www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Daily Restrictions on Holy Communion?

This does need to be examined I think.

Eucharist is not a private affair.

And no, peer pressure has nothing to do with Eucharistic theology.

Most people only have one parish family. In small eastern Catholic and Orthodox parishes that family would be the entire parish. With much larger Latin rite parishes, the parish family tends to be the group of families and individuals who attend the liturgy that one attends most often.

I don't go to communion for solely personal benefit but to fulfil an anamnesis with my Christian family. The time when we are permitted to commune more than once, generally has to do with the fact that some of us have more than one eucharistic "family" at some given point in time. The permission given may be a one time allowance, or it may be something that lasts for a longer time, as it did with me for several years.

I never go to Church to "get something out of it." I was rescued from that error years ago.

Mary

Interesting thought. The practice of frequent communion is relatively new in the Latin Church to begin with. I am old enough to remember that many did not receive more than once a week before Vatican II. Of course, I am excluding the daily mass attendees from that, but they were a much smaller group. Around 1970 or so I began to see parishes with ushers directing pew by pew communion. Prior to that, folks who wanted to receive just got up individually and went forward. I teach in a Catholic school and the kids receive class by class just like going to the water fountain. I refuse to participate in that so I sit with our Protestant students and teachers who don't receive. If anyone asks I tell them it isn't eastern tradition to receive every day, but to receive on Saturdays, Sundays and holy days. They always accept that and don't ask any other questions.

Reception of Holy Communion is both a private and communal event. Worship is a community event, but reception has to be personal decision. Is one ready, prepared, to receive? Receiving because one is with some group cannot over-ride personal preparation / state of soul.

Going to church to get something out of it is an error? So be it! I go to church to to worship God with my brothers and sisters in Christ and 'get' a feeling of community, of leaving this world behind, of growing closer to God.

How many people go just because it is what one 'should' do?

This may be one possible short run view, but a longer look at the habits of communing in both east and west are quite variable over time, and usually established because of either a tendency toward abuse, or external circumstances that required adaptation on the part of people in a particular time and place. I am not going to recount those instances here. There are many good church histories that discuss those things at length.

When I was in Catholic school we all lined up for Communion during the week, because we all lined up for confession on Friday afternoons, and we were all given time during each day to do an examen of conscience and if we found ourselves in trouble we were given permission to ask for the sacrament of penance and Monsignor or the parochial vicar was called in to minister to our needs. We were told NEVER to receive communion in the state of mortal sin. More than once I rose to go to communion only to find a gentle hand on my shoulder and a raised eyebrow over eyes gazing into mine. The choice was mine but the reminder to think twice was very often available to me.

So there is no hard and fast rule on reception of eucharist, in either east or west, over the long run that can be called upon as THE one and only way to proceed.

Current teaching in the Latin Church attempts to strike a balance between the scrupulous refusal to receive and the abuses that can creep in with frequent communion.

Mary

Sad to say, there would be no gentle hand on your shoulder these days. If there are any rules anymore they are not being enforced. It's all left up to the individual. If you only knew how much Catholic schools have changed since you were there.

Indeed I do know. But we are talking, or should be, about a practice allowed by the Church that is congruent with orthodox eucharistic theology. We are not talking about personal abuses of the allowed practices. That would be another topic of discussion.

Mary

The communion practices allowed by the Latin church are seemingly not congruent with Orthodox or Eastern Catholic eucharistic theology. Yes, the Latin church has regulations for receiving communion. Unfortunately, many of its people either don't know them, or just choose to not follow them.

Mary - I don't think that all these comments are directed at you personally.

Certainly as far as I'm concerned they are general observations .

Earlier someone brought up the question of Preparation - Kobzar I believe maybe it was byzanTN

I have been surprised how few RCs think of any preparation - just the 1 hour fast before Communion - and of course the 1 hour is until they walk up the aisle in the Communion Queue , and this is with the gum still being chewed.

For us Byzantines, preparation is a much more 'thoughtful' thing and I can't really see how we could manage twice in one day - though it obviously has to be possible for Priests - I'm thinking there of those who have to Serve in missions .

Having been observing RC's and their habits - even in what seems on the surface to be a 'good' parish I have been surprised how many people thought , as Kobzar has said , the only valid service is Mass - and an integral part of Mass is Reception of Communion - very few remain in the pews during Communion - you find yourself in the queue as people move out into the Aisle .

Other than small children almost no-one remains in their pew and those who do are very conscious of curious eyes on them.

I worked in the biggest RC School in Scotland for many years - and frankly though the staff did their best to teach RE it was far too often not backed up at home . I honestly don't know if the pupils understood that they should go to Confession regularly and I have stopped Muslim children joining the Communion Queue - their friends said it was OK - so they just tagged along. These by the way were pupils of 12 -18 - not small children.

When there was a parents meeting in the local parish for First Communion or Confirmation - there would be some parents there - possibly one from the family . As the Archbishop was heard to say to the Parish Priest " I'll bet it's the first time you have seen most of these - and it will be the last time too "

These are children who grow up learning you got to Mass and you take Communion like everyone else does .It's the norm.

As byzanTN has just said

Of course, nothing is directed at Mary personally. I am merely commenting on my own observations. However, I do know RCs who devoutly receive and do prepare. Unfortunately, they are not the majority. There's a real problem here, and I think the RC bishops are going to have their hands full trying to fix it. A fine priest commented to me recently that some of the Catholic children often tell him they were not at mass on Sunday because...trips, overslept, parents didn't get up, and on and on. The good priest, and he is a good priest, was really sad about this and commented on how the school can only do so much without the support of the parents.

Charles

He is soooooooooo right .

And of course the snag is that these children will mature never having been given a good grounding in their Faith - so the attitudes that we deplore will continue - it's that how to break the circle time again

That's never been my point. If I was afraid of someone saying something personal to me, I never would have opened up my experience as an example.


Yes ineed!!...and I'll say again what the Church teaches and what people do are often two very different things. I happen to live in an area where more are prepared than are not. I expect that is a good thing for their souls.

Mary