How do you feel about the Eucharist in the hands?

How do you feel about taking the holy Eucharist in the hands? Do you think that it is desecration or something that has enough early-church historical use to warrant it? My church in particular has people who take it in the hand and on the tongue but I am interested to see where the majority of people are on this site.

 

I am fine with either one honestly, as long as both be done reverently and kneeling... Yeah the testimony of the church fathers is pretty overwhelming in favor of receiving in the hand, but I am quite honestly comfortable with both, to me reverence is the deciding factor

 

In the Church of England, receiving in the hands whilst kneeling is usual. The rubrics found in the 1662 BCP Holy Communion liturgy direct that we receive this way.

As a cradle Anglican I've never received on the tongue and have no desire to do so. No one at my church receives on the tongue. The small Anglican Ordinariate group nearby whose members were originally part of an advanced Anglo-Catholic parish receive in the hands but standing as the Catholic Church they now use doesn't have Communion rails.

The Catholic Encyclopaedia at newadvent.org even says: "That, in the early Church, the faithful stood when receiving into their hands the consecrated particle can hardly be questioned."

Syrian Eucharistic documents dating from the mid 4th century show that Holy Communion was administered in both kinds, the Body being received into the right hand with the left hand cradling the right. In Britain, the Venerable Bede writes of receiving in the hand.

There seems to be much heated debate amongst some Catholics regarding the issue of Communion in the hand or on the tongue but both seem reverent to me. As an Anglican, I'm not going to be offended if someone chooses to receive on the tongue even though it has never been my practice to do so.

 

The Church of England, to which I belong, has reception on the hand as the norm. Before our diocesan bishop closed our parish my wife and I, like many communicants received on the tongue. However, where we now go everyone seems to receive on the hand. We now receive on the hand. We prefer to do this than there be an accident whereby the sacred host falls on the floor because the priest is aiming for a hand and we have a mouth ready. At least there are still altar rails and we can kneel. A lot do not kneel and I would be surprised if that is down to a physical reason in every case. I also think the current incumbent would be happy to do away with kneeling. I am certain he is trapped in a time warp and thinks we are a Roman Catholic church in the 1970s that is grasping every change from Vatican II like it were a lifeline.

 

In the past ten years I've received on the tongue once or twice, and administered onto the tongue twice. It's a rare preference among Anglicans - mainly among the highest of the high, I suppose. I recently read this blog post which got me thinking rather positively on the subject: https://www.piercedhands.com/the-intimate-awkwardness-of-receiving-on-the-tongue/

 

The majority receive in the hand (myself included) at my parish. But as others have stated, I'm fine with it either way as long as reverence is practiced.

 

I can't remember any occasion when I have distributed the elements, when anyone has poked their tongue out at me, indicting they want me to feed them by mouth. A bit disconcerting it may be, but whatever floats your boat I'd say and I would do exatly what they seem to be asking. After all Christ himself would probably concede to such a request, though I am pretty certain that Jesus never poked bread into anyone's mouth during his whole ministry. (Except perhaps the man who betrayed him, John 13:26 ). But then neither did he give anyone little round pieces of tasteless cardboard. He used real unleavened bread.

Avoiding touching the elements as a demonstration of piety or humility is a misguided superstition, in my opinion, but that is just my opinion and, as I previously indicated, I am the servant of the person receiving, not the arbiter of how they should receive it. I am just the messenger, not the message.

Even receiving in the hands has some manners about it though. We should receive left hand over right, if we are right handed. The theory being that right handed people use their right hand to do other less savoury things such as performing the normal sanitary function. (I don't know however if left handed people hold the paper in their left or right hand during the clean up process). Only the individual would know presumably and hold their hands accordingly so as not to defile what they are about to receive in any way. However all this is merely an attempt to adopt a due sense of reverence, which is a matter of the heart and mind rather than what we do with our tongue or our hands; and modern hygiene, (one should always wash one's hands after every visit to the toilet), more or less makes the matter irrelevant nowadays.

