I will never understand the hate for communion rails. On a practical level, it allows people to kneel & get up faster than usual. In addition, people who want to kneel but need the physical assistance are able to receive in this posture. (This point could also be achieved by putting out movable kneelers at the distribution lines).
I will never understand the hate for communion rails. On a practical level, it allows people to kneel & get up faster than usual. In addition, people who want to kneel but need the physical assistance are able to receive in this posture. (This point could also be achieved by putting out movable kneelers at the distribution lines).
On a totally different less serious level- it creates a GREAT toddler blockade from the sanctuary. Even if a kid isn’t a “runner” it’s a nice piece of mind that they’ll be slowed down (at least) or stopped before they actually interrupt the sacrifice of the mass.
A parish I used to go to had a communion rail, and I thought it was actually a beautiful place to say my penance after confession since it was right at the foot of the sanctuary.
Yes- in the diocese of Columbus, OH- our parish still has (and uses!) the communion rail for communion. I believe there are a handful of other parishes in the diocese as well…
I am right there with you. I have come to LOVE Altar rails. They give me those few precious moments before receiving (on the tongue mind you) to reflect, pray, and give thanks on my knees for all that I have been given.
[Bishop James Conley] "has also mandated that all new churches built in the diocese must have altar rails, and any older church that is being renovated must include new altar rails"
Reverence, beauty, and tradition are stressed in the Diocese of Lincoln. How is vertical worship being stressed in the Diocese of New York and Diocese of Chicago?
Our military chapel does not have them where we are currently stationed, but I love them when we were close enough to a TLM to use them. Those few moments are precious.
My family and a few others have started to use the first pew kneeler to receive- we just wait for the priest to step to the side to distribute to us.
I can see the faith in my family being nourished by the Altar rail in my parish. My children see my wife and I silently praying and reverently receiving. The see the rest of the parish (friends, teachers, young, old) doing the same. Kneeling isn't mandated, but my parish does it almost universally. It feels right. Nobody really notices when someone remains standing, nor cares. The Eucharist is our love, and the only thing we want is for others to desire Christ and rejoice in His presence. Altar rails allow us to do this communally.
Listening to the lives of the saints through Glory Stories, having Altar rails, a rosary before Mass, the 'O Sacrament Most Holy' and 'St. Michael' prayers after Dismissal, and the hard work of our Priests and parish school (https://www.lincolndiocese.org/joyandwonder) have instilled a yearning for communion in my children. I can see it in their eyes, hear it in their questions, and see it in their posture as they kneel between my wife and I at the Altar rail. My oldest is getting ready for his first communion this spring. They have been learning about Blessed Carlo Acutis (who is canonized the day after my oldest's first communion) and HIS devotion to the Eucharist.
Knowing that there are bishops who would extinguish these practices that are helping me bring up my children in the faith, well, I can better understand Matthew 18:6.
"They give me those few precious moments before receiving (on the tongue mind you) to reflect, pray, and give thanks on my knees for all that I have been given."
What are you doing for the whole previous portions of the Mass, playing video games on your phone?
Maybe you should use that time to reconsider natsy, unsupported and judgmental statements.
I both believe in the Real Presence and view the reception of the Eucharist as an integral part of the Mass, not something separate from it, as was the practice in my grandparents day.
I don't do Latin Mass but a parish near me does Altar Rails and it's so nice.
1. I get 5-10 seconds after kneeling to take a breath and get settled in a prayerful state of mind
2. People seem to stay kneeling for 2-3 seconds after kneeling to consume so I feel less rushed to 'get out of the way' for the next person.
3. Meanwhile, the priest is definitely doing more communions per minute (which may be offset by the amount of time it takes to walk back to the beginning of the rail so maybe its a wash.)
4. It feels more 'communal' because I'm side by side with the other faithful. I know there's some liturgical reason they gave when they made the communion procession but it seems so impersonal. 50% of the time while walking up I'm trying to bow my head prayerfully but then I worry people will think I'm staring at the butt of the person in front of me.
What’s interesting is that one could simply install a “movable” altar rail, as it would not be a permanent change to the church building as such. A series of interlocking kneelers would serve the same purpose. If artfully done, one would not be able to tell whether or not it’s a permanent fixture, or something removable.
