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Topic: communion on the

tongue or in the hand 

By Elna van Coller

 

I have been with an ultra conservative Catholic community for 4,5 years where we only received communion if the women were veiled, wearing long dresses with sleeves reaching elbows, kneeling at the communion rail, on the tongue and only from the priest’s hand. 

 

I have joined them fairly soon after my conversion from Protestantism and I absolutely believed that receiving communion any other way would be a sin to be confessed. 
The fact that so many conservative YouTubers also pushed for this reinforced my bias about what communion should look like. 

 

 Before I became Catholic I did consider converting to the Greek Orthodox in order to avoid all these endless debates in the Catholic community about so called modernism in the catholic church. 

 

Once I left this ultra conservative community about 4,5 years later I was very tempted to join the Russian Orthodox Church as they too appear to have none of these political infighting and as a bonus in RSA their numbers are made up of mostly conservative Catholics caught in a no-man’s land. 

 

 With the grace of  God and my Maronite sponsor I have in the eventually arrived at a place where I am truly grateful as a convert for just _eating the bread crumbs from the floor_ by manner of speaking. 

 

 Matthew 15:27- a woman pleads with Jesus to heal her daughter, saying "even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table," signifying her humility (a pagan convert) and *desperation* to receive even the smallest blessing from God, despite not being considered a "primary recipient" (cradle Catholic) of His grace. 

 

So then at the time I thought that  who were I to think I can figure out this communion controversy? Everyone on social media gas a different opinion and it all conflicts. 

 

It was then that I have discovered that for the 1st 800 years the Eastern and Western church received communion in the hand while standing the whole time. Jesus gave His disciples communion in the hand. And I assume they were seated. 
Then I read that we are made in God’s image and that both John Chrysostom and the Council of Constantinople in Trullo, argued that human beings, made in the image of God and capable of communing with him, are more worthy to touch the Eucharist than vessels of gold and silver. 
Our hands are not embarrassing grubby paws or something similar. 

 

There has never been an Ecumenical council that forbade communion in the hand despite what some YouTubers erroneously claim. (There was a local one, but this was not binding on everyone though). 

 

 With regards to kneeling at a rail / receiving on the tongue, these were traditions that developed. Similar to the tradition of women only wearing dresses and never pants in European society. Even the tradition of the church organ was revolutionary at the time and is still being openly mocked by the Orthodox today. Organs traditionally belonged to circuses. And churches were not allowed to have any musical instrument at all during a mass. 

 

 In the Russian Orthodox Church every one stands for the whole 3h service and sitting or kneeling in God’s presence is almost sacrilege (unless you are sick and dying). 

 

The Greek Orthodox are bit more flexible by allowing you to come as late as you wish. 

 

With the conservative community where I was, I have seen that while they have extremely pious exteriors, their interior life’s are filled with rebellion and disobedience and disdain for anyone not abiding by their ideas of the rules. Much like the Pharisees who Jesus accused of being whitewashed tombs. 

 

 According to St Thomas Aquinas true virtue lies in finding the balance between two extremes, avoiding excess on one side and deficiency on the other. 

 

 For me now looking back, I am grateful for the Catholic faith and the ability the catholic church has to adapt with changing times and seasons while still maintaining the ancient faith for us. 

 

Here’s an article setting out the details with proper references. 

https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/early-christian-communion-in-the-hand/