This happened to me when I was a young college student, experimenting with being more pious. I’ll never forgot the look of rage in the priest’s eyes and the nasty whisper of correction he gave me.
Some of those old Boomer priests are very sick people.
Kneeling is not more pious than standing. Piety is a thing of the heart. I'm sorry that sometimes priests don't correct well. We can learn to be saintly in those moments when our clerics reveal their human side.
Wrong. Priests who deny Communion to those kneeling promote disbelief in the Eucharist, whether done knowingly or not. It is the norm of the universal Church and no lesser rules or decisions than the infallible Chair of Peter can disallow the faithful from receiving this way.
Is the posture more important than the Eucharist? I think maybe if we're simply grateful to receive the Eucharist at all as an unearned gift, it might go much farther in promoting belief than fights over posture. Our priests take vows of obedience. We're only being asked a fraction of what even the worst priest has promised to the Church.
Priests obey their bishops orders directly, not the laws of the Church. Bishops can reassign priests at will, regardless of priest objections. Laity are also called to obedience, because we are all called to be saints. Standing, kneeling, on the tongue, in the hand, I'm just grateful that Our Lord provided us with such a great gift and the miracle that happens every day. It's not too much to ask to just do what's been asked.
Also, the posture (or rather developed tradition of physical observation of reverence, why may be different in other rites) is directly tied to how important the Eucharist is. Seperating the laity from kneeling IS directly tied to a lack of reverence and belief.
I had pre-Vatican II Catholics in the family, my grandparents and father. Kneeling or not kneeling had zero to do with their relative lack of belief. It wasn't until I got online after my reversion that I discovered that people all kneeled pre-Vatican II. If St. Augustine received standing and in the hand, I don't think I can ascribe is lack of kneeling to his beliefs either way. I think in the end it's more help to simply trust the collective clerics to do their work.
Kneeling is more pious than standing though. It's a stronger sign of reverence, submissiveness, willingness to serve and obey. Standing is what happens among two equals.
Standing is how we honor and remember the Resurrection of Our Lord: https://substack.com/inbox/post/183940617. Jesus made us his friends and God made us his sons and daughters. They stand, also in the company of their parents. Revelation has a lot of people standing in Heaven. Kneeling is a beautiful posture, to be clear. But it's not what the Church is asking of us right now in 2026.
Christians offer a short bow when exchanging gifts at the altar. Entering a pew and genuflecting is a similar action. It's a respectful greeting. Standing reverently to receive the gift of Christ remembers and respects His victory. The postures are not in competition or exclusive of each other. I bow before I receive standing.
I was denied communion for being on my knees once. Priest literally shrugged, shook his head, and stepped to the side so the person behind me could receive while I stood up. Not wanting to make a scene (and planning to talk to the priest later), I just stood up, opened my mouth, and again got the shake of the head as the priest gestured for me to receive in the hands. Chatted with him later and he was perfectly cordial about it, but claimed some diocesan guidelines that were obviously nonexistent. Really weird.
There absolutely could have been diocesan guidelines. Bishops have the right to encourage the norms of reception in their faithful. It's 100% their call on that. I'd look it up, if you are curious. I don't know why a priest would lie, especially if he was being pleasant about it.
USCCB norms state that standing to receive is normative, but individual communicants who would like to receive kneeling are not to be denied based on the fact that they are kneeling. So any diocesan guidelines to the contrary would be null and void.
It does not work like that. The bishops and the Pope are the ultimate judges of joint norms/canon law, not laity. We could argue that maybe an individual bishop had over stepped his bounds, but that would require an appeal to Rome. We can't call it null and void from the pews.
Laity do not get to be armchair canon lawyers. They are also not in the position to judge the Church. The Church makes the judgements on the applications of her own rules. A website most probably run by laity, literally calling themselves armchair canon lawyers is not really a Catholic approach to the problem. The litgury and practice of the faith belong to the bishops and Peter (Pope), and by extension the priests. We as laity show up and do what we're asked to do.
Okay, but as noted in the article, the Vatican has declared that no one can be denied communion for wanting it kneeling on the tongue. It would be one thing if the Vatican allowed both and the bishop picked one, but this is a clear case of a priest or bishop trying to do something the Vatican has said cannot be done
The website is run by a priest and is merely a collection of texts approved by the Church. Nobody is judging the Church here. I’m merely stating what the Church herself has given.
