Help please. Communion.

[Peter Jones]

Our Bishops' instruction concerning bowing before receiving Holy Communion.

Can anyone provide me with a link to the actual instruction?

I cannot find this on the Liturgy Office site and Google only comes up with two references to the Tablet
and a pastoral letter from Westminster Archdiocese.

Thank you.

[John Ainslie]

...and a pastoral letter from Westminster Archdiocese.

...where it was only a footnote, therefore not actually read out! It is interesting to observe how the custom is spreading – by imitation rather than by instruction.

If receiving under both kinds, does one bow again before receiving from the chalice?

[Peter Jones]

Silly me - I've found it. I did not go deep enough into the document.

It's actually in GIRM - as GIRM is printed in the Missal. Paragraph 160.

[Southern Comfort]

Notice that there are three different versions of GIRM 160 in the UK Roman Missal:

The generic one says:

The faithful communicate either kneeling or standing, as has been determined by the norms of the Conference of Bishops. However, when they communicate standing, it is recommended that before receiving the Sacrament they make an
appropriate sign of reverence, to be determined in the same norms.

[my emphasis — see below]

The Australian version has:

In the dioceses of Australia standing is the most common posture for receiving Holy Communion, though
individual members of the faithful may choose to receive Communion while kneeling. When approaching to receive Holy Communion, the faithful bow in reverence of the Sacrament that they are to receive.

[No reference to norms here]

The England and Wales/Scotland version reads:

In the Dioceses of England and Wales, and of Scotland Holy Communion is to be received standing, though individual members of the faithful may choose to receive Communion while kneeling. However, when they communicate standing, it is
recommended that the faithful bow in reverence before receiving the Sacrament.

[Once again, no reference to norms here]

The point is that the Norms for the Reception of Holy Communion of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales have been stalled in Rome for several years. In fact they also recommend a bow before receiving, but they have not so far been promulgated in these countries. Until they have been, the norms of that Conference continue to read as follows:

The Communion procession expresses the humble patience of the poor moving forward to be fed, the alert expectancy of God’s people sharing the Paschal meal in readiness for their journey, the joyful confidence of God’s people on the march
toward the promised land. In England and Wales it is through this action of walking solemnly in procession that the faithful make their sign of reverence in preparation for receiving Communion.

[Celebrating the Mass 210]

In the meantime, what is in GIRM 160 recommends [E&W] a bow, but does not mandate it, unlike the Australian version.

The USA has a very different version of this paragraph, and they also have their own norms for the distribution of Holy Communion which include a bow. As far as I can tell, many people have already forgotten about bowing, and the remainder mostly give a quick nod of the head, which is not the most edifying symbolic act. So, where bowing takes place, it may be important to tell people that this is a proper slow bow, not a quick nod.

[quaeritor]

. . .[No reference to norms here]. . .

But why would they refer to a norm in the specification of the norm itself? Surely this paragraph is the norm? Is there really another document to say that what the GIRM says is what we meant? (I feel a "Quod scripsi scripsi" moment coming on!) Has it not been approved by Rome? - they agonised over it for long enough; surely it didn't just slip past?

IHTAF (again!)

Q

[NorthernTenor]

Why do I feel this conversation suggests that many who might think of themselves as liberal (in a post-Conciliar, non-pejorative sense) are ultramontane at heart? And some of us who think in terms of tradition and continuity aren't?

[Southern Comfort]

. . .[No reference to norms here]. . .

But why would they refer to a norm in the specification of the norm itself? Surely this paragraph is the norm? Is there really another document to say that what the GIRM says is what we meant? (I feel a "Quod scripsi scripsi" moment coming on!) Has it not been approved by Rome? - they agonised over it for long enough; surely it didn't just slip past?

IHTAF (again!)

Q

Right up to 2010, the universal norm (and thus the norm in England & Wales) was the generic paragraph quoted above: i.e. that Conferences of Bishops were to establish their own norms for the distribution of Holy Communion. (Exception: Australia had had their own version of GIRM from 2007 onwards.) Accordingly the Liturgical Formation subcommittee of our Conference spent many long hours of work on the norms, which went through two successive and different drafting stages, the first begun as long ago as 2002. In the meantime, a norm was in fact established in CTM 210 (2005). Eventually the Conference voted and the norms (which cover many other things besides the sign of reverence) were sent to Rome for recognitio. There they have languished ever since, not to reappear so far. If and when they do come back, they will replace the recommendation of GIRM 160.

So no, Rome did not agonise over GIRM for long enough. They only comparatively recently decided to change their minds and provide the version of para 160 quoted which, for England & Wales and Scotland, is a recommendation, as stated, not a norm. ("It is recommended that..." — compare with the language used in the Australian version.) The actual norm qua norm can still be said to be CTM 210. If GIRM 160 now said "This is what you must do", then we'd be talking about a different situation. But it doesn't.

[FrGareth]

"In the Dioceses of England and Wales Holy Communion is to be received standing, though individual members of the faithful may choose to receive Communion while kneeling. However, when they communicate standing, it is recommended that the faithful bow in reverence before receiving the sacrament."

An unofficial source for this text: http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2011/06/communion-standing-no-new-altar-rails.html

An official, albeit obscure, source for the same text: http://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Missal/Resources/Schools/ACCE-Missal.ppt (slide 61)