I just don't get it. People complain to the pastor about the Prie Dieu for Communion. Why? How is it hurting them if people want to receive their Creator while kneeling instead of standing? Has anyone forced them to kneel? No! Yet they complain about the kneeler. If you don't want to use the kneeler, the answer is simple -- DON'T USE IT! There really is no charitable explanation for someone being bothered by the presence of a kneeler. It doesn't prevent anyone from coming to receive Communion while standing. It doesn't keep them from sticking their hand out as though asking for change -- while looking in a different direction for their point of egress.
What it comes down to is that only demons are offended by people receiving Communion while kneeling. I'm not saying that the persons who complain are demonic..just that they fall to temptation as we all do. Some rediculous reason is presented to them as to why they should be offended by the presence of the Prie Dieu.
So the demons win the battle. People are not able to receive Communion while kneeling (because they can't get back up if they do!). Their rights are being infringed by others who probably "just don't like it." They probably will argue that the Prie Dieu forms a barrior between them and the Priest. They don't mind the much wider altar between them and the Priest, mind you. These are the people that complain that candles on the altar block their view. They don't want an Altar Cross for the same reason. They are allergic to incense.
By the way, on that front, incense and Holy Water are known as apotropaic substances. This means that they drive evil spirits away. The same spirits that don't like incense are the ones that are offended if people receive Communion while kneeling, and gasp!, on the tongue.
The struggle now, for all of us who were hurt by this move, is not to let this ruin our celebration of the Feast of All Saints. All God's Holy Ones are rejoicing in Heaven with Him. They understand our travail and will support us.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His Saints!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Ave Maria! Not being a priest I've never had to hear complaints about prie-dieux, I only encounter them as a pleasant surprise. They really seem like a tactful way to show that there is a difference between a priest and a layman, allow people to naturally receive Holy Communion kneeling, and still probably allow you to receive standing if somehow you aren't comfortable with the idea of kneeling quite yet (which I guess is possible). The first one I met was in an Italian parish in Albano a few miles from Rome, and another at the chapel of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in Bloomington. Cheers from a fellow Texas resident, happy Thanksgiving and a blessed feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Father.
This is one more example of "Catholics" being upset by others who wish to manifest their interior reverence outwardly. Another common one is those people who resent my asking them to step outside the church before having a conversation about the football, or any other secular subject. Even my Parish Priest defends such people - he says it is another way of showing reverence. ??
At the Extraordinary Form Mass, everyone kneels, and no one seems to feel it is an imposition, but at a Novus Ordo Mass, those who kneel often attract sneering comments. Such displays seem to be an indictment of their own Jack-is-as-good-as-his-Master attitudes.
Thanks for your comments, Father.
John
Post a Comment