Holy Communion

[sherrardk]

Excuse my ignorance, but just watching something on TV and some young girls are receiving (is that the correct term) their first Holy Communion. Some of the girls allowed the priest to put the wafer (again, is that the right term) onto their tongues whilst one of them held out her hands to relieve it. Is this significant? If so, why? Thanks.

[DSJ]

Either way is acceptable or the host (wafer) can be retained by the communicant & dipped into the chalice containing the wine.

[vodkancoke]

I do both Sherr. I'm such a bad Catholic I don't actually know what the significance is!

[BSA350]

In the past it was obligatory for the host (bread/ wafer) to be placed directly on the communicant's tongue by the priest. Latterly communicants have been given the option of receiving the host in the hand and then putting it into thier own mouths. Either method is now permissible and equally acceptable.

[Ann]

Different churches serve communion in different ways - in our independent little chapel, we sit in our seats and have the "emblems" brought round to us, little individual glasses of grape juice and tiny cubes of bread. Other churches go forward to the front rail and drink out of the same chalice, some break off a piece of bread from a whole loaf (called "breaking of bread" service) - I believe its the Catholic way to have the wafer placed on your tongue. Just differences between the denominations.

[sherrardk]

Thanks for all of your answers.

[naomi24]

It isn't as simple as differences between denominations. A few years ago serious concerns were expressed about the likelihood of spreading viruses by either sharing a communal cup, or by accepting a communion wafer directly from a priest’s hands into the mouth, and consequently many churches changed their approach. Some seem to have stuck with the decision they made then, and I don't know, but perhaps some churches now offer a choice in the method by which communion is accepted.

[Theland1]

As a kid, me and my mates used to sneak into the local Roman Catholoic church to put a large snow ball into the holy water dishes at the back of the church. Sorry to all catholics, but it was fun. However, hygiene was not a consideration, only fun, but given a little more wisdom on the effects of bacteria, communicants should take their own food