Exactly right Adam. My diocese is very large and well-known, and while I would hardly say our cardinal is conservative liturgically, he’s been absolutely tolerant of things like the Latin Mass as well - there are no such ordinances in our diocese restricting how communion is to be administered. I just think the old guy was a little isolated at his aging parish where folks are set in their ways. On the other hand, I got a buddy who’s doing Fulbright in South Korea, and masses THERE have some strict top-down guidance (ie kneelers nailed closed to encourage standing, etc)
Unless you've looked into it in your diocese, you don't know what diocesan regulations have been issued. Regulations don't change necessarily with new bishops, just depending. They could have been issued 2 decades ago and are still in force.
It turns out that our bishop tolerantly allowed our now deceased parish priest (may he RIP) to ignore actual long standing diocesan guidelines that pretty clear when it came to the Mass. Our new parish priest is slowly reconfiguring the parish norms to match what were supposed to be the diocesan ones.
There's no substitute for the homework on this one. You have to contact the diocese to confirm or deny it. Conjecturing that a formal rule doesn't exist is a bad idea in any situation, put particularly so when it comes to the Catholic Church.
lol…I have looked into it…when I say no such regulation exists it’s because I’m well connected with local canon lawyers and always do my homework on these matters. Not sure why you feel it’s important to drive that point home! But great point nonetheless!
Asking your traditionalist canon lawyer friends is not asking the diocese for an opinion. Ask the diocese directly and the homework will be done. It's not difficult, but I guess it is.
I’m sorry - did I ever say that I didn’t consult the diocese directly? Because I did do exactly that. They were very helpful in clearing the matter up. Not sure what your issue is making accusations of people, their credentials, or anyone’s due diligence on this matter. Have a great night.
I once got a deer-in-the-headlights look from an older priest when I knelt and presented my tongue. He didn't chastise me or explicitly deny me, but I immediately gave him my hands instead and he looked relieved. I've never been one to insist on kneeling/tongue anyway.
Nowadays, I'm most likely to go kneeling/tongue when I happen to be carrying my infant son while I receive. At that point it's a much easier maneuver than trying to receive in the hands whilst holding a baby. Far less likely to drop the host (or the baby).
I'll kneel if a parish has a kneeler (a couple in my area do) where they distribute communion. I'm not hardcore enough to receive on my knees if there isn't an explicit invitation like that, though I have started to make an effort to receive on the tounge.
But in my parish, one of the older guys who's involved in everything (in a good way...you know the type. The parish festival probably wouldn't exist if not for him and his compatriots) goes at the end of the line, and he always receives kneeling. Some people receive in the hands, some don't, some of the women wear mantillas and some don't, and we all get along well …really, almost strangely well. No unity has been threatened in our parish that I can see.
One summer, I was going to daily Mass at a new parish before work and I often would kneel to receive communion. After a couple of weeks, the priest talked to me after Mass and asked if I would consider not kneeling to receive. He said that, about a year earlier, an elderly lady didn’t see the person in front of her kneel to receive and she tripped on their legs (since kneeling wasn’t the custom at the parish) and actually cracked her head on the concrete floor. He asked very respectfully and he said explicitly that I could keep kneeling to receive if I wanted to, so I stopped as a sincere gesture of respect to him as the parish pastor. His pastoring helped to break me from an attachment to kneeling to receive. I still do it when I can/want to, but it helped me learn that I don’t *have* to for a variety of reasons. Now, I almost never kneel to receive when I go to a new parish.
I agree—it’s very meet and right to kneel, however we shouldn’t ignore unity in practice especially when the priest/bishop presiding is responsible for such within his parish.
Wow. I could see this happening in Italy, where I live, but that would first require having anyone who does these sorts of traditional practices in the churches here. While I don't kneel myself, I do receive on the tongue; my mom even had my brother and me receive our sacraments at another church in the next town over that was more traditional than the one at our Catholic elementary school. My experience with the churches in Italy has been quite similar to what I've heard what the American Church in the '70s and '80s was like...whenever I return to the U.S. for a visit, I'm always happy to see some of these pious practices returning, so I really hope people don't get discouraged by instances like this. I still wear a veil, even if I'm the only one doing so, and I did have the lovely experience of an older woman coming up to me one time with tears in her eyes, saying how beautiful it was to see me wearing one and kneeling so much during Mass, that it reminded her "how the church used to be."
It is so absurd that Roman Catholics are discouraged from kneeling. I am glad to be Anglican, in a church where most people kneel at the rail as a matter of course. Some don’t, but it is because they have knee problems but nobody makes an issue either way. The RC church is losing its mind.