Rules are rules only if they are enforceable. And frankly, 20 years from now, they aren’t going to be able to enforce this stuff.
I suspect that altar rails are a flashpoint because they are a symbolic rebuke to the egalitarianism which motivated so much of the 20th-century liturgical changes. By physically defining a clerical space and a lay space, the altar rail challenges the reformers' efforts to blur the clerical-lay distinction.
I remember years ago when a new archbishop came to our archdiocese and he was interviewed by his brother who was a call-in radio talk show host. Almost everybody who called in complained about not being able to kneel in church. At all. Because the kneelers had been removed. After a while it became just comical. He fixed it for us.
In my career as an Evangelical Protestant pastor, every church I've served has had an altar rail, as did the (similarly Evangelical Protestant) church I grew up in. It will never cease to befuddle me that so many Catholic bishops seem this eager to try to out-'low-church' us.
It's because nobody came in and brainwashed the congregation that the altar rail is a symbol of their subjugation as laypeople. Or something like that. Many of these Catholics, despite claiming to be ecumenically-minded, are so unfamiliar with the architecture and practices of traditional Protestant churches that they don't even realize that they have altar rails.
I am a fan of communion rails. But I am wondering how a practical point is managed? Our son is in a wheelchair and cannot kneel at altar rails. When we are at a church that uses them, it is an awkward and perhaps risky (re dropping the Host) lean that the priest needs to do - even if our son is by the “gate” on the main aisle. (We’ve been to more than one church with the altar rail.)
Hm. I would think that going to a main “gate” or opening every time would be the best choice. You could also ask the priest if they have another suggestion as well
At my nearest church on weekend Masses the deacon or an EMHC goes out at the start of communion to distribute anyone who should not have to get up and stand in line (an organized body of ushers provides practical support for this I think). So I expect we would still need to have a thoughtful protocol for distribution if we used the altar rail since the people here who currently cannot move from a pew once they are in it will not simply cease to exist.
This is not a problem. The ushers simply open the gates and the priest/Deacon goes out to those who need that. And people who can approach but can't kneel simply stand at the rail. An ordinary part of distribution with the rail.
The rail is not there to exclude. It's there to encourage a norm of reverential reception and to be a symbol of heaven approaching the earth. Even those who can't kneel will benefit from the norm.
At my church the people who cannot kneel generally go the gate. We use patens, so the risk of dropping the Host is pretty minimal, and I think the guy with the longer electric chair tends to angle a bit to make it easier.
I attend a TLM parish, and this past Sunday, an elderly woman came to the rail who could not kneel. The priest simply stepped through the communion rail gate and gave her the Eucharistic standing.
This is an every day part of distribution with a rail. The ushers just opens the gates for the priest or the priest will open it himself. Not a problem. We have a gentleman in our parish who is wheelchair bound and we're happy to do this.
The rail represents the separation of heaven and earth that exists until the second coming. The gate is the gate to heaven. Our Lord goes out to his flock at the rail or all the way out to the pews. And even outside the church itself
Having a communion rail would also enable people to line up across the front of the sanctuary, requiring the priest, deacon or extraordinary minister to move back and forth to distribute. This would enable people to pause and receive without at the same time walking away — even if the person received in the hand and while standing. Right now, there is little focus on the actual reception of the Lord and people are busy scrambling to get out of the way.
The only thing I've read people mention against them are that they make people feel bad, like they're a bad Catholic for not being more reverent, or like other people are going to think they're not as good a Catholic as someone else.
The same argument is made against movable kneelers, and people kneeling on the floor, or wearing veils, or (sometimes it seems) doing anything visibly religious at all.
I sometimes wonder if they want us to not go to Mass, in case some of the many people who skip, by choice or by need, feel bad about it. (I heard that suggested during Covid, no exaggeration.)
Like many Catholics, I'm agnostic about altar rails -- don't see any need to remove them or install them. Those demanding I pay for an installation are obligated to come up with a better answer than your comment.
My comment was not an argument for it, it was trying to find the argument against it. There are lots of comments here providing reasons for them. Given that they were almost universally removed (and all the parishioners forced to pay for the removal), one would think there would be an explanation for removing them.
