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Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Recently I was talking with a baptized Christian who is considering joining the Catholic Church through the OCIA Process. (Yes, not a typo - see p. 7.) He had many questions and found aspects of the Church confusing. I said, “I know, right?”

It was interesting how most of his questions weren’t about doctrinal matters, even the stereotypical ones that you might presume divide Catholics and other Christians. For example, he was raised with, and has always had, a very strong faith in the real presence of Jesus in Holy Communion. You might be surprised how many non-Catholics truly do believe. He was very thoughtful, considering that marriage really should be considered a sacrament by everyone and not just Catholics. Maybe we would be better at it.

I find often, rather, most questions are about practice. Why we do what we do and how we don’t agree sometimes. His last congregation never sang more than two verses of the songs. That is a choice that a pastor or community makes. Here at Saint Bernadette we sing all the verses. I explained that the songs are important prayers that the people actually get to own and it wouldn’t be right to take the words out of their mouths at Mass.

He had noted that music styles vary radically between parishes in the Catholic Church, as much as they do among different denominations. I explained that here, we try to provide a wide repertoire of music that is reverent and able to touch peoples’ hearts, is singable and beautiful, and appropriate for the feasts or seasons. Music can be our Amen!, our praise, our confession of faith in different ways. Our music director, David, puts a lot of time into planning liturgy.

He had questions about how people receive Holy Communion. He did some looking in the internet for explanations and found a lot of ugliness: truly, a house divided over Communion. I told him that there are official teachings of the Church that we follow here. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has stated that the proper posture for receiving Holy Communion is standing, although individuals may kneel if they desire. It is the general sense of the Church that we be united, not divided, by our postures and practices, one Body of Christ coming forward united by singing a Communion song. When I was a kid we were always taught that you stand when an adult enters the room out of respect. I think this is thing of the past, though.

It is also customary to bow or make some reverence to Jesus before receiving. This is a good practice. He asked me why everyone doesn’t do this. Certainly, I explained, we must always remind the assembly of the need for total reverence when encountering the Lord in this way, but it is okay if you don’t make an outward gesture. When the reform of the Mass was promulgated by the Second Vatican Council (we learned in the seminary), the bishops in the United States declared that we would kneel before Communion when the priest says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world...” You may have noticed when you travel to other countries that this is only the case in the United States, who introduced this reverence as part of the Mass so that all make it.

He also had read much about receiving the Host at Holy Communion and found this maybe the most confusing thing. Again, divided by Communion... He said some claim Communion in the hand to be evil and that for centuries the Church received on the tongue. Well, there is more to this than can be covered here. From earliest times people received Communion in the hand. Then, for centuries it was rare that people received it at all and it became more of a pious practice, which risked losing the understanding that we receive not merely for the sake of receiving, but to become Christ’s Body actively in the world.

When you look for things on the internet, first of all I go to the official Church teachings themselves, not some crazy opinion page. There are plenty of those! You can’t know the intention of the writer. The USCCB website is a good resource, as is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Either way of receiving Communion is considered perfectly acceptable. Any irreverence that might come from either would be due to a lack of catechesis or misinformation by others.

The Lord be with you.