“We invite you to remain standing, as you are able, from the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer until the conclusion of the communion procession. After communion we will sit for a period of quiet prayer.
“Following Archdiocesan guidelines we also ask that you continue to receive Communion in the hand only.”
You may have heard this announcement at the beginning of a Sunday Mass at Boston College. As for me, I happened upon these words while I was in the St. Joseph Chapel sacristy preparing for a weekday Mass I help organize. Seeing this, I have been unfortunately drawn away from attending Mass on campus on Sundays, and have made treks of up to an hour and a half roundtrip to attend a Mass less hostile to kneeling before the Eucharist and receiving Our Lord on the tongue.
So why do I seem to make such a big deal out of something so seemingly trivial? It stems from my belief as a Catholic that the Eucharist is no longer bread or wine, but truly the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. A March 2019 Torch article titled “Every Knee Shall Bow: Exploration of Posture in Prayer” is a good place to look for an introduction to the importance of kneeling in Christian prayer, especially in its explanation of why the Mass rubrics in the United States prescribe kneeling during the consecration of the Eucharist: “The rationale for this stems from an understanding that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and is rightly owed our adoration. By this radical act of kneeling, Christians take part in the fulfillment of the prophecy, ‘at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow’” (cf. Phil. 2:10). While Jesus, God himself, is present before us in the Eucharist, He deserves our fullest adoration, and a supplicative act such as kneeling orients our minds towards proper adoration.
It should be noted that the General Instruction for the Roman Missal (GIRM) says that instructions around kneeling during the consecration can change “when prevented on occasion by ill health, or for reasons of lack of space, of the large number of people present, or for another reasonable cause” (no. 43). This point has even been used in another Torch article—the December 2021 article “The Predicament of Kneeling During The Consecration”—to argue that one of such “reasonable cause[s]” is the unity of the congregation. It is certainly reasonable to take into account factors such as the absence of kneelers in places such as St. Joseph Chapel or the difficulty for some, especially for those with disabilities, to kneel. Certainly it is unreasonable to force those unable to kneel to do so, but I argue that it is similarly unreasonable to ask those who wish to kneel for the consecration not to do so. It does not make sense to tell someone to cease an act of reverence to the Lord truly present for the purpose of commonality in posture, as reverence to Christ should precede aesthetic continuity.
As for reception of the Eucharist on the tongue rather than on the hand, what difference does it make? Again, it stems from a desire for reverence towards Our Lord.
I will preface by saying that reception on the hand can be done reverently. The Church allows reception on both the hand and on the tongue, and I am not arguing against reception on the hand. Rather, I am arguing that for those who wish to receive on the tongue, they should not be denied.
In Part III, Question 82, Article 13 of his Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas says in reference to the Eucharist that “because out of reverence towards this sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands, for touching this sacrament.” The practice of receiving on the tongue has existed through much of Church history as an act of reverence in that it avoids the Sacrament being touched by unconsecrated hands. Additionally, reception on the tongue is also oriented towards avoiding dropping the Sacrament or any fragments, and such a seemingly scrupulous concern for fragments is really just an understanding that the Eucharist is truly God.
Unless there is a directive published somewhere other than on the Archdiocese of Boston’s website of which I am unaware, there does not appear to remain any Archdiocesan restriction on reception on the tongue (although I do know restrictions existed during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic). However, on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in an article titled “The Reception of Holy Communion at Mass,” it states that “those who receive Communion may receive either in the hand or on the tongue, and the decision should be that of the individual receiving, not of the person distributing Communion.”
Especially in the wake of the 2019 Pew Research poll showing that 69 percent of self-identified Catholics do not believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, reverence towards the Blessed Sacrament should be encouraged and emphasized. While desiring a common posture among the congregation at Mass may have good intentions, asking them not to kneel before Our Lord and not to receive Him on the tongue risks trivializing the Blessed Sacrament for some. Fostering a Church community is important, but our actions around the Sacrament ought be directed to the Sacrament first, as the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second greatest is to love neighbor (cf. Mt. 22:34-40).
Featured image courtesy of Lawrence OP via Flickr
Adam is a senior from Columbus, Ohio. He previously served as Campus News and Culture Editor, and boasts the title of least cultured to ever serve as the latter. Holding a minor in Biology, he recently converted from STEM and now majors in Philosophy and Classical Studies. He currently leads Una Voce, the Latin Mass society at BC, and sings with the University Chorale of Boston College and the Chorale Chamber Singers. He enjoys Gregorian Chant, relearning the clarinet, and is an unabashed Ohio apologist.
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Dear Adam, I am a priest and never deny the faithful to receive the Holy Eucharist on the tongue. The only concern that I have had is that some of the faithful do not open their mouths and fail to properly put out their tongue to receive the Holy Eucharist. What then occurs is that the priest’s fingers are covered in saliva, and, or the host is dropped onto the floor. I would ask you to reflect on this and write a column on how to properly receive the host. This habit of properly receiving the host on the tongue has been lost since the 1970’s.
Fr. Arthur MacKay