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Author Topic: Communion and genuflecting  (Read 977 times)

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Offline Miseremini

Re: Communion and genuflecting
« Reply #20 on: March 26, 2026, 08:48:21 PM »
Quote from: DirigeNos on March 26, 2026, 08:33:50 PM
Joking aside, what I did growing up (perhaps it is based on local customs) is: no genuflecting beforehand if it is normal communion formation at chapel Mass, walk up, kneel directly, receive with eyes closed, make the sign of the cross after the priest moves away. Don't chew the host. Dont hold it in your mouth any longer than you need to. If you must cross the center immediately after receiving, you dont need to genuflect. Our Lord is in you physically and spiritually. Similarly, the priest doesnt genuflect to the tabernacle as he distributes. He carries Our Lord with him. After 20 mins or so, the physical presence is gone (spiritual presence remains). The tabernacle closes, and you again genuflect any time you pass in front or enter the chapel (or step in or out of the sanctuary if you are sacristan or server).
But that was back then...when people had common sense.
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Online WorldsAway

Re: Communion and genuflecting
« Reply #21 on: March 26, 2026, 09:09:16 PM »
Concerning consuming the Eucharist, I have read that you actually are supposed to chew. IIRC, in the Gospel of John, the Greek "phago" (to eat/consume) is used by Our Lord, but when the Jews "strove among themselves, saying, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'", Christ then uses "trogo" (to chew/gnaw/crunch) to show that He truly meant eating His flesh.
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Offline Maria Dolorosa

Re: Communion and genuflecting
« Reply #22 on: March 26, 2026, 09:34:49 PM »
Quote from: WorldsAway on March 26, 2026, 09:09:16 PM
Concerning consuming the Eucharist, I have read that you actually are supposed to chew. IIRC, in the Gospel of John, the Greek "phago" (to eat/consume) is used by Our Lord, but when the Jews "strove among themselves, saying, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'", Christ then uses "trogo" (to chew/gnaw/crunch) to show that He truly meant eating His flesh.
The Holy Mass by St. Alphonsus Liguori, the priest receives the Sacred Host, p. 172:

"Then leaning his arms on the altar, and moderately inclining, he reverently receives Holy Communion, holding the paten under the Host. He should pay attention while taking the Host not to put his tongue out of his mouth, and not to chew the Host; and in order that it may not adhere to the roof of the mouth he should put it under his tongue, and there bend it. If it, however, adheres to the roof of the mouth, he should try to remove it with his tongue; but if some particle should remain, he should swallow it when taking the precious blood and the ablution." 

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Online WorldsAway

Re: Communion and genuflecting
« Reply #23 on: March 27, 2026, 05:47:12 AM »
Quote from: Maria Dolorosa on March 26, 2026, 09:34:49 PM
The Holy Mass by St. Alphonsus Liguori, the priest receives the Sacred Host, p. 172:

"Then leaning his arms on the altar, and moderately inclining, he reverently receives Holy Communion, holding the paten under the Host. He should pay attention while taking the Host not to put his tongue out of his mouth, and not to chew the Host; and in order that it may not adhere to the roof of the mouth he should put it under his tongue, and there bend it. If it, however, adheres to the roof of the mouth, he should try to remove it with his tongue; but if some particle should remain, he should swallow it when taking the precious blood and the ablution."
Summa, III, q. 77, a. 7 Whether the sacramental species are broken in this sacrament?

...

Objection 3. Further, breaking and mastication are seemingly of the same object. But it is Christ's true body that is eaten, according to John 6:57: "He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood." Therefore it is Christ's body that is broken and masticated: and hence it is said in the confession of Berengarius*: "I agree with the Holy Catholic Church, and with heart and lips I profess, that the bread and wine which are placed on the altar, are the true body and blood of Christ after consecration, and are truly handled and broken by the priest's hands, broken and crushed by the teeth of believers." Consequently, the breaking ought not to be ascribed to the sacramental species.

...

Reply to Objection 3. What is eaten under its own species, is also broken and masticated under its own species; but Christ's body is eaten not under its proper, but under the sacramental species. Hence in explaining John 6:64, "The flesh profiteth nothing," Augustine (Tract. xxvii in Joan.) says that this is to be taken as referring to those who understood carnally: "for they understood the flesh, thus, as it is divided piecemeal, in a dead body, or as sold in the shambles." Consequently, Christ's very body is not broken, except according to its sacramental species. And the confession made by Berengarius is to be understood in this sense, that the breaking and the crushing with the teeth is to be referred to the sacramental species, under which the body of Christ truly is.


*The Confession of Berengarius was apparently an oath, approved by the Church, that Berengarius was made to take to affirm his believe in the Real Presence


Our Lord literally says "eat/chew/gnaw/" My Flesh"
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Online WorldsAway

Re: Communion and genuflecting
« Reply #24 on: March 27, 2026, 06:22:47 AM »
Quote from: Maria Dolorosa on March 26, 2026, 09:34:49 PM
The Holy Mass by St. Alphonsus Liguori, the priest receives the Sacred Host, p. 172:

"Then leaning his arms on the altar, and moderately inclining, he reverently receives Holy Communion, holding the paten under the Host. He should pay attention while taking the Host not to put his tongue out of his mouth, and not to chew the Host; and in order that it may not adhere to the roof of the mouth he should put it under his tongue, and there bend it. If it, however, adheres to the roof of the mouth, he should try to remove it with his tongue; but if some particle should remain, he should swallow it when taking the precious blood and the ablution."
This is also instruction for the priest, which I think would differ from the laity. For example, we put our tongue outside the mouth, which St. Alphonsus says the priest should not do. He may be advising the priest not to chew as the priest, unlike the laity, will be speaking extensively during the Communion of the Faithful or just throughout the rest of the mass.. He says if a particle remains, even without chewing, the priest should swallow it when taking the Blood. Chewing would increase the possibility of particles remaining, so preventing the possibility of many particles remaining and failing to be swallowed when taking the Blood might be a reason for why he says this.

The same danger doesn't generally exist for the laity, as we will not, or at least shouldn't be, speaking for some time after receiving Communion..unless you will be singing, which then you may not want to chew...
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