Sorry about that. Actually, I am more disappointed than anything. I would like to see the Roman Catholic Church avoid the path that too many other churches have taken.
There is very good reason to make sure that customs are accessible and not put too much stock in formal liturgies. We have to learn to love God, not formality. Kneeling is not more pious than reception in the hand. It only takes a little history and theology to understand it. But lots of people don't want to know.
I see where you're coming from, but what we do with our bodies matters. Exterior form matters and can better form (or at least be a factor that fosters) interior piety of the heart.
The laity don't get to judge which exterior forms are better than others. That belongs to the bishops alone. Part of the current issue is laity trying to 2nd guess thousands of years of history and a shockingly unanimous council.
They did not, however, they did direct the bishops to come up with norms. That's the UCCSB. But rejection of Vatican II is bound up in all of these objections over posture, music, etc.
Reception standing and on the hand is much older than reception on the tongue and kneeling. It is thought to be original method of reception in the Roman Rite. It has deep theological significance, tying the Eucharist to the first Passover. So do you mean sticking with that tradition?
The capital T tradition is letting our bishops make the call when it comes to the practices of the faith. Modernism is in trying to decide for ourselves what is best when it comes to the practices of the faith.
My understanding is that Tradition is received by all the faithful including rubrics developed over time. The analogy of an acorn growing into a mighty oak as The Church growing through the centuries; in essence developing (or better, unfolding) while remaining essentially what and who she is. I'm not sure the path of antiquarianism serves The Church best.
I’m not denying that standing was common in Augustine’s time, but the claim that we have evidence he personally received standing and in the hand just isn’t accurate. The Notre Dame Church Life Journal piece you’re probably relying on only notes that communion in the hand existed in North Africa — it never describes Augustine himself doing it. That’s a big leap from “this practice existed in his region” to “Augustine definitely received this way.” His discussion is about the priest holding the host in his hand, not laity receiving. Some Fathers do mention communion in the hand in situations of persecution or necessity, but that doesn’t turn a regional custom into a documented personal practice of Augustine.
Now, I should also add that the part of the writings of Cyril of Jerusalem which mention people making a throne of their hands have been shown to be written by a later scribe and are not from a Church Father. You've been led wrong and you can check against me with Catholic Answers.
Thank you for this. “It’s useless to worry about someone else’s piety.” I used to receive while kneeling, and once I was gently told it wasn’t normative to do so and it totally caught me by surprise. I haven’t kneeled ever since unless there was an altar rail. Whenever I do see people kneeling I don’t think that they’re morally superior because… not everything is about me? Maybe it’s their way of reverencing our Lord and having that intimate moment in such an intimate point of the Mass. It’s confused and irked me when I’ve seen people be asked to stand up to receive when they’re kneeling and prepared to welcome our Lord into their hearts.
This once happened to me. As I stood up to walk away I told the priest “ after Mass you and I need to talk”. He ran away. No doubt the other priest, who was at my doctoral defence advised him not to dance with me.
At a conservative Catholic church while I was on vacation (it was the only Catholic church in the town), everyone was kneeling at an altar rail. I stood to receive in my hand as I always do, and the priest said “if you want to receive in your hand, you have to go to that line over there” and pointed to my left. I was taken aback and decided to just receive on my tongue. But it was a very uncomfortable moment for me.
This happened to me when I was a young college student, experimenting with being more pious. I’ll never forgot the look of rage in the priest’s eyes and the nasty whisper of correction he gave me.
Some of those old Boomer priests are very sick people.
Kneeling is not more pious than standing. Piety is a thing of the heart. I'm sorry that sometimes priests don't correct well. We can learn to be saintly in those moments when our clerics reveal their human side.
Wrong. Priests who deny Communion to those kneeling promote disbelief in the Eucharist, whether done knowingly or not. It is the norm of the universal Church and no lesser rules or decisions than the infallible Chair of Peter can disallow the faithful from receiving this way.
Is the posture more important than the Eucharist? I think maybe if we're simply grateful to receive the Eucharist at all as an unearned gift, it might go much farther in promoting belief than fights over posture. Our priests take vows of obedience. We're only being asked a fraction of what even the worst priest has promised to the Church.
Priests are called to be obedient... To the laws of the Church. If they direct us in opposition to their guidance we cannot follow.
