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A question for my knowledgable friends...

As I understand it, members of the Latin Church are allowed to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion more than once per day provided that the second reception of that day occurrs within the context of the celebration of the Mass.

Is there anything within the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (or other relevant, authoritative documentation) that either allows for or prohibits Eastern Catholics from receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion more than once within a given day?

Thanks, all!

Al (a pilgrim)

Dear Al,

I cannot speak for the Byzantine Catholics, but I can speak for the Orthodox...since Divine Liturgy is allowed to be served only once during the day, I would suppose that this question would not generally come up, unless, ofcourse, one church hops!

Alice

Dear Alice (or anyone else who can answer),

I am familiar with this teaching. However, I have a question regarding a circumstance that for many parishes is a hypothetical that may never happen, but is certainly a possibility. What if it were the case that a given parish regularly had more people wishing to attend Divine Liturgy and receive communion than can fit in the church? Under such circumstances, is it permissible to celebrate more than one Divine Liturgy?

Ryan

Hi Ryan,

It is possible (and it has been done) if: the second liturgy has a different priest and a different altar table/altar cloth (antiminsion).

Regards,
Alice

Dear Alice:

Thanks for the answer. Another question on similar lines. What about the same priest saying Divine Liturgy on the same day at two different parishes? In my Church (Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh), this does happen. We have a parish here in Houston and one in the Dallas area, and a mission without a priest in Austin. Divine Liturgy is celebrated at the Austin mission on Sundays in the evening, with the two priests from Dallas and Houston taking trips to Austin on alternate Sundays. Have you ever heard of such an arrangement among the Orthodox?

Thank you,

Ryan

Hmmm....in all honesty, I am not able to answer that question...

Perhaps some of our good priest will see this and answer?!?

Regards,
Alice

St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles used to have the Spanish Mission celebrate their Sunday Liturgy on Saturday in anticipation. Then they moved the Divine Liturgy to Sunday morning. Since they have two altars, it works out. The Spanish Liturgy is celebrated at 8:30 AM on Sundays, while the English Divine Liturgy is at 10:30 AM on Sundays.

One may not receive Holy Communion at both Divine Liturgies, and if the priest or deacon receives Holy Communion at the 8:30 AM, he may not receive again at the 10:30 Am Divine liturgy.

I once asked my priest, since he serves Divine Liturgy at two different parishes, if a layperson could attend both and receive the Eucharist and he said unequivocally, no. One may only commune once on any liturgical day. This normally includes clergy as well, unless the clergy are given a dispensation to celebrate more than one Divine Liturgy. And, of course only one Divine Liturgy may be celebrated on an altar per day. So the priest could never celebrate Divine Liturgy in the same Church. He would have to celebrate on two different altars.

Joe

Thanks, Alice and others. I guess I am a bit of a Church (capital "C")-hopper! Here's why I asked the question...

I am canonically a Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic and, therefore, bound by the Code of Canons of the Eastern Church. Despite my official Byzantine Church affiliation, a good part of my worship these days occurrs within the local Latin Church in my home community, where I also participate in the choir. Recently we sang for a Saturday 10:00 a.m. First Holy Communion and then came right back that same day to sing for 5:00 p.m. Mass. I received Our Lord with the rest of the choir at the morning Mass, after which the choir director made a point to remind the choir members that they were free to receive again in the afternoon. This is indeed true for the rest of the choir since they are all Latin Catholics. I, on the other hand, am not a Latin Catholic and had never received Our Lord more than once in any given day in my life! Needless to say, I was the only one who remained behind in the choir area when Holy Communion was distributed at the afternoon Mass.

While reflecting on the situation afterwards, it struck me that I've never seen anything officially limiting the number of times per day a Byzantine Catholic may receive. I know that during the "old days" (late 50's through 70's) I would often cantor for both the 8:00 a.m. and the 11:00 a.m. Sunday Divine Liturgies (yes, we did have two), but even then I would only receive at one of those Liturgies. Of course, back then all Catholics, Eastern and Western, were only allowed to receive once per day.

Here's another point regarding my specific example: Was the 5:00 p.m. Saturday Mass technically a different day since it was the anticipatory Mass for the Sunday following? In other words, did my fellow choir members really receive twice on that Saturday or was it technically once on Saturday and once on Sunday?


The Latin Catholics can, indeed, point to specific references that outline the rules regarding their reception of Our Lord in Holy Communion - can we Byzantine Catholics do the same?

Help, please!

Al (a pilgrim)

Since answering your question last night, and after having started reading backwards this morning to catch up on posts which I had not read since I signed off last night, I realized how many posters do not read through all the posts before answering, or they would not have repeated what I said!

I find it cute at how many times this happens on threads.

Alice

Why would someone receive twice in the same day? Although I am all for frequent reception of Communion, there is no requirement to receive every time one attends a Divine Liturgy/Mass.

If one follows the full fast (not the 1 hr. rule) and prayers required before reception then it is rather difficult to receive twice in the same day. Then take into account that Divine Liturgies should be served only in the morning unless otherwise directed by the Typicon, it is extremely difficult to even find the opportunity to receive twice in the same day. But if one starts disregarding the Typicon, neutering the preparatory prayers and fasts, etc. anything is possible.

I will agree with this. Receiving Holy Communion, with its preparatory prayers and fasting, is such an awesome and all encompassing experience, that I cannot see it not sufficing for a whole day.

Alice

You hit the nail on the head:
"If one follows the full fast (not the 1 hr. rule)"

AS Al mentioned, some churches have back-to-back Sunday morning liturgies. It wouldn't be a great feat to follow the full fast (from midnight) and attend the 8 AM and 10 AM liturgies. Ryan said in another thread that his priest travels to a mission church on Sunday evenings and holds Liturgy again at 7. For evening reception, I believe the rule is 6 hours of fasting. So it would be possible to attend an 8 AM liturgy, go eat, then go again to an evening liturgy.

So what's the problem here? The twice-in-a-day liturgy is what is posing the problem. Get rid of them and you get rid of the issue. The only people who would face the issue then would have to attend an 8 AM liturgy in one parish then drive down the road for the 11 AM liturgy in another parish. I doubt that happens very often.

And then too, sometimes a simple rephrasing of a sentence will give a much different meaning to a sentence, as most of our sentences are ambiguous no matter how much we try to avoid that. Sometimes a little ambiguity is good as it can touch on all bases.

I just finished an analytical reading of A Turn of the Screw and it was full of ambiguous sentences. Masterful piece of writing.

Ah, the joys of semantics and pragmatics.