At least in my parish, my consent is not obtained for everything that is done with parish money. I don't think I'd get very far by attempting to require it.
Our parish introduced the use of portable kneelers for Holy Communion last year but it was announced this past Sunday that that per the Diocese we will no longer be allowed to use the kneelers. I don’t understand it. This seems out of keeping with our bishop to micromanage so I’m wondering if it’s some other power within the Chancery?
As an EMHC I can tell you that the parishioners coming up the center aisle prefer the kneeler to coming to an EMHC who does not have a kneeler.
There is also no real obligation on parishioners to follow this norm. The only obligation the norm itself lays out, is the obligation for the pastor to explain to people who kneel why the norm is the norm.
Meanwhile the norm for the Latin Rite as a whole is to receive kneeling.
Clearly no one should be denied a sacrament because of non-observance of a norm. That would be a disproportionate punishment for a minor violation. I do find it odd that many neo-traditionalists stridently push laxity on this norm while get quite irate about non-observances of other norms. But I have my own oddities as well, so life goes on.
I'm currently travelling overseas and I find the local Mass norms to be quite interesting.
This particular norm is contrary to the Latin Rite norm, and also contrary to traditional practice for the last bunch of centuries. It's weird to be rigid about it.
As best I can tell, trads generally don't get their knickers in a knot about norms at all. It's about doctrine, the practices that come out of doctrine, reverence, and tradition. The norms published by bishops are probably not given a very high priority unless they also fall within one of those categories . The norms thereby become useful for talking to conservative Catholics who tend to put a relatively high priority on whatever the bishop says.
Part of this is simply a defense mechanism. The norms change when you move, or when the bishop/bishop's conference changes their mind, and they're published in innumerable different documents over many decades and coming from many different levels of Church governance. It's too much. I don't even know many norms, but I know I've never been in a parish that follows all the official ones. People have either selected or invented their own set of norms, possibly unwittingly, or gone back to the old ones.
I appreciate your flexibility on norms. Elsewhere, I have noticed some neo-traditionalists with their knickers high over various norms, particularly concerning women in the liturgy. But based on your example, I intend to be careful not to stereotype.
Again, that's not because it's a norm, it's because it is contrary to tradition and to some extent Scripture. I'm familiar with trads getting upset about various things, but the root cause is never because it violates a current norm, in my experience.
Hah. So I typically attend a a Latin mass (ancient Carmelite rite, fwiw, not Tridentine) and naturally always therefore receive kneeling at the altar rail.
I visited a different parish while traveling and was delighted to find that they hauled out a kneeler for communion and put the single priest distributing communion right behind it, so it was seamless to just kneel to receive
Except I failed to accommodate for the difference in physics. Apparently (I had no idea I did this) habitually lean on the rail a bit as I go down. Give it a bit of weight.
Uh, turns out, you can’t *actually* do that with kneelers (if I had thought about it, I would have known, but I didn’t think, and didn’t even know that I did this). I about knocked it over. A hair more I would have knocked the priest over too.
Happily no one was harmed and after the priest and I exchanged an anguished, shamefaced (me), and terrified (him) look, Communion proceeded.
I also forgot to say “Amen” at that point just to round things out (one doesn’t say it when receiving in the Latin mass).
But yeah. That’s my kneelers-instead-of-altar-rail story. I still think they’re a great idea! lol. Just. I need to watch myself.
One thing that people seem to forget in the post-Covid era is that Vatican II did move toward the laity receiving the Eucharist under both species. Unless the Latin Church adopts intinction as a norm, much blood will be spilled over communion rails (pun intended).
I will never understand the hate for communion rails. On a practical level, it allows people to kneel & get up faster than usual. In addition, people who want to kneel but need the physical assistance are able to receive in this posture. (This point could also be achieved by putting out movable kneelers at the distribution lines).
On a totally different less serious level- it creates a GREAT toddler blockade from the sanctuary. Even if a kid isn’t a “runner” it’s a nice piece of mind that they’ll be slowed down (at least) or stopped before they actually interrupt the sacrifice of the mass.
