticed a few people from the congregation get up from their pews at some point between the Rite of Peace and the Priest receiving Communion and move to some spot near, in, or around the Sanctuary.  These people are called the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.

Ideally, the people who should FIRST be distributing Communion are priests, and then deacons.  In reference to the Eucharist, these guys are the “Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion” because they are ordained through the Sacrament of Holy Orders with the mission of doing so in one form or another.  Let’s say for argument’s sake that your church is a small, modest, country church, and you have very few members of the congregation, one priest, and one deacon at Mass.  It might be easy to have everyone receive the Body of Christ from one ciborium (go back and read You Never Even Call Me By My Name if you just made a completely puzzled expression at the sight of that word) from the priest and the Blood of Christ from one chalice ministered by the deacon.  No issue here.  Now let’s imagine you’re at an ordination, and there are about 800 members of the congregation, a bishop or two, about 3 or 4 dozen priests, and another few dozen deacons in attendance.  No shortage of Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion here, but there are way too many people in the congregation to think that one ciborium and one chalice are going to cut it.  There’s absolutely no problem with multiple ciboria (yeah, that’s the right ending) and multiple chalices.  These should be ministered by priests and deacons if at all possible, but should be carefully handled so that you don’t have an absurd number of “cups & bowls” scattered throughout the church.  We’re here to experience the miracle of the Risen Christ here…not get in and out as quickly as humanly possible just to satisfy our “Sunday obligation.”  If it takes more than a few minutes to distribute communion, that’s fine.  It just shouldn’t take so long that people are distracted from prayer because of how slowly this part of the celebration is moving.

Now here’s that issue that MOST churches face:  average-sized congregation (200-500), one priest, and no deacon.  It’s obviously not feasible for the priest to distribute both kinds of Communion to everyone by himself.  The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) says:

The priest may be assisted in the distribution of Communion by other priests who happen to be present.  If such priests are not present and there is a very large number of communicants, the priest may call upon extraordinary ministers to assist him, e.g., duly instituted acolytes or even other faithful who have been deputed for this purpose.  In case of necessity, the priest may depute suitable faithful for this single occasion. (GIRM 162)

Redemptionis Sacramentum, an instruction on the proper way to celebrate Mass in the Roman Rite issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2004 also addresses lay (not ordained bishops, priests, or deacons) people as ministers of holy Communion by saying, “Only when there is a necessity may extraordinary ministers assist the Priest celebrant in accordance with the norm of the law.” (RS 88)

So let’s say you’re at that “average” parish, and you need 5 or 6 Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion in addition to the priest celebrant/Ordinary Minister of Holy Communion.  When should these Extraordinary Ministers go up?  You might be surprised to find that your parish isn’t doing things exactly “by the book” (“the book” being “the GIRM”).  The GIRM says that Extraordinary Ministers “should not approach the altar before the priest has received Communion.” (GIRM 162)  Some might argue that going up and standing 10 feet or so away from the altar does not count as “approaching” the altar, because there’s still a significant distance between them and the altar…but come on, we know what’s going on.

Many (if not most) of you are probably sitting there reading this and are thinking, “What’s the big deal?  Is God going to strike the entire congregation dead because the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are a couple feet closer to the altar than they should be before the priest receives Communion?”  Ok, I’ll grant you: probably not.  But let me spin that back on you:  Am I proving that I’m not doing anything wrong just because God doesn’t “strike me dead” after I punch someone in the face?  No.  Maybe God’s not entirely concerned with the smaller details of the Catholic Liturgy, but remember…we’re Catholic.  The word catholic means, “universal.”  One of the most amazing things about the Catholic Church is that it’s the same wherever you go in the world.  Different languages, sure, but the same basic elements are there in their proper orders.  There are slight differences between countries and cultures, sure.  But there has to be a line when “this is the right way” meets “this is good enough.”  Who decides that line?  You?  Me?? Well, I know it’s definitely not me, and it’s probably not you, either.  Who does, then?  Well, it’s those guys in the black outfits with the white collars.  What makes them so special?  How about an indelible mark on their souls?  Good enough reason?  Don’t know what an indelible mark is?  We’ll get to the rest of the sacraments soon enough, and we’ll explain that during our discussion on Holy Orders.  For now, how about we just look at the fact that those guys have studied WAY more than the average Catholic, and devote their entire lives to learning more about our faith and why we do what we do, and what God is asking of us in our lives in today’s world.  Plus, they’ve got the backing of 2,000 years of learning, conversation, reading, reflecting, and most importantly, prayer to back up the decisions they make…much more impressive than my 28 years here on earth so far…especially since I couldn’t talk for the first year, and couldn’t really understand what was going on in church for the first 10 or so of those years.  So let’s say I’ve got a solid 18 years of understanding what’s happening in Church.  I didn’t really care until I was about 19, so I’ve really only got about 11 solid years of understanding AND truly caring.  11 years of sporadic questioning and finding answers…or…2,000 years of nothing BUT questioning and finding answers?  I don’t know about you, but I’m siding with the Church on this one.  So let’s just go with it.

There’s one more thing to mention in this post, though.  Although some things are pointedly spelled out in the GIRM, one thing is spelled out in the first two paragraphs of Chapter IX of the GIRM:

386. The renewal of the Roman Missal carried out in our time in accordance with the decrees of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council has taken great care that all the faithful may display in the celebration of the Eucharist that full, conscious, and active participation that is required by the very nature of the Liturgy and to which the faithful, in virtue of their status as such, have a right and duty.

However, in order that such a celebration may correspond all the more fully to the norms and the spirit of the Sacred Liturgy, certain further adaptations are set out in this Instruction and in the Order of Mass and entrusted to the judgment either of the Diocesan Bishop or of the Conferences of Bishops.

387. The Diocesan Bishop, who is to be regarded as the High Priest of his flock, from whom the life in Christ of his faithful in some sense derives and upon whom it depends, must promote, regulate, and be vigilant over the liturgical life in his diocese. It is to him that in this Instruction is entrusted the regulating of the discipline of concelebration (cf. nos. 202, 374) and the establishing of norms regarding the function of serving the Priest at the altar (cf. no. 107), the distribution of Holy Communion under both kinds, and the construction and ordering of churches (cf. no. 291). It is above all for him, moreover, to nourish the spirit of the Sacred Liturgy in the Priests, Deacons, and faithful.

So while the GIRM gives the formal path to follow, the bishop is the authority in each diocese and has the ability to make minor changes, or make official decisions on normal procedures for items that have multiple options.

Man, I love soapboxes.  Next post we’ll talk about OUR participation in receiving Communion and what we should/shouldn’t do between the time we get up from our kneelers to the time we get back in the pew.