The Eucharist: How should a Catholic receive Communion?

The Eucharist, according to the Catholic Church, is “the source and culmination of all Christian life.” The Catholics, specifies the Catechismthey must receive it “at least once a year… during the Easter season, unless for just cause it is fulfilled at another time within the year.” But there are different preferences among believers regarding the way to receive it: In the hand or in the mouth? Standing or kneeling?

The recent COVID-19 pandemic further stirred the waters. Citing health care and the prevention of infections, episcopates in different parts of the world established guidelines of various types, and some went so far as to restrict the reception of Communion in the mouth.

But what does the Church teach about how to receive Communion?

The instructions of the Church

The general instruction of the Roman Missal —which guides the liturgical celebration of the Latin Catholic rite—, in its number 160, establishes that “the faithful take communion while kneeling or standing, as determined by the Conference of Bishops. When they take communion while standing, it is recommended that before receiving the Sacrament, they make the proper reverence, which must be determined by the same norms.”

Next, in numeral 161 it reads: “If Communion is received only under the form of bread, the priest, having the Host slightly elevated, shows it to each one, saying: The Body of Christ. The communicant responds: Amenand receives the Sacrament, in the mouth, or where it has been granted, in the hand, according to his desire. “Whoever takes communion immediately receives the sacred Host and consumes it in its entirety.”

In the instruction Sacrament of Redemption —“on some things that should be observed or avoided about the Most Holy Eucharist”—, published in 2004 by the Congregation—now the Dicastery—for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments of the Vatican, delves into these indications of the Roman Missal.

“Although every faithful always has the right to choose whether he or she wishes to receive Holy Communion in the mouth, if the person who is going to take Communion wants to receive the Sacrament in the hand, in places where the Conference of Bishops has permitted it, with confirmation of the Apostolic See, the sacred host must be administered to it,” the Vatican document states.

“However,” it states, “special care must be taken to ensure that the communicant immediately consumes the host, in front of the minister, and that no one walks away with the Eucharistic species in hand. If there is a danger of desecration, Communion in the hand should not be distributed to the faithful.”

Based on the guidelines of the Catholic Church, three priests shared with ACI Prensa their perspective on the matter and their advice on how the Catholic faithful can receive Communion.

“Find the unit”

Father Luis Fernando Valdés, doctor in Theology and professor at the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City, considers that when faced with “controversial, polarized issues” such as that of Communion in the mouth or in the hand, “we must always raise our gaze towards the origin, towards Christ.”

“The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity… all of us who eat the same bread form the same body. That is the principle (on which) we have to see this whole situation… Regarding the Eucharist, more than fighting, we have to seek unity,” he said, remembering the words of Saint Paul

According to the priest, devotion and reverence when taking communion come from understanding that what is received is “the body of Christ, the very reality of Christ, and not simply a symbol,” and this understanding led to the fact that for centuries it was received from knees and in the mouth. “On our knees: worship, God is bigger than me. In the mouth: I am not the one who appropriates the body of Christ, it is Christ who donates himself to me,” he explained.

However, he said, the “Church, in its wisdom, recommending this, is open to many possibilities, so to talk about abuses, I already believe that it is not appropriate, given that there is that authorization.”

Far from entering into controversies, Father Valdés encouraged us to look for “the root: recognize Christ, adore Christ, faithfully follow the Church. And what is the rule? Well, demonstrate devotion and adoration, its maximum expression, what one can give.”

Catholics, he noted, must “follow the guidance of the Episcopal Conference, which gives the regulations, and that is the broad field of freedom of Christians.”

“A confession of faith”

For Father Francisco Torres, Liturgy expert of the Diocese of Plasencia (Spain), “receiving the Eucharist in the mouth and on one’s knees is a confession of faith.”

“In the end everything responds to the treatment given to Jesus Christ if one believes whether he is really present or not in the Eucharist,” he said.

For Father Torres, the controversy over how to receive Communion “comes from the treatment we give to the Lord and also from this desire to greatly anthropologize the entire issue of liturgical worship, taking away that solemnity and exquisite treatment that God should receive in he”.

“We truly believe that Jesus Christ is present with his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament and that is why we make a gesture of adoration and humility, getting on our knees and opening our mouths. Because? Because the lay faithful is not worthy to take the Most Holy Body of the Lord with his hands, because only the consecrated hands of the priest can touch the body of Christ.”

Regarding the disadvantages of receiving Communion in the hand, Father Torres pointed out “the trivialization of the sacrament, apart from the fact that the risk of desecration and sacrilege due to the theft of the Sacred Form is higher, or because a particle may fall to the ground.” “if it is done in the mouth than if it is done in the hand.”

The Liturgy expert then noted two dimensions that must be taken into account to receive Communion. The first, he said, is the internal dimension, which refers to the fact that “the Eucharist must be received in grace, well confessed, without mortal sin, with a good disposition, with love, with affection, with affection, knowing who we are going to receive. That is the internal disposition and this is reflected in an external disposition.”

“The external disposition is in accordance with the tradition of the Church… on the knees and in the mouth. Who cannot do it on their knees, because the Church itself in the rubric of the Missal says that at least a gesture of reverence should be made before taking communion.”

“The way in which one receives Communion is not a dogma.”

For the Mexican priest Alberto Medel, specialist in Sacramentary Theology and coordinator of the Theological Committee of the College of Exorcists of the Archdiocese of Mexico, both in those who defend Communion in the mouth or in the hand he observes “a sincere devotion to the Holy Eucharist.”

For Father Medel, in this controversy the fundamental point is to determine “whether one takes communion ‘out of’ devotion or one takes communion ‘with’ devotion.”

“Communing out of devotion is making the Eucharist an object (…) I am referring to reifying the Eucharist, to instrumentalizing the Eucharist,” he explained.

“When the Eucharist becomes the object of our devotion, we actually make a serious mistake, because the Eucharist is not a devotional object… One approaches the Eucharist with devotion. It’s something else. “It is this feeling that is born from faith,” he said.

“Devotion is a feeling that is a consequence of faith, of true faith. Therefore, when I approach communion with devotion, the posture or the way in which I am going to receive the Eucharist is actually going to be secondary, because if I go with devotion, with devotion I will receive it directly in my mouth, with devotion. I will receive it directly in my hand.”

“If this is the attitude with which I approach communion, then I don’t really see the problem,” he said.

When you take communion only out of devotion, he pointed out, you can reach a point where “the two extremes always come together in the end: both the one who exaggerates the communion directly in the mouth and the one who, out of indifference or contempt or banality, asks for communion. receive Communion in the hand, because both one and the other can limp on the same foot,” he warned.

“The way in which we take communion is not a dogma,” he specified, but “what is dogmatic is that we must take communion, that we must feed on the Lord. And to feed on the Lord we have to begin by listening to His Word, by uniting ourselves with His priestly sacrifice and expressing this full union of faith in sacramental Communion.”