A parish I used to go to had a communion rail, and I thought it was actually a beautiful place to say my penance after confession since it was right at the foot of the sanctuary.
Yes- in the diocese of Columbus, OH- our parish still has (and uses!) the communion rail for communion. I believe there are a handful of other parishes in the diocese as well…
Shhhh….
OK, I want to do it this way now...
I am right there with you. I have come to LOVE Altar rails. They give me those few precious moments before receiving (on the tongue mind you) to reflect, pray, and give thanks on my knees for all that I have been given.
[Bishop James Conley] "has also mandated that all new churches built in the diocese must have altar rails, and any older church that is being renovated must include new altar rails"
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/liturgical-reform-in-the-catholic-church-and-the-second-vatican-council
Reverence, beauty, and tradition are stressed in the Diocese of Lincoln. How is vertical worship being stressed in the Diocese of New York and Diocese of Chicago?
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
Our military chapel does not have them where we are currently stationed, but I love them when we were close enough to a TLM to use them. Those few moments are precious.
My family and a few others have started to use the first pew kneeler to receive- we just wait for the priest to step to the side to distribute to us.
I can see the faith in my family being nourished by the Altar rail in my parish. My children see my wife and I silently praying and reverently receiving. The see the rest of the parish (friends, teachers, young, old) doing the same. Kneeling isn't mandated, but my parish does it almost universally. It feels right. Nobody really notices when someone remains standing, nor cares. The Eucharist is our love, and the only thing we want is for others to desire Christ and rejoice in His presence. Altar rails allow us to do this communally.
Listening to the lives of the saints through Glory Stories, having Altar rails, a rosary before Mass, the 'O Sacrament Most Holy' and 'St. Michael' prayers after Dismissal, and the hard work of our Priests and parish school (https://www.lincolndiocese.org/joyandwonder) have instilled a yearning for communion in my children. I can see it in their eyes, hear it in their questions, and see it in their posture as they kneel between my wife and I at the Altar rail. My oldest is getting ready for his first communion this spring. They have been learning about Blessed Carlo Acutis (who is canonized the day after my oldest's first communion) and HIS devotion to the Eucharist.
Knowing that there are bishops who would extinguish these practices that are helping me bring up my children in the faith, well, I can better understand Matthew 18:6.
"They give me those few precious moments before receiving (on the tongue mind you) to reflect, pray, and give thanks on my knees for all that I have been given."
What are you doing for the whole previous portions of the Mass, playing video games on your phone?
Do you really see no difference between the moments immediately before and after receiving Holy Communion, and all the rest of the Mass?
If not, than just so you know, most people who believe in the Real Presence do.
Maybe you should use that time to reconsider natsy, unsupported and judgmental statements.
I both believe in the Real Presence and view the reception of the Eucharist as an integral part of the Mass, not something separate from it, as was the practice in my grandparents day.
obviously, I would like to remind everyone in this thread of The Pillar's commenting policy. I bet you already know what it is.
I assumed so, and I apologize for implying otherwise.
The physical reception of our God is something of a climax to the prayer that occurs throughout the Mass, yes?
Thank you and yes, I think what you said above is a good statement.
I don't do Latin Mass but a parish near me does Altar Rails and it's so nice.
1. I get 5-10 seconds after kneeling to take a breath and get settled in a prayerful state of mind
2. People seem to stay kneeling for 2-3 seconds after kneeling to consume so I feel less rushed to 'get out of the way' for the next person.
3. Meanwhile, the priest is definitely doing more communions per minute (which may be offset by the amount of time it takes to walk back to the beginning of the rail so maybe its a wash.)
4. It feels more 'communal' because I'm side by side with the other faithful. I know there's some liturgical reason they gave when they made the communion procession but it seems so impersonal. 50% of the time while walking up I'm trying to bow my head prayerfully but then I worry people will think I'm staring at the butt of the person in front of me.
What’s interesting is that one could simply install a “movable” altar rail, as it would not be a permanent change to the church building as such. A series of interlocking kneelers would serve the same purpose. If artfully done, one would not be able to tell whether or not it’s a permanent fixture, or something removable.
