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Some days back, one of our regular commenters, Peregrinator in terra, challenged me to make the trip from Oxford to the Isle of Wight in order to visit St. Cecilia’s Abbey. “Then return and try to use the words ‘novus ordo’ or ‘Vatican Council II’ in a less than respectful fashion.” Personally, I like to refer to the Council in a most respectful fashion as the Second Oecumenical Council of the Vatican, but perhaps our readers have realized by now that this sobriquet is used with more than a trace of sarcasm.
I like challenges involving pilgrimages, but short on money and leisure for travel, I had to resort to Catharina Oxoniensis’ memories of the place to consider whether it would be likely to change my opinion about the New Order or the Second Oecumenical Council held at the Vatican.
This convent of Benedictine nuns has a reputation for services dignified and beautiful. As I understand it, they sing the Divine Office entirely in Latin. They have recorded more than a few CDs of chant, one of which I own. The Sunday High Mass at the convent is a Latin Novus Ordo. During the week, however, if Catharina’s memory serves, the Masses are said in English. If this is correct - I don’t know - it must be partly due to the fact that they are dependent upon the services of the priests making retreat at their convent. They have no resident chaplain.
Catharina enjoyed the hospitality of the sisters and found them to be very kind. So kind, in fact, that she dared to write a letter to the guest mistress questioning a certain practice she had observed among the nuns at St. Cecilia’s. “Why,” Catharina asked, “is it the case that all of the nuns receive Holy Communion standing and in the hand?” The guest mistress gracefully replied that she herself sympathized with this concern and would wish that it were otherwise, adding that it is permitted to receive in the more traditional fashion. It remains, though, that none of the sisters do so receive.
I can understand this, because they are religious, living a cloistered life, and it would be a recipe for disaster to stick out like a sore thumb, especially in a way which would seem to exceed the norm of piety and devotion in the convent. If at Convent A, it is customary to make five full-body prostrations before kneeling to receive on the tongue at the Communion rail, it wouldn’t be right decent to do seven full-body prostrations.
But this principle holds more fully in indifferent matters, such as about superogatory full-body prostrations. When it comes to receiving the Lord of the Universe, however, in most Holy Communion - well, I’m sure we all remember the words of Blessed Mother Teresa on the subject which Fr. George Rutler made so famous in one of his Good Friday discourses.
I’m afraid, Peregrinator in terra, that it is this sort of thing which reveals to me the spirit - at least, the theological spirit - of the place, whether it’s St. Cecilia’s or any other monastery or convent. Beautiful liturgies, even in the new Mass - and they can be very beautiful, as seen at the various Oratories - are never going to sell me on the spirit of Vatican II. They’re not going to sell me on the new Mass because they are the exception which proves the rule and highlights just how bad or ugly things are elsewhere.
The spirit of the new Mass is optionality (that’s probably not a word, but you get my drift). Everything is optional, even the way in which we receive Our Lord in Communion. Some of these options may be matters of indifference, subject to the dictates of our taste or the local custom, but, in my opinion, the manner of receiving Holy Communion is not one of these things.
It isn’t rocket science: just kneel down and open your trap! If a parish or group of religious is stuck on something as basic as this, your average traditionalist isn’t going to be impressed. There are so many other and bigger theological questions to worry about which the post-conciliar period has brought to the fore.
So while I’m sure that St. Cecilia’s is very beautiful and that the nuns are very sweet, somewhere along the way, they got a dose of the N.O., one symptom of which is receiving Communion in the hand. Sadly, it may well have been a decision of one person made for the rest of the community; that person may not even be in charge any longer, but the “tradition” remains. And again, while beautiful Novus Ordo Masses are something which I think more people should see, they’re not likely to move someone away from the old Mass, its lack of options, and all of its attendant theology.
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
The exception proves the rule: well said. The more I give Communion in the hand, the more I believe it is a reprehensible practice. Yet as a priest working in a NO parish, what choice have I? People are allowed to receive in that way, and the vast majority do. All I can do is offer up my pain, and hope for happier times.
Father,
Why don’t you use intinction, thereby the communicants don’t have a choice - they must receive directly on the tongue?
Intinction I think is way around this problem.
The only problem with this is the parishes that use intinction not for greater respect but for fear of passing illness via the chalice. Because intinction can lead to a host of very serious abuses - especially if patens are not used AND if self-intinction is practiced (which it is at Vatican embassy chapel here Turkey)
“I like to refer to the Council in a most respectful fashion as the Second Oecumenical Council of the Vatican, but perhaps our readers have realized by now that this sobriquet is used with more than a trace of sarcasm”
I agree. Oecumenical Councils are bad because they involve Catholic bishops from every part of the world who deliberate and reach consensus on key issues. Any time you hear of people working together, especially in the Church, know that this is something bad, and that it should be spurned by traditionalists.
Sarcasm off.
I wasn’t sure about what you meant in this post. It sounds a bit like saying that ‘St. Cecilia’s Abbey does not disprove the claim that NO liturgy can be done well, because they receive communion in the hand and that makes their religious life a farce’. That’s ridiculous and the sort of thing that gives traidtionalists a bad name. If however you meant ‘the fact that the NO liturgy even at so reverent and holy a place as St. Cecilia’s Abbey has involved these good nuns in the bad practice of receiving communion in the hand, shows the undesirable nature of that liturgy’, you have a very good point.
Sacerdos patiens,
My parish priest came to the same feeling as you — and he slowly changed over to communion by intinction only. It was hard because he had to “fire” all the “ministers of cup” which did cause a few hard feelings at first. But with cathechesis from the pulpit — he slowly started the intinction. Now he alone distributes — and if someone insists on receiving in the hand, of course they are allowed to do so. They must make the proper “throne” of their hands. After two years of this — most of the communicants are towing the line — and are bothered when they visit elsewhere and see the normal laxity! Salus animarum lex suprema!