catholics chime in...

[Gibson486]

When you receive communion, what are the rules? Someone told me that you can't touch the bread (you stick your tongue out to receive it). It is a sin to do otherwise. I have been to a catholic school for 12 years, but I have never heard such a thing. Is there an unspoken rule that I was never taught?

 

[coldmeat]

I have seen people do that, but it's maybe 1 in 50, and I was never taught it... I always just thought it was a personal belief.

 

[Leros]

When I was in an Episcopalian private school we always received the bread in cupped hands. Not sure how Catholics do it though.

 

[BigJ]

When I received communion as a child, you had two options. Either they'd place it in your hands (there was a specific way to position, I forget because I don't follow the religion anymore) or they'd place it in your mouth. I've never heard it was a sin to touch the Host.

 

[Special K]

I've never heard that before. AFAIK, it's just personal preference. Most people at the churches I have attended just receive it in their hands.

 

[anxi80]

at catholic school we were taught to cup our hands, take a step to the side away from the line, consume the host, perform the sign of the cross and walk back to the pew. but i have seen people who also open their mouth to accept it, but its usually someone older.

ive also have been told if its already been blessed and declared as the eucharist then it has to be served. a story i was told is that someone once dropped a box of the host and it spilled into the street. had it been blessed he would've had to consume all the pieces because it represents the body of christ and would be considered sacrilege to discard of it. of course, i think they told us that story to teach us to respect it. can anyone knowledgable of the history chime in and confirm the validity of the story?

edit: i removed the hand over hand comment, im a rightie so i may have been just doing it out of habit. dont think either hand on top/bottom matters.

 

[GeneralDisarray]

I'm not 100% certain, but I beleive that allowing people to take the host from their hands was a change made in the Vatican II council in the 1960's. I remember because my parents were taught to never touch it in Catholic school, but by the time I got there you had the option of taking it from your hands or having it placed on your tongue.

RE: dropping a host: this is false. I was an altar boy in a Catholic church, and any hosts not used were put into a metal box, I cant recall the exact name, but it only contained blessed hosts and wine. Any remnants of host, such as crumbs, or small amounts of blessed wine, were our job to dispose of. There was a special sink in the back that we would run and then wash the items in. The priests said it was special because it emptied directly onto the soil, putting the blessed items back into the Earth, instead of having them mix with sewage as they would in a normal drain.

 

[anxi80]

thanks for the clarification. and similiar to what i was thinking, that the whole mouth changing to hand tradition was probably a recent change as i noticed only older folks did it.

 

[novasatori]

Originally posted by: anxi80
at catholic school we were taught to cup our hands, take a step to the side away from the line, consume the host, perform the sign of the cross and walk back to the pew. but i have seen people who also open their mouth to accept it, but its usually someone older.

I am (was?) Catholic and that's the way we did it during mass.

 

[Mikey]

Originally posted by: novasatori

Originally posted by: anxi80
at catholic school we were taught to cup our hands, take a step to the side away from the line, consume the host, perform the sign of the cross and walk back to the pew. but i have seen people who also open their mouth to accept it, but its usually someone older.

I am (was?) Catholic and that's the way we did it during mass.

Same

 

[mooglemania85]

It's like you tell your gf.

1. no hands
2. use your tongue
3. be sure to swallow

 

[dennilfloss]

Originally posted by: BigJ
When I received communion as a child, you had two options. Either they'd place it in your hands (there was a specific way to position, I forget because I don't follow the religion anymore) or they'd place it in your mouth. I've never heard it was a sin to touch the Host.

Still this way.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Not touching the host is old school Catholic. I'm no longer a Catholic but when I was brought up we were taught that you stuck your tongue out in front of the priest and he placed it on your tongue. People began using the cupped hand method in the early 70s (after Pope Paul VI made allowance for it) and it eventually gained acceptance by the mid-/late-70s.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Gibson486
When you receive communion, what are the rules? Someone told me that you can't touch the bread (you stick your tongue out to receive it). It is a sin to do otherwise. I have been to a catholic school for 12 years, but I have never heard such a thing. Is there an unspoken rule that I was never taught?

I was baptized as a Catholic and was taught both methods (I have long since renounced being Catholic or any religion). Personally, I think it's completely idiotic to regard something so arbitrary as a "sin".

