This was an subject being discussed on another thread so I am giving it a thread of it's own, starting with a snip from a sermon by Fr. Wathen.....

“….You’ve heard the objection; “Well, in the old days in the early Church, that is the way they used to do things”. Whenever I hear that I say I’m so glad you brought that up because it is necessary for you to think about this matter.

In the very first generations of the Church, we know that even though the people were very well instructed in their faith because it was a primitive Church, a primitive situation, they had not as yet developed  the rites which expressed their belief. They had as their teachers the Apostles and the disciples of the Apostles, and some of the disciples of Christ Himself.

But Christ only, you might say, laid out certain rough markings for the rites of the Church, and these were to develop over the period of centuries. Their comprehension as I say, of their belief, was probably better than ours, but their ritual had not taken shape. But we see that as they realized the holiness of what they had been given, then their ritual became more refined so that they strove to find ways to suggest what their faith said, and as the years went on, things became more formalized and more carefully regulated by the Church itself, and more uniformized. Which is to say the better they recognized the holiness of the Blessed Eucharist, the fewer people were allowed to touch the host, and those people only under the most regulated circuмstances.

And Churches were built in order to suggest the augustness of this sacrament, the specialness of the sacrifice. No place on earth was considered to be more holy, more reverent than the Church, for which reason the art was carefully prescribed or regulated or censured, everything was subject to the Church’s law and discipline.

And another thing is important my dear people, it is one thing to be somewhat crude when you know no better, but when you depart from refinement and revert to crudity, you’re responsible – and that is the story of the present movement. You throw aside all the fine manners, the delicacies, the proper religious amenities whereby we show our belief. To throw these aside, is exactly, to express your disdain for them, your loss of faith in them or your disregard of them. Just as it is a much worse thing for civilized people to strip themselves naked than it is for savages to go about unclad not hardly knowing any better. In the second case the guilt is not so great, but in the first case, it is great indeed….”

This was an subject being discussed on another thread so I am giving it a thread of it's own, starting with a snip from a sermon by Fr. Wathen.....

“….You’ve heard the objection; “Well, in the old days in the early Church, that is the way they used to do things”. Whenever I hear that I say I’m so glad you brought that up because it is necessary for you to think about this matter.

In the very first generations of the Church, we know that even though the people were very well instructed in their faith because it was a primitive Church, a primitive situation, they had not as yet developed  the rites which expressed their belief. They had as their teachers the Apostles and the disciples of the Apostles, and some of the disciples of Christ Himself.

But Christ only, you might say, laid out certain rough markings for the rites of the Church, and these were to develop over the period of centuries. Their comprehension as I say, of their belief, was probably better than ours, but their ritual had not taken shape. But we see that as they realized the holiness of what they had been given, then their ritual became more refined so that they strove to find ways to suggest what their faith said, and as the years went on, things became more formalized and more carefully regulated by the Church itself, and more uniformized. Which is to say the better they recognized the holiness of the Blessed Eucharist, the fewer people were allowed to touch the host, and those people only under the most regulated circuмstances.

And Churches were built in order to suggest the augustness of this sacrament, the specialness of the sacrifice. No place on earth was considered to be more holy, more reverent than the Church, for which reason the art was carefully prescribed or regulated or censured, everything was subject to the Church’s law and discipline.

And another thing is important my dear people, it is one thing to be somewhat crude when you know no better, but when you depart from refinement and revert to crudity, you’re responsible – and that is the story of the present movement. You throw aside all the fine manners, the delicacies, the proper religious amenities whereby we show our belief. To throw these aside, is exactly, to express your disdain for them, your loss of faith in them or your disregard of them. Just as it is a much worse thing for civilized people to strip themselves naked than it is for savages to go about unclad not hardly knowing any better. In the second case the guilt is not so great, but in the first case, it is great indeed….”

Just as it is a much worse thing for civilized people to strip themselves naked than it is for savages to go about unclad not hardly knowing any better. In the second case the guilt is not so great, but in the first case, it is great indeed….”

 if a lay person were to open the tabernacle and consume the sacred species to save it from certain desecration, even though not fasting and having to handle the sacred hosts, he would certainly be performing a virtuous action.

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