Communion on the Tongue and in the Hand

Authority level: Dogma
Disciplinary status: Church discipline
Theological status: Theological synthesis
GuideThe controlling sacramental truths belong to Catholic dogma; their valid or licit celebration is governed by Church discipline and explained through sacramental theology.
Contents

Communion on the Tongue and in the Hand is Two regulated manners of receiving the consecrated host in the Roman Rite, both requiring Catholic faith in the real presence and vigilant reverence for the sacrament.[1]

The Church's present discipline

Every member of the faithful has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. Reception in the hand is also lawful where the competent conference of bishops has received the Apostolic See's confirmation for that practice, and there the communicant may choose it. Neither a minister nor a communicant may turn a permitted manner into a private test of orthodoxy or compel the other lawful option.[2]

Permission for Communion in the hand is a matter of ecclesiastical discipline, not a denial of Eucharistic doctrine. It is not universal apart from the required permission, and it must be withheld when there is a danger of profanation. The same Christ, whole and entire, is received in either lawful manner.

Receiving from the minister

The communicant approaches with the reverence prescribed by the competent authority, answers Amen to The Body of Christ, and receives from the minister. The faithful may not take the host or chalice for themselves or pass the sacred species from one person to another. If receiving in the hand, the communicant must consume the host immediately and entirely before moving away.

When Communion is distributed by intinction, the priest partly dips the host into the Precious Blood and places it directly in the communicant's mouth; reception by intinction is not in the hand. These norms protect both the integrity of the sign and the consecrated species from loss or profanation.

Reverence without faction

Reception on the tongue and reception in the hand, where authorized, are both governed by the Church and must be carried out with adoration, care, and belief in Christ's real and enduring presence. The Church's approval of both does not require Catholics to erase the disciplines' different histories or to deny legitimate personal preference.[3]

Pastors must teach Eucharistic faith, observe the liturgical law, and guard against profanation. Communicants in turn should obey lawful norms, avoid judging the conscience of others from their chosen permitted manner, and attend above all to receiving the Lord worthily, in the state of grace and with proper devotion.

References

  1. 1.General Instruction of the Roman Missal — The authoritative ordering of the Roman Mass
  2. 2.Redemptionis Sacramentum — Disciplinary norms for the Eucharist, including reception of Holy Communion
  3. 3.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1373–1381 — Transubstantiation, the Eucharistic species, and the enduring real presence