We should note with concern an ongoing change in the Eucharistic praxis of the Roman Communion which is reverting it to a practice which has long been held by Anglicans, Old Catholics, Orthodox and other Apostolic Christians to be a liturgical abuse: please see here and here.
THE Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people: for both the parts of the Lord's Sacrament, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike.
2 comments:
Not surprising considering the mess the mess that was made with the NOVUS ORDO MISSAE. Another example of good intentions going awry.Giving the responsibilities to lay "Eucharistic Ministers" was not their first mistake.
They didn't ever learn how to properly administer Holy Communion in both kinds. They could have followed the example of the Anglican/Episcopal tradition or the Eastern Orthodox/Catholic tradition but just handed them chalices to offer to the communicants. Oh, the horrors I have witnessed of spilled wine, fumbled chalices, 'gulpers', etc.
I, myself, prefer intinction. I touch neither the Host nor the Chalice but receive the Body and Blood together. I don't judge others only myself.
+Chad,
It seems to me that the two articles linked to your post are describing a different situation than late medieval chalice withholding.
GIRM Norms,26 mentions the gravity of profanation when the Blessed Sacrament is distributed to large gatherings.
The key to the issue they are correcting is that extraordinary ministers (oh how we love those!) are increasing the instance of profanation in the large Communion services. The Bishops want to reduce the sloppy handling of the Blessed Sacrament. Therefore they encourage catechesis about this issue. 'Sloppy' is not in the GIRM but 'profanation' is. This is a serious issue that arose after Vat.II.
They want the Priest and Deacon to be the sole ministers of both species, not to take away the chalice. But when the extraterrestrial ministers are insisted upon, then the Bishops are limiting the chalice. Sounds to me like they need to increase vocation to the permanent diaconate to solve this.
Would that we had such crowds wanting to receive the Eucharistic Lord in the Anglican Churches...we might understand how extraordinary ministers came into use. But as it stands I can certainly agree that this practice needs to fall out of use everywhere due to its increased instances of profanation.
Fr. Chris Woodall
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