Another Manifesto on Reception by Hand

This article, written by David Gray, rebuts an apparent attempt by Voris to promote the reception of Eucharist by tongue.

Boy, the claws really come out when a Catholic tries to spread a deeper respect for the Eucharist.

The discussion always takes on a preternatural quality...as if the demons are summoned from every corner of the earth.  It never fails to get creepy and weird.  And, from sources that can surprise you.

David (on Facebook) said while he appreciates people who promote reception of the Eucharist by mouth, he's sick and tired of it because it makes people who receive by hand feel demonized.

I'll bet you know what Carol has to say about the people who feel demonized when they are reminded that their manhandling of the Eucharist is leaving particles of the Divinity of Christ on the floor, onto shoes, where He is carried out into dog poo?

Cry me a river.

David claims it is not about whether Christ is dropped onto the floor, but rather, it is about how holy the people feel about themselves as they paw the Eucharist.  It is about the reverence as you do it, he says.

I'm not sure how much success I had explaining to him that the feelings of the Deity involved in the interaction are excluded from his hypothesis, but I offered to God a valiant effort.

I learned a lot of things from a Fr. John Higgins I'm willing to bet you never heard before.

He first tried to tell me that the Church teaches that the Divinity of Christ is not in the substance of particles that fall from the Eucharist.  Only a whole piece of bread has the substance of Christ's Divinity.  The rest is dust.   Worthless dust.   He told me folks like us who believe that the Divinity of Christ is in pieces that break off of the Eucharist are like the people who worry about the fumes of the 'wine'.

He switched up the story a bit when he realized he wasn't talking to your average Catholic idiot when I asked him why, if the Church taught that Christ's Divinity was not in particles broken off of the Host, why then would they provide a Corporal and other linens which are, according to protocol, handled as if they carried particles of Christ's Divinity?   He said the Church teaches the Divinity of Christ is only in particles broken by the priest but not in particles that break off in the Communion lines.

When I asked him why the Romans would then use a paten for the distribution of the Eucharist which is only permitted by mouth, he got the big violins out.     Poor Fr. Higgins, the victim of a modernist vicious woman who simply will not listen to her superior.    He and all the Bishops and the Pope touch the Eucharist with their hands and receive standing up.   Why, Pope John Paul even gave him the Eucharist in his hands.   The paten is just for people who receive on the tongue because they are irreverent, fumble and drop the Eucharist.

He and others in the thread divulged several more of their screwball ideas, but you get the gist.

A number of pathetic sappy sorts with misplaced empathy chimed in.  Poor Fr. Higgins.  Stupid, insane woman with a filthy mouth that is a source of sin.  Blasphemer.  Shame on me for being disrespectful to Fr. Higgings (crumpled in the corner with his wounded self-esteem).   I am a modernist.  Others claimed I was a RadTrad (the use of which I explained is a perverse insult to the communion of the faithful who practice a Rite approved by the Church).  A heretic.  I need a team of psychiatrists and an exorcist.

The poor, poor lambs.

I was on my best behavior until Fr. Higgins chimed in again with more news.  The Altar rail is/was only for keeping wild animals out of the Sanctuary.   Whilst I did have the fortitude not to say what I wanted to say, i.e., it is a crying shame they don't have a gate like that at the seminary admissions office - it got a bit ugly.

In between chores, I persisted in backing Fr. Higgins into the corner about the substance of Divinity in particles of Christ and after several hours, he reversed himself by claiming I was a liar and twisting what he said and confirmed that what breaks off during the handling of Communion by people, gets dropped onto the floor, trampled upon, taken out into the dog poo IS the Divinity of Christ.

While I praised God for His victory, numerous people comforted Fr. Higgins by hurling salvos and insults.

Here's the kicker: after a few hours of slander and insults for promoting the practice of Eucharist on the tongue, one of the women said she was just wishing me peace.    HA.

Shortly thereafter, Fr. Higgins said he had just about enough of me and just like that, POOF, he disappeared.

Proving once again, when one resists the devil, he will flee.

Wait.  What was the subject matter of David Gray's article again?

Oh yeah.  The demonizing of people who receive Communion in the hand.

LOL.

ADDENDUM:   The best was yet to come.  A psychic woman who saw me as sitting in the corner sucking her thumb because a) the people attacking the promotion of reception by mouth were not attacking Christ but rather, attacking me, and I, you see, was catatonic (am I the Christ in this scenario?)  b) my Christmas was without family and friends (I'm guessing sorta like Lucy Ricardo on her birthday, I think?) c) I am trolling the internet to hurt people because I am hurt - (hurt people hurt people - was that on Oprah?) or finally; d.) I'm trolling the internet for relationships in the comments section of people who despise Communion by mouth.

HA.  What is next?

Pining for love from Fr. James Martin?

Rocking back and forth in the despair of from being among a group of highly esteemed colleagues who are a featured insult on the Cardinal's blog and newspapers across the continental US?  

Pigs would fly before I could ever I give a dimes worth of my self-esteem and self-worth to a group of people who go on a rampage of insulting and attacking Catholics who promote the reception of Divinity without trampling Him into your shoes.

What a testimony to the shallow nature of faith that is out there.

Do these people even see Christ, know what it is all about?  When you speak to them, they don't see Christ as a separate being from themselves.   They cannot grasp the concept that when we speak or act or receive -- whether the Divinity of Christ or insults -- we are focused on Christ and not ourselves.

It isn't about us.  It never was and it never will be.