These Last Days News - January 31, 2011
Rector of SS. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix, Arizona Promotes Communion on the Tongue...
"Communion in the hand has not been, and will not be accepted by Heaven. This is a sacrilege in the eyes of the Eternal Father, and must not be continued, for you only add to your punishment when you continue on in the ways that have been found to be unpleasing to the Eternal Father."
- The Bayside Prophecies
Our Lady of the Roses, June 30, 1984
Rorate Caeli reported on January 30, 2011:
A Letter from Our Cathedral Rector
Dear Parishioners,
During my last year in the seminary, I deliberately stopped receiving Holy Communion in the hand and began receiving on the tongue. It was awkward at first and I was particularly anxious about dropping the Host, since I no longer had the control of receiving in the hand.
Awareness of this lack of control actually offers an additional spiritual benefit. In my previous letter I used the term “vulnerability” to describe receiving on the tongue. Some of you told me that this term was particularly helpful. At the 11 00 am Mass last Sunday I used an ancient symbol for Christ (which happened to be on the vestment I was wearing) to illustrate this vulnerability a symbol rooted in a pre-Christian legend:
“[I]n the time of famine, the mother pelican wounded herself, striking her breast with the beak to feed her young with her blood to prevent starvation. Another version of the legend was that the mother fed her dying young with her blood to revive them from death, but in turn lost her own life. Given this tradition, one can easily see why the early Christians adapted it to symbolize our Lord, Jesus Christ."
Receiving Holy Communion on the tongue emphasizes our complete dependence on the Lord’s initiative to nourish our souls—an important distinction between “being fed” vs. feeding ourselves. Yet, the natural anxiety that accompanies trying something new may still be there.
Here are a few tips for receiving Holy Communion on the tongue intended to ease anxiety while reducing the risk of the Host falling to the ground.
1. When you hear the words “The Body of Christ” respond “Amen”...before receiving. We can be so focused on receiving in a new way that they forget to say “Amen” or say it while receiving or afterwards.
2. Open your mouth and extend your tongue. This will make it easier for the minister to place the host firmly on your tongue.
3. I suggest closing your eyes while receiving. Thus reduces the all-too-common temptation to lunge forward toward the minister, which increases the chances of dropping the Host. Lunging also increases the possibility of contact between the minister’s fingers and the communicant’s tongue.
4. Pause a moment before pulling the host |into your mouth with your tongue. Retracting your tongue too quickly makes your tongue a moving target. I suggest a short “one-thousand-one” count before retracting your tongue. Take your time!!
5. No biting! Receive on your tongue, not with your teeth.
6. Keep your hands folded in prayer. It confuses the minister when a communicant simultaneously extends their tongue and holds their hands |n a way that looks like they intend to receive in the hand
One man in our parish, after receiving on the tongue for a week (dally Mass and Sunday Mass), told me that his sense of reverence and gratitude for the Eucharist has already increased! I appreciate that feedback, and also want to thank everyone else who has already accepted the invitation to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. It was noticeable last Sunday during Communion.
God’s Blessings… my prayers
Very Rev Fr John Lankeit
Rector
Ss Simon & Jude Cathedral
"You must not take the Body of My Son in your hand! You open the door for the entrance of evil spirits to defile My Son's Body! The consecrated fingers of a duly ordained man of God, the priest, shall place My Son into your mouth, and you must absorb His Body with goodness and love."
- The Bayisde Prophecies
Our Lady of the Roses, March 22, 1975
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