There’s an article at Praytell, which in September will undergo a major shift in emphasis and no longer will allow for comments. You can read the post HERE.
Thus, today, I would like to focus on a comment made about a post on “Breaking the Bread” at the Rite of Holy Communion. Apart from decrying that most laity don’t receive Holy Communion from Hosts consecrated at the Mass they attend, but rather from the tabernacle, the post goes on and on about everyone receiving a “host that is broken” with jagged edges, Crumbs galore, flying all over creation, the Glorified Body of our Lord capable of flying, notwithstanding.
The first comment, the only one as I write this, laments the fact that the laity don’t get jagged Hosts with Crumbs flying all over the place. And this comment is from a priest who is tied up in knots about this horrible situation.
And at the end of the comment he says the following and I ask what say you?
18 comments:
Meanwhile, we dumb laity have no doubt we are receiving the body of Christ, and I suppose we should join that priest in having doubts.
The USCCB will likely choose this guy for the Eucharistic Congress/Superbowl of Adoration pep talks under the urging of Francis et Cie (TM) where we all can listen and discern and listen some more to those on the peripheries, and leave firmly convinced that there are no answers, only opinions.
Be still, my heart.
They should be more concerned why so few Catholics bother to show up for the "new and improved Mass." What maroons
It's this kind of thinking that militates against belief in the Real Presence. If the crumbs are of no importance, so the whole loaf. How simple and safe were those small, dissolvable wafers of yesteryear.
I have witnessed some wild variations on the fraction rite. Dramatic breaking of a personal pizza sized host with equally dramatic parting in an arc-like fashion. I can only assume particles are scattered everywhere.
And then, I've witnessed very disciplined priests who carefully break, fold, run thumb and forefinger over the edge of the host while holding over the chalice carefully safeguarding particles. Some, even during the celebration of the NO, maintain conjoined digits until the ablutions. I suppose it all gets down to what the individual priests feels is necessary and appropriate.
It seems that practice, with not particular majority approach, runs the gamut between the dramatic "bread" priests and those that simply seem to adhere to the rubrics.
We don't have this conceptually in the Byzantine Churches, Catholic and Orthodox. The tabernacle is for viaticum and presanctified liturgy only. All that offered and consecrated at Divine Liturgy is either distributed to the faithful, received by the clergy, or consumed by the priest or deacon at the ablutions. Our tabernacles aren't a "bank" if you will, with deposits and withdrawals occurring frequently.
I have to agree with both William and TJM.
It all adds up, doesn't it?
If crumbs aren't important, why would a whole loaf be?
If crumbs aren't important, why would the rest of it be and then, that leads to why should one bother attending if none of the details are really of any consequence.
Now, that might seem like an extreme position. However, tone is set at the top and the flock will take it as seriously as those celebrating and distributing. In places, the sign of peace amongst the people is given undo prominence. I'm sure to many in settings such as that, if they get there...fine. If they don't.....no problem either.
While we're on what's important/not, I've tried, yes, tried to watch a few online masses in recent weeks. The music was so over the top dreadful, I could no longer take either within a few minutes. One has someone trying to screech out violin music who by all appearances, cannot and should not play the violin. Between just dreadful, I mean truly dreadful music coupled with saccharin hymnography, I can understand why some just can stand listening to it. If the music can't be cohesive, or fundamentals like hitting notes with a violin are just not possible, simple solution, don't have music. It's much less of an assault on people's senses. I'd rather listen to 5th grade holiday concert screeching in a school auditorium than adults who are clearly not competent at musical accompaniment. The powers that be seem insistent on having people participate in truly obnoxious deliveries of the 4 hymn sandwich.
ByzRus,
I chuckled at your first paragraph! I have witnessed some priests going all dramatic at the fraction a la Sir Laurence Olivier!
We have all witnessed theatrics while breaking the bread. If the hosts are consecrated together in the ciborium are they one or many?
Little, if anything, in the liturgy comes down to "what the individual priest feels is necessary and important."
Some, in the NO mass, rest their forearms on the altar while speaking the words of institution. Important?
Some fidget carelessly while chanting the Sanctus in an NO mass, moving the Missal, the corporal, the purificator numerous times each. Important?