Priests obey their bishops orders directly, not the laws of the Church. Bishops can reassign priests at will, regardless of priest objections. Laity are also called to obedience, because we are all called to be saints. Standing, kneeling, on the tongue, in the hand, I'm just grateful that Our Lord provided us with such a great gift and the miracle that happens every day. It's not too much to ask to just do what's been asked.
Also, the posture (or rather developed tradition of physical observation of reverence, why may be different in other rites) is directly tied to how important the Eucharist is. Seperating the laity from kneeling IS directly tied to a lack of reverence and belief.
I had pre-Vatican II Catholics in the family, my grandparents and father. Kneeling or not kneeling had zero to do with their relative lack of belief. It wasn't until I got online after my reversion that I discovered that people all kneeled pre-Vatican II. If St. Augustine received standing and in the hand, I don't think I can ascribe is lack of kneeling to his beliefs either way. I think in the end it's more help to simply trust the collective clerics to do their work.
Who said St. Augustine recieved standing, on the hand? I would very much like to know, please.
Kneeling is more pious than standing though. It's a stronger sign of reverence, submissiveness, willingness to serve and obey. Standing is what happens among two equals.
Standing is how we honor and remember the Resurrection of Our Lord: https://substack.com/inbox/post/183940617. Jesus made us his friends and God made us his sons and daughters. They stand, also in the company of their parents. Revelation has a lot of people standing in Heaven. Kneeling is a beautiful posture, to be clear. But it's not what the Church is asking of us right now in 2026.
So I should not genuflect when entering a pew…?
Christians offer a short bow when exchanging gifts at the altar. Entering a pew and genuflecting is a similar action. It's a respectful greeting. Standing reverently to receive the gift of Christ remembers and respects His victory. The postures are not in competition or exclusive of each other. I bow before I receive standing.
I was denied communion for being on my knees once. Priest literally shrugged, shook his head, and stepped to the side so the person behind me could receive while I stood up. Not wanting to make a scene (and planning to talk to the priest later), I just stood up, opened my mouth, and again got the shake of the head as the priest gestured for me to receive in the hands. Chatted with him later and he was perfectly cordial about it, but claimed some diocesan guidelines that were obviously nonexistent. Really weird.
Stuff like this is absurd. I expect more people have experienced this than most catholics realize
There absolutely could have been diocesan guidelines. Bishops have the right to encourage the norms of reception in their faithful. It's 100% their call on that. I'd look it up, if you are curious. I don't know why a priest would lie, especially if he was being pleasant about it.
USCCB norms state that standing to receive is normative, but individual communicants who would like to receive kneeling are not to be denied based on the fact that they are kneeling. So any diocesan guidelines to the contrary would be null and void.
It does not work like that. The bishops and the Pope are the ultimate judges of joint norms/canon law, not laity. We could argue that maybe an individual bishop had over stepped his bounds, but that would require an appeal to Rome. We can't call it null and void from the pews.
It does work like that. https://canonlaw.ninja/?v=girm&nums=160
Laity do not get to be armchair canon lawyers. They are also not in the position to judge the Church. The Church makes the judgements on the applications of her own rules. A website most probably run by laity, literally calling themselves armchair canon lawyers is not really a Catholic approach to the problem. The litgury and practice of the faith belong to the bishops and Peter (Pope), and by extension the priests. We as laity show up and do what we're asked to do.
Okay, but as noted in the article, the Vatican has declared that no one can be denied communion for wanting it kneeling on the tongue. It would be one thing if the Vatican allowed both and the bishop picked one, but this is a clear case of a priest or bishop trying to do something the Vatican has said cannot be done
The website is run by a priest and is merely a collection of texts approved by the Church. Nobody is judging the Church here. I’m merely stating what the Church herself has given.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, as quoted in that link, was published accompanying the 3rd edition of the Missale Romanum in 2002 by Pope John Paul II. Here’s the link to the same text on the Vatican website. Its article 160, under the sub-heading, “Mass With A Congregation”: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20030317_ordinamento-messale_en.html#I._MASS_WITH_A_CONGREGATION
Exactly right Adam. My diocese is very large and well-known, and while I would hardly say our cardinal is conservative liturgically, he’s been absolutely tolerant of things like the Latin Mass as well - there are no such ordinances in our diocese restricting how communion is to be administered. I just think the old guy was a little isolated at his aging parish where folks are set in their ways. On the other hand, I got a buddy who’s doing Fulbright in South Korea, and masses THERE have some strict top-down guidance (ie kneelers nailed closed to encourage standing, etc)
Unless you've looked into it in your diocese, you don't know what diocesan regulations have been issued. Regulations don't change necessarily with new bishops, just depending. They could have been issued 2 decades ago and are still in force.
