www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology No Communion Spoon?

"I've long maintained that it is not in the external practice thta one ought to be primarily concerned, but the external practice as a reflection of the heart that matters. There are those who might be ritually perfect in their reception but whose attitude toward others is the very attitude of the man bound and thrown out in the Parable of the Wedding Feast."

I completely agree, Bob.

I stopped receiving in the hand a couple years ago, and haven't done so since, nor do I ever plan to again for the rest of my life. For myself, I find reception on the tongue makes me more mindful of my unworthiness and increases my humility. I wouldn't dream of touching the Body of the Lord anymore. But to each his own. I'm all for outlawing CITH, though, I have to be honest.

Alexis

If one notes how "communion in the hand" was introduced after Vatican II, one will discover that the process was not altogether honest.

The Church in most places stopped using "communion in the hand" because of a concern for abuses. Does anyone claim that the recent introduction of "communion in the hand" has not been connected with abuses?

In Greece, the Latin hierarchy has forbidden "communion in the hand".

This is not meant to criticize the remaining Local Churches who have inherited this ancient practice as an integral part of their liturgical heritage.

Fr. Serge

From what I can remember, the Byzantine Antiochian tradition was an imposition on the Antiochians, who followed the Syriac tradition up until the 11th or 12th centuries (this includes the Chalcedonian Antiochians). If the non-Chalcedonian Syriac Churches use the "dipping" method, it wouldn't surprise me that the use of the spoon was actually a Byzantine imposition.

Personally I prefer the "dipping intinction" method to the spoon. A funny anecdote, at my Melkite mission we had a visiting Byzantine Catholic priest while our Melkite priest was travelling, and I had to explain to the Melkites how to receive with a spoon, as most of them had never seen the practice and found it odd.

Peace and God bless!

I would expect a Ghost to be content with a "spiritual Communion"!

Even if one assumes that the Communion Spoon was "imposed" on the Patriarchate of Antioch in the twelfth century - which is not proved - by the early eighteenth century, when the Patriarchate divided between those who remained in communion with Rome and those who remained in communion with Constantinople - six centuries would have passed and there is not a scintilla of evidence to indicate that throughout those six centuries there was a surreptitious but continuous rejection of the Communion Spoon!

At the same time, there is a definite tradition that the faithful are to be communicated from the Lamb, not from additional Particles. Those who reject the Communion Spoon violate this tradition with aplomb.

Fr. Serge

Hey now, I'm not into "spiritual Communion". Give me the whole deal, please!
I'm sure they used the spoon during that time, assuming it was indeed an imposition that came along with the rest of the Constinopolitan tradition.

Honestly, I have never heard a solid reason for the switch. I've heard many different and conflicting accounts of why the spoon was taken out of common use, but none that seem plausible in the face of other known facts.

Like I said, though, I personally prefer the Melkite ritual of Communion, but I'm hardly anti-spoon.

Peace and God bless!

Maybe I could found a religious movement to be called the "Spoonerites", who enjoy spoonerisms!

Fr. Serge

From my personal experience, the Melkites have been at the vanguard of Eastern Catholics who are striving to reclaim their authentic ritual and spirituality. I've wondered then about this, it seems, Melkite version (referred to sometimes by the shape resembling a popular food item) of precuts , especially if it is an ancient or venerable practice. (I'm presuming here prior preparation and not a cutting done after the liturgical breaking of the lamb.) I'm ambivalent about precuts even though the Slav rubrics, e.g. 1965 Liturgicon page 40 [patronagechurch.com] , seem clear that all receive from only the designated portions of the lamb.

It seems then there is, at least, a formal distinction for the legitimacy or questioning of precuts as:

1. We use them to be like the Latins.

2. We use them for practicality (economia?) on our own, regardless of Latin practices.

3. We use them for practicality when necessary, and can point to a similar Melkite practice of some antiquity and standing indicating a legitimate Eastern usage.

We shall, of course, adopt the patronage of the late Reverend William Spooner (died 1930), in whose honor the spoonerism is named.

Fr. Serge

This sounds like the beginning of a brilliant pseudo-Schism. My faction will be the Fingeristas!

Peace and God bless!

Might I suggest instead the Digitalis?

I don't take suggestions from a pseudo-heretic!

Careful . . . I use a sharp spoon!

Meanwhile, we need a mascot for the spoonerites. I suggest Snoopy, since his name approximates a spoonerism.

Fr. Serge

When I was a college student in the 1970's, there was, on campus, a group of anarcho-libertarians who were devotees of a 19th-century anarchist by the name of Lysander Spooner, and they were referred to as Spoonerites. We will have to come up with another name so as to avoid confusion (unless anarchism becomes part of the movement).

Dn. Robert

Considering the anarchy in our Church, that might even be appropriate! Perhaps we could amalgamate with the Spongers.

Last night after the vigil liturgy, as I was putting things away, I noticed the spoon but not the lance. I asked another server, the sacristan, if he'd seen "the spear" (I have no idea why my mind slipped on that).

So he told me that he Christ was probed with a spear by the soldier, thus we called it . . a lance.



hawk