Making Communion Sacred Again

A few years ago, I learned about the overuse of Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist by priests.  I realized this overuse is influenced by parishioners' impatience, parishioners who want to get out the door as quickly as they can, parishioners who want to make it to the parking lot so they will not be stuck behind the other cars.  It saddens me to write that, but it is true.

It also saddens me that priests allow themselves to give into that kind of pressure.  I was going to say "peer pressure", but that is not true.  Priests are not our peers, which does not mean they should not socialize with us, but when it comes to the Faith, they are the pastors.  They are the ones who are supposed to take our input into consideration and then do the right thing according to Jesus.  Sometimes it is in sync with the opinion of most of the laity; sometimes it is not.

As for Communion, I have been to too many Tridentine Masses and Melkite Divine Liturgies to think that being in church for over an hour is too much to ask for.  It is not, and I believe it is therefore not too much to ask us laity to be patient while the priest gives out Communion - to everyone.  We should be encouraged to pray during that time.

Along those lines, this article expresses some of my deepest yearnings about Communion and its sacredness.

Communion Rails: Restoring a Sense of the Sacred

Would a change of posture at Holy Communion help to sharpen our perspective, as well?

image - http://www.epiphany-net.org/Epiphany_About_Us.html