It turns out that our bishop tolerantly allowed our now deceased parish priest (may he RIP) to ignore actual long standing diocesan guidelines that pretty clear when it came to the Mass. Our new parish priest is slowly reconfiguring the parish norms to match what were supposed to be the diocesan ones.
There's no substitute for the homework on this one. You have to contact the diocese to confirm or deny it. Conjecturing that a formal rule doesn't exist is a bad idea in any situation, put particularly so when it comes to the Catholic Church.
lol…I have looked into it…when I say no such regulation exists it’s because I’m well connected with local canon lawyers and always do my homework on these matters. Not sure why you feel it’s important to drive that point home! But great point nonetheless!
Asking your traditionalist canon lawyer friends is not asking the diocese for an opinion. Ask the diocese directly and the homework will be done. It's not difficult, but I guess it is.
I’m sorry - did I ever say that I didn’t consult the diocese directly? Because I did do exactly that. They were very helpful in clearing the matter up. Not sure what your issue is making accusations of people, their credentials, or anyone’s due diligence on this matter. Have a great night.
You are mistaken.
This is a shockingly unhelpful statement.
I once got a deer-in-the-headlights look from an older priest when I knelt and presented my tongue. He didn't chastise me or explicitly deny me, but I immediately gave him my hands instead and he looked relieved. I've never been one to insist on kneeling/tongue anyway.
Nowadays, I'm most likely to go kneeling/tongue when I happen to be carrying my infant son while I receive. At that point it's a much easier maneuver than trying to receive in the hands whilst holding a baby. Far less likely to drop the host (or the baby).
This seems to be the most practical argument for reception kneeling, or at least on the tongue. "My hands are full with my infant". :)
And this is the best way to be about it. I've knelt at altar rails, whatever. Just happy to be receive the Eucharist.
I'll kneel if a parish has a kneeler (a couple in my area do) where they distribute communion. I'm not hardcore enough to receive on my knees if there isn't an explicit invitation like that, though I have started to make an effort to receive on the tounge.
But in my parish, one of the older guys who's involved in everything (in a good way...you know the type. The parish festival probably wouldn't exist if not for him and his compatriots) goes at the end of the line, and he always receives kneeling. Some people receive in the hands, some don't, some of the women wear mantillas and some don't, and we all get along well …really, almost strangely well. No unity has been threatened in our parish that I can see.
Parishioners able to live with devotional differences??? Impossible! Call the bishop!
That's awesome.
One summer, I was going to daily Mass at a new parish before work and I often would kneel to receive communion. After a couple of weeks, the priest talked to me after Mass and asked if I would consider not kneeling to receive. He said that, about a year earlier, an elderly lady didn’t see the person in front of her kneel to receive and she tripped on their legs (since kneeling wasn’t the custom at the parish) and actually cracked her head on the concrete floor. He asked very respectfully and he said explicitly that I could keep kneeling to receive if I wanted to, so I stopped as a sincere gesture of respect to him as the parish pastor. His pastoring helped to break me from an attachment to kneeling to receive. I still do it when I can/want to, but it helped me learn that I don’t *have* to for a variety of reasons. Now, I almost never kneel to receive when I go to a new parish.
Piety police 😂 My mother in law was recently told her veil was distracting.
I agree—it’s very meet and right to kneel, however we shouldn’t ignore unity in practice especially when the priest/bishop presiding is responsible for such within his parish.
Piety is good, humility is better.
Precisely. Very well said, friend.
Wow. I could see this happening in Italy, where I live, but that would first require having anyone who does these sorts of traditional practices in the churches here. While I don't kneel myself, I do receive on the tongue; my mom even had my brother and me receive our sacraments at another church in the next town over that was more traditional than the one at our Catholic elementary school. My experience with the churches in Italy has been quite similar to what I've heard what the American Church in the '70s and '80s was like...whenever I return to the U.S. for a visit, I'm always happy to see some of these pious practices returning, so I really hope people don't get discouraged by instances like this. I still wear a veil, even if I'm the only one doing so, and I did have the lovely experience of an older woman coming up to me one time with tears in her eyes, saying how beautiful it was to see me wearing one and kneeling so much during Mass, that it reminded her "how the church used to be."
