No, only on the Holy Days when others who don’t normally attend and visitors attend mass. Normally we have a strong attendance of regulars who know the mass.The Priests of our Parish have always explained it to visitors on Easter and Christmas.
They hand out a program sheet showing how the Mass will precede also explaining Communion and what is expected
PG,
That’s great.
Our Church puts the attached slide up before every communion. This as an older slide and the “catholic faith” is highlighted because it’s one that I sent to our priest where I asked him to capitalize “Catholic” and he did.
Still, I think that some people ignore the sign, but that is between them and God.
Also, I’ve asked our priest to address the Catholic position on “state of grace“ and communion and thus far, after six or seven years, he has yet to address what “state of grace” means from the pulpit. I think that he is concerned that he might offend people.
For Paul says:
1Cor 11:26-29
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord
28 A person should examine himself and so eat the bread and drink the cup.
29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and brings judgement on himself.
Ignatius
He explained that too to cross your arms and come up for a blessing if not Catholic.I will be going to the vigil tonight which is usually full to capacity. There does seem to be less people so it may not be a full as I think it will.
I don’t know the exact situation, so I can’t really give any practical information here. I just wanted to raise a possibility that I have not seen discussed. If it has, please forgive my repetition.
Is there any possibility that the girlfriend was either a different Catholic rite or even Orthodox?
In the case of other Catholic rites, there is a possibility that she was just unfamiliar with the Roman Rite. It seems that in taking the host with her to the chalice, she was expecting to perform something called intinction, a practice common to the Eastern rites where the priest, euchariatic minister (or even communicant in some rare cases) would dip the host in the precious blood before reception.
The intinction practice is also common amongst those Orthodox Churches who have lifted the mutual excommunications with the Catholic Church and recognize the validity of the Catholic Church’s sacraments even of they are not in communion with the Pope. In those cases, many Orthodox are actually encouraged to receive the sacraments from the Catholic Church if there is no appropriate Orthodox Church in the area. Many of those Greek Orthodox would prefer a Catholic Church over, say, a Coptic Church.
Even the fact that she seemed to initially want to stay seated at communion may hint that she is Orthodox or an Eastern rite Catholic. Many Eastern rites and Orthodox Churches have stricter traditional requirements for the reception of the Eucharist, sometimes requiring reconciliation and a participation in Evening prayer the night before as well as a full fast between the conclusion of public Evening Prayer on Saturday night up to the moment they receive the Eucharist on Sunday. Being from the South, I have seen a number of Protestants try to receive the Eucharist and they are usually much more ready to go up to receive than the girlfriend in this instance.
But from my point of view, if the bread and wine actually become none-different from Jesus, that bread and wine should be given to everyone.
Hi Peter1 I am a newbie here, my first post here,sure,but ,the body and blood of Christ, is a sacrament, which our Lord Jesus Christ,gave to the Apostle as st Paul says in 1 Corinth,what was given to me I handed on to you (us) the Church, the Popes, Bishop,Priests ,rest of the apostles,as the word contains the spirit,at the words of the consecration the ordinary bread is totally transformers into the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,as he Himself said it at the last supper,he also gave the power to forgive sins to the Apostle handed on the faithful Popes, Bishops Priests down the centuries.as Jesus said my words are spirit and life,here the words of the consecration are said by Jesus and now the Priests says the same, please be open minded , pray and thinking about these things.all these are not just traditions (unwritten word of God)or from the Church but By Jesus Christ Himself.
An update:
I really do believe that the church where I witnessed the young girl receive communion a few weeks ago that was not Catholic should do a better job ofinforming the congregation that if they are not Catholic, they may only come up for a blessing.
I base this on the fact that it happened again this past weekend with a little boy and a grandmother leading him up to the altar. He took the host in his hand, per what looked like the grandmother‘s instructions standing next to him, and then went over to receive the blood of Christ, being led by his grandmother, and the Eucharistic minister had a short conversation with her and he gave back the host and did not take the blood of Christ.
What in the wide wide world of sports is going on?
I did not witness it this time, I only found out because I was visiting with the Deacon that refused the blood of Christ to the girlfriend a few weeks ago, and he said that it happened again today.
He mentioned that the grandmother and young boy were Hispanic and that he’s not sure if they spoke English. So, this could be a situation where they are new to our country and are following a tradition that they brought with them. Who knows?
I recommended that they strongly consider putting a slide up for viewing on the wall, like my home church does, next to the altar stating that “if you are not of our Catholic faith, please come up for a blessing with your arms crossed.”
The Deacon said that he would discuss it with the priest of the parish and he agreed that it seems to be happening more lately.
Ignatius
Our Ushers do a pretty good job of informing individuals that they know are visitors that they may cross their arms and go up for a blessing.
Are you an Usher yourself? If not, my thought is that you are paying too much attention on what others are doing and not enough in Prayer during this most intimate time with our Lord.
I do however agree that there has to be a better way of making this less awkward for individuals while also maintaining reverence.