Rules are rules only if they are enforceable. And frankly, 20 years from now, they aren’t going to be able to enforce this stuff.
I suspect that altar rails are a flashpoint because they are a symbolic rebuke to the egalitarianism which motivated so much of the 20th-century liturgical changes. By physically defining a clerical space and a lay space, the altar rail challenges the reformers' efforts to blur the clerical-lay distinction.
I remember years ago when a new archbishop came to our archdiocese and he was interviewed by his brother who was a call-in radio talk show host. Almost everybody who called in complained about not being able to kneel in church. At all. Because the kneelers had been removed. After a while it became just comical. He fixed it for us.
Why not just kneel on the floor?
There are people who are not capable of doing that? Or are not capable of getting back up afterwards?
Let's bring back the rood screen ...
So let's do a two foot rail, which gets us to the same place.
In my career as an Evangelical Protestant pastor, every church I've served has had an altar rail, as did the (similarly Evangelical Protestant) church I grew up in. It will never cease to befuddle me that so many Catholic bishops seem this eager to try to out-'low-church' us.
It's because nobody came in and brainwashed the congregation that the altar rail is a symbol of their subjugation as laypeople. Or something like that. Many of these Catholics, despite claiming to be ecumenically-minded, are so unfamiliar with the architecture and practices of traditional Protestant churches that they don't even realize that they have altar rails.
Or even the Protestants that celebrate Ad Orientem as well as count their Sundays as being after Pentecost
I am a fan of communion rails. But I am wondering how a practical point is managed? Our son is in a wheelchair and cannot kneel at altar rails. When we are at a church that uses them, it is an awkward and perhaps risky (re dropping the Host) lean that the priest needs to do - even if our son is by the “gate” on the main aisle. (We’ve been to more than one church with the altar rail.)
Hm. I would think that going to a main “gate” or opening every time would be the best choice. You could also ask the priest if they have another suggestion as well
At my nearest church on weekend Masses the deacon or an EMHC goes out at the start of communion to distribute anyone who should not have to get up and stand in line (an organized body of ushers provides practical support for this I think). So I expect we would still need to have a thoughtful protocol for distribution if we used the altar rail since the people here who currently cannot move from a pew once they are in it will not simply cease to exist.
This is not a problem. The ushers simply open the gates and the priest/Deacon goes out to those who need that. And people who can approach but can't kneel simply stand at the rail. An ordinary part of distribution with the rail.
The rail is not there to exclude. It's there to encourage a norm of reverential reception and to be a symbol of heaven approaching the earth. Even those who can't kneel will benefit from the norm.
At my church the people who cannot kneel generally go the gate. We use patens, so the risk of dropping the Host is pretty minimal, and I think the guy with the longer electric chair tends to angle a bit to make it easier.
I attend a TLM parish, and this past Sunday, an elderly woman came to the rail who could not kneel. The priest simply stepped through the communion rail gate and gave her the Eucharistic standing.
This is an every day part of distribution with a rail. The ushers just opens the gates for the priest or the priest will open it himself. Not a problem. We have a gentleman in our parish who is wheelchair bound and we're happy to do this.
The rail represents the separation of heaven and earth that exists until the second coming. The gate is the gate to heaven. Our Lord goes out to his flock at the rail or all the way out to the pews. And even outside the church itself
Having a communion rail would also enable people to line up across the front of the sanctuary, requiring the priest, deacon or extraordinary minister to move back and forth to distribute. This would enable people to pause and receive without at the same time walking away — even if the person received in the hand and while standing. Right now, there is little focus on the actual reception of the Lord and people are busy scrambling to get out of the way.
The only thing I've read people mention against them are that they make people feel bad, like they're a bad Catholic for not being more reverent, or like other people are going to think they're not as good a Catholic as someone else.
The same argument is made against movable kneelers, and people kneeling on the floor, or wearing veils, or (sometimes it seems) doing anything visibly religious at all.
I sometimes wonder if they want us to not go to Mass, in case some of the many people who skip, by choice or by need, feel bad about it. (I heard that suggested during Covid, no exaggeration.)
Like many Catholics, I'm agnostic about altar rails -- don't see any need to remove them or install them. Those demanding I pay for an installation are obligated to come up with a better answer than your comment.