It is so absurd that Roman Catholics are discouraged from kneeling. I am glad to be Anglican, in a church where most people kneel at the rail as a matter of course. Some don’t, but it is because they have knee problems but nobody makes an issue either way. The RC church is losing its mind.
At my parish the norm is kneelers and tongue or hands out. 🤷🏼♀️ it can vary across dioceses
Glad to hear it.
I’d rather be safe in the Barque of Peter.
We have problems in liturgical Protestantism, but the intra-church nastiness (and the Boomer liberalism) of the RC never ceases to shock me.
ragebaitin ?
Sorry about that. Actually, I am more disappointed than anything. I would like to see the Roman Catholic Church avoid the path that too many other churches have taken.
There is very good reason to make sure that customs are accessible and not put too much stock in formal liturgies. We have to learn to love God, not formality. Kneeling is not more pious than reception in the hand. It only takes a little history and theology to understand it. But lots of people don't want to know.
I see where you're coming from, but what we do with our bodies matters. Exterior form matters and can better form (or at least be a factor that fosters) interior piety of the heart.
The laity don't get to judge which exterior forms are better than others. That belongs to the bishops alone. Part of the current issue is laity trying to 2nd guess thousands of years of history and a shockingly unanimous council.
I'd love to hear more about what this "shockingly unanimous council" said about posture while receiving Holy Communion.
They did not, however, they did direct the bishops to come up with norms. That's the UCCSB. But rejection of Vatican II is bound up in all of these objections over posture, music, etc.
Got it, thanks.
Well I think I'll stick with Tradition as received from Holy Mother Church and not follow wayward prelates infected with modernist nonsense.
Reception standing and on the hand is much older than reception on the tongue and kneeling. It is thought to be original method of reception in the Roman Rite. It has deep theological significance, tying the Eucharist to the first Passover. So do you mean sticking with that tradition?
The capital T tradition is letting our bishops make the call when it comes to the practices of the faith. Modernism is in trying to decide for ourselves what is best when it comes to the practices of the faith.
My understanding is that Tradition is received by all the faithful including rubrics developed over time. The analogy of an acorn growing into a mighty oak as The Church growing through the centuries; in essence developing (or better, unfolding) while remaining essentially what and who she is. I'm not sure the path of antiquarianism serves The Church best.
I’m not denying that standing was common in Augustine’s time, but the claim that we have evidence he personally received standing and in the hand just isn’t accurate. The Notre Dame Church Life Journal piece you’re probably relying on only notes that communion in the hand existed in North Africa — it never describes Augustine himself doing it. That’s a big leap from “this practice existed in his region” to “Augustine definitely received this way.” His discussion is about the priest holding the host in his hand, not laity receiving. Some Fathers do mention communion in the hand in situations of persecution or necessity, but that doesn’t turn a regional custom into a documented personal practice of Augustine.
Now, I should also add that the part of the writings of Cyril of Jerusalem which mention people making a throne of their hands have been shown to be written by a later scribe and are not from a Church Father. You've been led wrong and you can check against me with Catholic Answers.
Sorry this didn't sort correctly, here is the thread its related to: https://www.catholicpat.com/p/why-jonathan-roumie-was-denied-communion/comment/195272178?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=uc3qi
Thank you for this. “It’s useless to worry about someone else’s piety.” I used to receive while kneeling, and once I was gently told it wasn’t normative to do so and it totally caught me by surprise. I haven’t kneeled ever since unless there was an altar rail. Whenever I do see people kneeling I don’t think that they’re morally superior because… not everything is about me? Maybe it’s their way of reverencing our Lord and having that intimate moment in such an intimate point of the Mass. It’s confused and irked me when I’ve seen people be asked to stand up to receive when they’re kneeling and prepared to welcome our Lord into their hearts.
In my parish, we have people receiving the Eucharist in all 4 positions, standing or kneeling, in hand or on the tongue.
This once happened to me. As I stood up to walk away I told the priest “ after Mass you and I need to talk”. He ran away. No doubt the other priest, who was at my doctoral defence advised him not to dance with me.
bring back Altar rails and kneeling to receive in the thong the Body, Blood and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At a conservative Catholic church while I was on vacation (it was the only Catholic church in the town), everyone was kneeling at an altar rail. I stood to receive in my hand as I always do, and the priest said “if you want to receive in your hand, you have to go to that line over there” and pointed to my left. I was taken aback and decided to just receive on my tongue. But it was a very uncomfortable moment for me.
It's really weird to know that Priests are out there who actually demand irreverant behavior.