When distributing I also prefer that the recipient steadies the cup with one hand, just to ensure they actually get a sip of wine. It is quite difficult to see if a communicant has actually received, particularly when the cup begins to empty, and no one wants to accidentally pour wine down someone's chin onto their clothes. So yes, hands are necessary if you have them, and Jesus is in no way offended if the visible and tangible sacrament is touched by your hands, so long as he has already reached as far as your heart.
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Well thank you for clarifying about how to hold the hands! But if you receive it in your left hand, I presume you then don't pick it up with your right hand but just bring it straight to your mouth?

 

Correct, but be careful not to cough on the way up. But don't worry, even if you do, some kind person distributing should pick it up, eat it themselves, and offer you another. We are trained.

 

The ideal solution for germophobes and nervous ministers of the chalice.

 

I don't suppose however that it has occurred to anyone that some elderly and bereaved parishioners only feel the touch of another human being just once a week when they receive communion in their hand. I always place the wafer securely in the communicant's hand touching briefly and lightly their palm with my fingers. I have never received a complaint about this. Provided the distributor maintains normal standards of hygiene, the dispenser shown in this advertisment, (with the rather annoying background music), is, in my non influential opinion, perhaps a new fangled step too far.

I think we are inclined to think only of the religious symbolism in the eucharist as being important. However the whole experience of partaking in a 'holy meal' is symbolic of the fellowship which exists between disciples of Jesus Christ. We being many, are one body, because we all owe our salvation to the one bread which came down from heaven for our sakes. Jesus asked us to 'remember him' every time we drink wine, which implied every day, since few drank only water in those days, and wine was always abundantly available at gatherings of celebration and joy, such as weddings etc. John 2:1-11.
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Another gadget........... Before long we won't need priests, just a dispenser on the wall will do.......

 

Left hand on top also has the bonus that the bread could make contact with the recipient's wedding ring, which always strikes me as a pleasant layer of symbolism

 

This is a joke right?...

 

Well, I was being tongue in cheek but those host dispensers are for real.

 

Hmmm. Battery chickens probably get fed in a similar manner. At least that thing, was only semi automatic. I wonder if the priest shuffled and cut them properly before loading the wafers into it. And how does the priest decide how many wafers are needed for the estimated number of communicants? When serving at communion I present the wafer box to the priest so that an appropriate number of wafers can be added to the Host that is already in the platten. I imagine that loading that thing is not such a simple matter as taking a few extra wafers from a wafer box on the credence table, if more than the expected number of communicants turn up to Communion.
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Interesting how the culture differs from place to place. I used to receive on the tongue quite often because I would be holding my daughter, who was often asleep and cradled in both of my arms. And I have a number of parishioners who are elderly lapsed RCs who prefer to receive this way.

Then, there are those who prefer intinction. My Bp. is quite adamant when he conducts liturgical training that the laity not self intinct. All those who want to receive by intinction receive on the tongue. In my congregation, it's about half that receive in that manner. So, if someone pops their mouth open, it doesn't throw me off.

 

It had crossed my mind as well. The supplier has provided a video showing the dear lady sacristans loading the weapon and also demonstrating the nifty wee cuppie filler. The dispenser holds 125 hosts apparently. Perhaps they keep a spare ready loaded should an unexpected throng turn up and just tip them back into storage if not. Low view of the Eucharist and all that.

I did read an account of a RC church using the device in a different way to measure out unconsecrated hosts. When you arrive at church and intend to receive, you dispense a host into a receptacle so that way the Priest has just the right number to later consecrate.

 

I suppose it has it's place. But speaking only for myself, it seems a bit much to me. Somehow it just doesn't feel reverent to me.

 

1 Corinthians 10:16-17
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.​

I have no issue with receiving on the tongue or in the hand. I have a bit of an issue with individual wafers and individual cups as it seems to break with the sentiment of 1 Corinthians 10, where without any doubt to my mind there is a sense of our common destiny as we are all in this together.