Bishop Athanasius Schneider: It’s not a question of preference because it is evident that Communion in the hand is objectively less reverent and more dangerous because of the loss of fragments. Therefore, it is more dangerous to receive Our Lord directly in the hand. I congratulate all of you who remain faithful to receive Our Lord on the tongue. It is also not a question of obedience here because these prohibitions of bishops receiving on the tongue is an abuse of power. Why? Because this contributes to a decrease in reverence to Our Lord. Our Lord in the Holy Host is most holy, He’s the King. To Him, we should give all the honors. In this case, the bishops prohibit people to give two of the greatest possible honors by kneeling down and receiving on the tongue, which is a more sure and more reverent way objectively, of course.
Instead, you can continue to make Holy Communion spiritually, as so many generations of Catholics did for centuries. They rarely received Holy Communion, and I don’t mean that I am supporting rare Communion. No, but only to say a fact that for so many centuries these Catholics lived a very deeply committed Christian life. Despite this, they received Holy Communion only a couple of times during the year. During the persecution, and in my own experience with my family, we very rarely received Holy Communion, because there were no priests. But we had made Holy Communion spiritually. So you can continue to do this and pray that the Lord will open your door to a possibility to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. Maybe you can occasionally make a kind of pilgrimage for receiving Holy Communion to a place where you know you can receive on the tongue. It is worthwhile, depending on your possibilities, to travel or you can invite a priest to give you a private form of Holy Communion.
I hope that Divine Providence will guide and illuminate you, and God will reward you for your fidelity to Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Son in the Holy Eucharist.
This Originally appeared in https://livefatima.io/december-qa-with-bishop-schneider/
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