Some NO celebrants sit with palms resting on their thights, never moving at all. Important?
It isn't about what I or other priests feel is important.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
St Paul himself makes clear as there is ONE BREAD there is only need for the loaf to be broken, not for the bread to be individually broken for individual.
FRMJK, at least traditional quirks of priests aren’t flamboyant but rather in line with the sobriety of the Latin Rite, until drunken progressives got a hold of it and imposed their inebriation upon it making it unsober. Breaking the bread during the liturgy and spraying large and small particles of our Crucified, Risen and Glorified Savior all over the place is drunken non-essential quirky individualism.
Catholics, clergy and laity, experience in a glorified way the One Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and receive His Real Presnce in a glorified, sacramental way, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, at every Mass where the Host they receive whether consecrated at that Mass or from another Mass. It is important that the priest’s Host is fractioned or “broken” since his Host is necessary to complete the Sacrificial aspect of the Mass by breaking and consuming the Holocaust. The same is not true for the laity who are present.
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"Little, if anything, in the liturgy comes down to "what the individual priest feels is necessary and important."
You could be on Comedy Central! Like NEVER using the Roman Canon? The problem with the Novus Ordo is that Clericalism on Steroids determines how Mass is celebrated. The priest is Superman, and not a servant of the Liturgy
Fr. MJK,
I'm afraid you and I are going to part company on this one. If, to some extent, it's not about what an individual Roman priest feels is necessary and appropriate, most of what is posted and discussed on this blog wouldn't ever see the light of day.
As well, forearms resting on the mensa during the words of institution is not necessarily important in the NO, however, I would argue that the fraction rite executed dramatically then potentially spraying consecrated particles in a way that could be deemed careless, is important.
I'm sorry, to me, your argument isn't 1:1.
Byz, at the fraction, particles are dispersed. It is inevitable. Very few are recognizable as bread. Some are caught on the fingers or the corporal. Some get wafted away on air currents, as do wine molecules that are continually part of evaporation.
What is the celebrant to consider important in this regard, at this moment of the mass?
Fr. MJK,
I get it and I'm not advocating for scrupulosity on steroids.
What I'm suggesting is that if "x" celebrant decides to be flamboyant/dramatic, he is amplifying that which occurs naturally and no one asked him to do so, particularly the Church. When cooking, why would one choose to make any more of a mess than is absolutely necessary? Certainly, divine worship and cooking aren't on any level the same, however, I think the principle is similar. While many of the particles might not be readily recognizable/recognizable as physical bread matter, if I were the celebrant, I'd look to not exacerbate the problem.
Fr K and Mark Thomas share the same character flaw: ignore inconvenient facts and change the subject
Byz, I'm not in favor of flamboyance or being overly dramatic, either. (I think that is exactly what many of the rubrics of the old liturgy promoted, but that's another discussion, however related.)
Part of the genius of the Roman rite is using the minimum of movements to accomplish a goal. So, the notion of, "If one genuflection is good, why not use 5?" is contrary to the Rita's principles.
Do that, and only that, which is necessary to accomplish the goal. Simply fraction the host...
The rubrics of the TLM CONTROLLED the priest, period. End of discussion. The Novus Ordo gives him superpowers and turns him into a talk show host!
How many parishes still fold the corporal correctly so as to contain the possible scattered particles, I know our parish does not, it's folded in quarters and when I brought it up I was brushed off. When one of our serverettes cleared the altar after mass several years ago she picked up the corporal and snapped it like a towel and the folded it in quarters and just flopped it on the end of the da---d piano that sits aside of the altar and sat down, no one said a word, not even the priest. I talked to her mother and she was visibly upset, called her daughter and questioned her, "no, Fr didn't say anything, why?". Do you think anyone besides me and her mother still believe in the real presence?
BTW where was Fr, why at the credence table cleaning the chalice, 5 wine cups and 4 Ciborium used at mass, too busy to notice I guess. Her mother brought it up to Fr, she brushed off.
The corporal is to be folded and should be inserted in a burse to protect it until it can be rinsed in a proper sacrarium. Wonder how many are just tossed into a washing machine these days?
how to properly fold a corporal, https://youtu.be/UpcBq8XoZbM
sorry to be so long winded but it just frosts my flakes how many people and priests just don't care
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