My comment was not an argument for it, it was trying to find the argument against it. There are lots of comments here providing reasons for them. Given that they were almost universally removed (and all the parishioners forced to pay for the removal), one would think there would be an explanation for removing them.
At least in my parish, my consent is not obtained for everything that is done with parish money. I don't think I'd get very far by attempting to require it.
Our parish introduced the use of portable kneelers for Holy Communion last year but it was announced this past Sunday that that per the Diocese we will no longer be allowed to use the kneelers. I don’t understand it. This seems out of keeping with our bishop to micromanage so I’m wondering if it’s some other power within the Chancery?
As an EMHC I can tell you that the parishioners coming up the center aisle prefer the kneeler to coming to an EMHC who does not have a kneeler.
The norm for the United States for both the Latin and Byzantine churches is to receive standing.
If norms could not change, the US Latin norm would be kneeling.
Of course, norms can change. I just noted the current norm.
There is also no real obligation on parishioners to follow this norm. The only obligation the norm itself lays out, is the obligation for the pastor to explain to people who kneel why the norm is the norm.
Meanwhile the norm for the Latin Rite as a whole is to receive kneeling.
Clearly no one should be denied a sacrament because of non-observance of a norm. That would be a disproportionate punishment for a minor violation. I do find it odd that many neo-traditionalists stridently push laxity on this norm while get quite irate about non-observances of other norms. But I have my own oddities as well, so life goes on.
I'm currently travelling overseas and I find the local Mass norms to be quite interesting.
This particular norm is contrary to the Latin Rite norm, and also contrary to traditional practice for the last bunch of centuries. It's weird to be rigid about it.
As best I can tell, trads generally don't get their knickers in a knot about norms at all. It's about doctrine, the practices that come out of doctrine, reverence, and tradition. The norms published by bishops are probably not given a very high priority unless they also fall within one of those categories . The norms thereby become useful for talking to conservative Catholics who tend to put a relatively high priority on whatever the bishop says.
Part of this is simply a defense mechanism. The norms change when you move, or when the bishop/bishop's conference changes their mind, and they're published in innumerable different documents over many decades and coming from many different levels of Church governance. It's too much. I don't even know many norms, but I know I've never been in a parish that follows all the official ones. People have either selected or invented their own set of norms, possibly unwittingly, or gone back to the old ones.
I appreciate your flexibility on norms. Elsewhere, I have noticed some neo-traditionalists with their knickers high over various norms, particularly concerning women in the liturgy. But based on your example, I intend to be careful not to stereotype.
Again, that's not because it's a norm, it's because it is contrary to tradition and to some extent Scripture. I'm familiar with trads getting upset about various things, but the root cause is never because it violates a current norm, in my experience.
Your suggesting the Byzantines are "to some extent " against Scripture?
I’m imagining the ushers speaking into their secret service style radios: “We’ve got a runner!” 😀
Hah. So I typically attend a a Latin mass (ancient Carmelite rite, fwiw, not Tridentine) and naturally always therefore receive kneeling at the altar rail.
I visited a different parish while traveling and was delighted to find that they hauled out a kneeler for communion and put the single priest distributing communion right behind it, so it was seamless to just kneel to receive
Except I failed to accommodate for the difference in physics. Apparently (I had no idea I did this) habitually lean on the rail a bit as I go down. Give it a bit of weight.
Uh, turns out, you can’t *actually* do that with kneelers (if I had thought about it, I would have known, but I didn’t think, and didn’t even know that I did this). I about knocked it over. A hair more I would have knocked the priest over too.
Happily no one was harmed and after the priest and I exchanged an anguished, shamefaced (me), and terrified (him) look, Communion proceeded.
I also forgot to say “Amen” at that point just to round things out (one doesn’t say it when receiving in the Latin mass).
But yeah. That’s my kneelers-instead-of-altar-rail story. I still think they’re a great idea! lol. Just. I need to watch myself.
One thing that people seem to forget in the post-Covid era is that Vatican II did move toward the laity receiving the Eucharist under both species. Unless the Latin Church adopts intinction as a norm, much blood will be spilled over communion rails (pun intended).