{"id":28466,"date":"2014-12-06T11:49:14","date_gmt":"2014-12-06T17:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=28466"},"modified":"2014-12-06T11:50:28","modified_gmt":"2014-12-06T17:50:28","slug":"communion-procession-blessings-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/12\/06\/communion-procession-blessings-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Communion Procession Blessings Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a while there have been discussions of the appropriateness of non-communicants participating in the communion procession and receiving a blessing from the minister. This topic was even discussed (albeit somewhat obliquely) on PrayTellBlog a couple of years ago<\/a>. Opinions on the appropriateness of the practice have not necessarily fallen out along the usual ideological lines, with some “progressives” objecting to the pactice (e.g. “The communion procession is for communion, not blessings”), though my impression is that opposition tends to emanate from more conservative quarters. Maybe thisis because of Archbishop Chaput’s criticism of the practice<\/a> when he was the Ordinary in Denver, and the endorsement of his view by some more traditional bloggers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But not all traditionally-oriented Catholics seem to take this view:<\/p>\n

I would like to add another practical suggestion. In many countries it has become customary for persons who are not able to receive communion (for example, the members of other confessions) to approach the altar with their hands folded over their chests, making it clear that they are not receiving the sacrament but are asking for a blessing, which is given to them as a sign of the love of Christ and of the Church. This form could certainly be chosen also by persons who are living in a second marriage and therefore are not admitted to the Lord\u2019s table. The fact that this would make possible an intense spiritual communion with the Lord, with his whole Body, with the Church, could be a spiritual experience that would strengthen and help them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The above is from the addendum Pope Benedict\/Josef Ratzinger recently added to his 1972 article on communion for the divorced and civilly remarried in preparing it for publication in his collected works. You can read the entire addition here<\/a>. Aside from the specific issue of why people might not be receiving communion, this certainly counts as a highly-placed endorsement of communion line blessings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a recent highly-placed endorsement of the practice of blessing non-communicants at communion time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pope-benedict-xvi"],"yoast_head":"\nCommunion Procession Blessings Revisited - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/12\/06\/communion-procession-blessings-revisited\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Communion Procession Blessings Revisited - 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