At the table, the post about humeral veils came up. Just to review, the humeral veil used at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is a sign that the priest himself is not imparting the blessing. The humeral veil hides and silences the priest because Christ in the Sacrament is giving the blessing while making use of His alter Christus to handle the monstrance.
My priestly meal companion then added that it is, therefore, an absurdity for a priest to give non-communicants blessings during Communion time.
Think about it.
The priest with his left hand is ostentatiously holding Almighty God, the Second Person of the Trinity sacramentally present in the consecrated Hosts in a ciborium. As he distributes communion, people see the Host.
Then someone comes along and makes a gesture like holding a finger in front of the mouth or folding arms across the chest (which many Easterners do because they want to receive).
What happens then? The priest, holding the Blessed Sacrament in one hand, gives his own blessing with the other.
This not a Novus Ordo v. TLM issue. This is a blessings during the dedicated time for Communion issue.
Remember that the logic of the humeral veil is not just to give honor to the Lord in the Eucharist through the use of a beautiful sign of honor. It is to erase the priest, as himself, from the giving of the blessing. It is the Eucharistic Lord, this time, not the priest.
At communion time, the priest, no veil in sight, holding the Lord in one hand, gives his own blessing with the other?
Put this along side the obvious point is that Communion time is for communion and that the Mass has a specific time for blessing.
Fathers, think about what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Priests generally have good hearts and good intentions. But when sentimentality invades and eclipses the obvious, we wind up in a situation where the reasoning because: “As long as I consecrate the Eucharist validly then I can neglect to do X or chose to do Y which has nothing to do with the rites of Mass.
We wind up with well-intentioned jackasses waving guitars around or making fruit salad on Pentecost.
Blessings at Communion feed the disastrous and nearly universal praxis at the Novus Ordo that everyone has to go forward and get something. Because you are there you must go forward. If you go up there you should get something. Therefore, they (percentage wise not a priest) put the white thing on your hand and, with a sense of approval, everyone sings a song (often a modern ditty about how great we all are). Otherwise, if you sense you shouldn’t get the white thing, because it’s more than a white thing and you somehow were catechized about not getting the white thing if you’ve been bad, you still feel compelled to go up there because ushers are directing people pew by pew (pernicious, horrid practice to be abolished!) and everyone is going forward. So, you at least want a blessing, right? You want to get something along side everyone else. And priests, feeling sorry or compassionate or – I dunno – give a blessing to the guy with the finger to his mouth or the gal with the crossed arms. Smiles all around. Let’s leave aside the problem of lay distributors of communion waving their hand around as if blessing. What is that other than total confusion about everything?
Dear readers… dear Fathers… I know I am being hard on this, but I am trying to stress that these gestures all have their own meaning and those meanings can obscure really important realities. And because of the lex orandi – credendi – et vivendi we are our rites. When you change the rites, over time you change what people believe and, thereby, how they choose to live.
I sincerely don’t want to come off as a cynical meanie hard-ass, but blessing at Communion is a symptom of a wider problem.
Alas, I am aware that quite a few priests out there, so very well-meaning and hard-working and concerned for their flocks, have perhaps not given a lot of thought to these things. These poor and often long-suffering men are buried under administrative tasks, running to the four nursing homes and two other churches in their care. They are under the peer pressure of their fellow priests to do these things, to conform. Maybe they are nervous that some short-haired Karen will get her panties in a twist because she didn’t get a blessings instead of the white thing before the song and will write a nastygram to the bishop about the mean priest who hurt her feelings. Another call from the bishop, who probably would not care about the meaning of these rites and their logic even if he grasped them. The only thing the bishop cares about is not getting letters about priests who don’t conform to prevailing trend. And so… he starts giving – keeps giving – blessings at Communion.
Satis.
If I am wrong about this, go ahead and change my mind.
I have been taught that I can only take Communion at Mass if I have heard the Gospel, so that if I arrive late to Mass for whatever reason, including such good ones as arriving late from being on foot pilgrimage, then no ; but can I then take no spiritual Communion ?
As to the Host in one hand and Blessing with the other, that sounds rather abusive prima facie, but then I have not ever once witnessed any such thing.
I have always considered seeking a blessing in that circumstance not as some kind of “right” but as a penitential gesture towards the Lord our God, Present in Eucharist, and seeking forgiveness for my own failings. And a non-Sacramental blessing to fortify myself against them.
Good point. It would also shorten the communion lines as well. Those who are not ready to receive communion receive a blessing at the end of the liturgy.
Only one point: often parents have babies they are holding in their arms when they come to communion. For obvious reasons, most want to receive on the tongue. What about the child? I usually just hold the host close to them without a blessing so that, innocent as they are, they can behold the Lord in the Eucharist more closely. Like you I am open to suggestions. But I agree, communion time is not the occasion for personal blessings.