“Receive Holy Communion with courage, peace and humility, in response to the Divine Spouse, Who, in order to unite Himself to us, humbled Himself and so wonderfully abased Himself as to become our very food.” – St. Francis de Sales
The short answer to this question, why do I receive on the tongue, is because my husband asked me to. He had his reasons, which I may one day share with you, if anyone is interested. But he is a convert, he knew nothing of Pre-Vatican II, and he asked me to. He doesn’t ask much of me, so I complied, as did our children. I honestly didn’t give it too much thought, as both receiving in the hand and on the tongue are considered licit by the USCCB. I had been taught as a child to receive on the hand, but around 4 or so years ago, I switched at my husbands request.
But this morning I was in church, after having had another strange dream. In my dream, there were many things that happened, including coming across a past President, but the thing that stuck out most to me toward the end of my dream, I was laying down on the ground and it was night. I was looking up at the sky and staring at the moon. The moon was full and bright, and a cloud appeared to encircle the moon. As I adjusted my view, the cloud circling around the moon and another cloud formed where my view of the center of the moon would be. It formed the shape of a cross. The moon suddenly illuminated and looked exactly like a Eucharistic Host. I woke up and immediately realized it was First Friday, and I should go to Mass. I usually try to make at least one weekday Mass, if not more, but this week’s schedule was very busy and I had not made the time to go. I knew though, that I needed to today.
While I was at Mass, I was preparing my heart to receive the Eucharist, and all of the sudden an image popped into my head. The image was of a Father feeding his infant child. It struck me as odd. But then I realized, an infant child is totally and completely at the hands of her parents. She is totally dependent and vulnerable. She cannot even feed herself.
I thought of Christ, feeding me with the Eucharist. I wanted to be totally and completely dependent and vulnerable to Him. I wanted to be fed, like a parent feeds a child. With their hand to my mouth. In total dependence.
This is not meant as a judgement on anyone who receives in the hands. For Christ wants us to receive Him with a pure heart in awe and adoration. It was just a realization for me in a tangible way, that if I use my hands, I am trying to exact a measure of control on how I receive God. And I simply want to be totally dependent on him, and receiving on the tongue is a physical way for me to portray this to Our Lord.
Veil of Veronica 
I love the Pelican as the image of Christ, opening the breast to feed her young. The image of the father feeding the child is exactly right. We are dependent on God for everything, including His real food that keeps the soul alive. How blessed to be allowed to receive the Eucharist. How blessed that the Lord loves us so.
Yes we are so blessed
I am so happy that you love your husband enough to have responded and trusted in his request. And as it turned out, it was confirmed by your dream, and you received the revelation that you were doing the right thing. I too, do not judge others who receive in the hand, I only know that I wouldn’t want to receive Him any other way. It is the most humble way to receive, and I love that my Lord comes to me in this way. I say this even as an Extra Ordinary Minister of the Holy Eucharist. I look at it like this – to receive in the hand is the same as someone is just giving you an ordinary thing – to receive on the tongue is to know that you are receiving something very special. I guess it’s just one of those things that you just can’t explain. I’m waiting for the altar rails to come back!
I know. Thank you for your comments!
Receiving Holy Communion
I have read many articles on face book and the internet about receiving holy communion.
So here is my respond.
I receive Communion on my tongue all my life (I am 73) but within the last year or so, twice two different priests missed my tongue and the hoist fell to the floor. I swooped down and picked up the hoist and consumed it, before the priest could do anything. The Holy Spirt must have moved me to do this as I cannot bend down very easy as my back and knees have arthritis and it very hard for me to bend down and pick something up. It is still in my heart to receive on my tongue and I am compiled to do so.
But I must say, one time when I took communion to the nursing home and was giving it to a deacon. He took communion on the hand, then he asks me which was the correct way to receive communion, on the hand or on the tongue. I felt the Holy Spirit inspired me to say, “It is what is in your heart that counts”.
Another time I was a Eucharistic minister during mass and I was giving out the Hoist. As I look at each person receiving communion, I felt that each one no matter how they received the Hoist that they were receiving Jesus with great love.
So who am I to judge, as the church allows us to receive Holy Communion on the tongue or in the hand.
May God grant us peace and the grace to receive Jesus with Holy Love. 06/09/15
Thank you for this. What you have written is so loving.