 

[Flyback]

Originally posted by: mooglemania85
It's like you tell your gf.

1. no hands
2. use your tongue
3. be sure to swallow

:laugh:

 

[Skacer]

If you drop the body of christ on the floor, God comes down from heaven and beats the crap out of you. Saw it happen once. That is why old people get it stuffed directly into their mouth, they don't trust their old hands anymore and can't survive a godlike beating.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Gibson486
When you receive communion, what are the rules? Someone told me that you can't touch the bread (you stick your tongue out to receive it). It is a sin to do otherwise. I have been to a catholic school for 12 years, but I have never heard such a thing. Is there an unspoken rule that I was never taught?

how long ago were you a Catholic School student? the stone age?

we have been receiving Communion via our own hands (the communion host being placed there first by the priest) for years and years.

 

[meltdown75]

place it directly on your tongue?

obviously you know this is not the norm. this thread is useless.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
place it directly on your tongue?

obviously you know this is not the norm. this thread is useless.

people are still taught to do it

 

[alien42]

i am pretty sure it has something to do with being fondled by the priest

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: meltdown75
place it directly on your tongue?

obviously you know this is not the norm. this thread is useless.

people are still taught to do it

oh, now you're an expert on it?

in my church, not everyone genuflects when getting into a or leaving a pew. some people drink wine after communion. some people do the rosary 5 times every night. surely in your 12 years of "Catholic schooling" you have gained some clue as to the diversity of ways in which people practice their faith.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: meltdown75
place it directly on your tongue?

obviously you know this is not the norm. this thread is useless.

people are still taught to do it

oh, now you're an expert on it?

in my church, not everyone genuflects when getting into a or leaving a pew. some people drink wine after communion. some people do the rosary 5 times every night. surely in your 12 years of "Catholic schooling" you have gained some clue as to the diversity of ways in which people practice their faith.

why are you so bitter? Who said I was an expert? I am just saying that I have been to catholic school for 12 years and I was never taught that you had to do it (I am not even catholic).... but my gf went to one of those after school baptism programs for 3 years and they told her that doing it by tongue is a must. In her belief, this is a major sin. Maybe people in the South are more anal than people in the North when religion is brought up....

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: meltdown75
place it directly on your tongue?

obviously you know this is not the norm. this thread is useless.

people are still taught to do it

oh, now you're an expert on it?

in my church, not everyone genuflects when getting into a or leaving a pew. some people drink wine after communion. some people do the rosary 5 times every night. surely in your 12 years of "Catholic schooling" you have gained some clue as to the diversity of ways in which people practice their faith.

why are you so bitter? Who said I was an expert? I am just saying that I have been to catholic school for 12 years and I was never taught that you had to do it (I am not even catholic).... but my gf went to one of those after school baptism programs for 3 years and they told her that doing it by tongue is a must. In her belief, this is a major sin. Maybe people in the South are more anal than people in the North when religion is brought up....

i'm not bitter. i just cringe every time i see a religion thread posted in OT.

 

[Xavier434]

If it is a sin, then my catholic priest allowed me to commit many sins back in the 80s when I used to attend mass. I highly doubt that it is still a sin. It wouldn't even surprise me to find out if it never was one in the first place.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: meltdown75
place it directly on your tongue?

obviously you know this is not the norm. this thread is useless.

people are still taught to do it

oh, now you're an expert on it?

in my church, not everyone genuflects when getting into a or leaving a pew. some people drink wine after communion. some people do the rosary 5 times every night. surely in your 12 years of "Catholic schooling" you have gained some clue as to the diversity of ways in which people practice their faith.

why are you so bitter? Who said I was an expert? I am just saying that I have been to catholic school for 12 years and I was never taught that you had to do it (I am not even catholic).... but my gf went to one of those after school baptism programs for 3 years and they told her that doing it by tongue is a must. In her belief, this is a major sin. Maybe people in the South are more anal than people in the North when religion is brought up....

when did you graduate from said Catholic School? was it actually an accredited Catholic School? what was the name of it? why would you attend a Catholic School and not be a Catholic?
i call shens on this whole thread. there is *no way* after attending a Catholic School that you weren't taught the proper procedure for taking communion.