Communion in the Hand
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Introduction
On Sept. 1, 1972, Our Lord said to Professor Albert Drexel: “Know: The measure of the love of God is gauged by the measure of reverence to the mystery of My Eucharistic Presence, and the manner and degree of love of the holy sacrifice, which is the mysterious but truly unbloody renewal and sacramental remembrance of the one and only bloody sacrifice on the cross. Hear My cry: Sacrileges multiply among the faithful, who take the sacrament like ordinary bread in the hand, and with it, they are not aware that this bread is no longer bread, but My Body, Flesh and Blood; it is My unbloody presence! Woe also to this sin! My great Apostle Paul said: He who does not distinguish the body of the Lord from ordinary food, eats and drinks judgment to himself. Why have so many people, in receiving My body in the hand, lost respect toward the Blessed Sacrament?”
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Further Messages About Communion in the Hand
On June 4, 1976, Our Lord said: “But alas, love of My presence in the miraculous Sacrament has died in so many priestly hearts. Therefore, the number of daily profanations does not mean anything to them, since the introduction of Communion in the hand. My woe to those who turn away from the Blessed Sacrament!”
On Dec. 3, 1976, Our Lord said: “Do not thousands and millions of God’s people go to the table of the Lord like an ordinary table of daily bread, because their priests have not given to these people the example of reverence. Shocking is the word of My Apostle Paul, who said: He who does not distinguish between the body of the Lord and ordinary food, eats and drinks judgment to himself. This word is irrevocably true, and the judgment will be terrible.”
On Sept. 7, 1973, Our Lord said: “The spirit of degradation and treason passes over to many faithful people, who go without reverence – as if they were going to a worldly affair – to receive Holy Communion, and they become guilty before the judgment. If they would only think of My Holy Virgin Mother Mary, and realize with what pure, deep and fervent reverence She received Me from the Holy Ghost, Me the Son of God, in the hour of the Incarnation – then they would feel regret and return to Me! Ponder with what unspeakable respect My servant, Mary of Jesus of Agreda, wrote about it in the works of her revelations.”
Reverence of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The reverence with which the Virgin Mary received communion is manifested in the following passage from The Mystical City of God:
This administration of baptism was continued on that day until all were baptized, although there were about five thousand to receive it. While the baptized were making their thanksgiving for this admirable blessing, the Apostles with all the disciples and the faithful spent some time in prayer. All of them prostrated themselves on the ground, ador-ing the infinite and immutable God, and confessing their own un-worthiness of receiving Him in the most august sacrament of the Altar. In this profound humility and adoration they prepared themselves more immediately for Communion. And then they recited the same psalms and prayers which Christ had recited before consecrating, imitating faithfully that sacred function just as they had seen it performed by their divine Master. Saint Peter took in his hands the unleavened bread, and, after raising up his eyes to heaven with admirable devotion, he pronounced over the bread the words of consecration of the most holy body of Christ, as had been done before by the Lord Jesus (II Cor. 11:24). Immediately the Cenacle was filled with the visible splendor of innumerable angels; and this light converged in a most singular manner on the Queen of heaven and earth, and was seen by all those present. Then saint Peter consecrated the chalice and performed all the ceremonies, which Christ had observed with the consecrated body and blood, raising them up for the adoration of all the faithful. The Apostle partook himself of the Sacrament and communicated it to the eleven Apostles as most holy Mary had instructed him. Thereupon, at the hands of saint Peter, the heavenly Mother partook of it, while the celestial spirits there present attended with ineffable reverence. In approaching the altar, the great Lady made three profound prostrations, touching the ground with her face. She returned to her place, and it is impossible to describe in words the effects of this participation of the holy Eucharist in this most exalted of creatures. She was entirely transformed and elevated, completely absorbed in this divine conflagration of the love of her most holy Son, whom She had now received bodily. She remained in a trance, elevated from the floor; but the holy angels shielded Her somewhat from view according to her own wish, in order that the attention of those present might not be unduly attracted by the divine effects apparent in Her. The disciples continued to distribute holy Communion, first to the disciples and then to the others who had been believers before the Ascension. But of the five thousand newly baptized only one thousand received Communion on that day; because not all were entirely prepared or furnished with the insight and attention required for receiving the Lord in this great sacrament and mystery of the Altar. With regard to the manner of Communion in that day, the Apostles observed the distinction of giving to the most holy Mother and the one hundred and twenty, upon whom the Holy Ghost had come, both species, of bread and of wine; but the recently baptized partook only of the species of bread. But this differ-ence was not made because the new faithful were less worthy of the one species than of the other; but because the Apostles knew, that in either one of the species they received the same Object in its entirety, namely the sacramental God; and that there was no precept, and like-wise no necessity that each one receive both species. They considered, that there would be great danger of irreverence and other very grave inconveniences to permit the multitude to partake of the species of the blood, while this was not to be feared in the Communion of the few, who then partook of them at that time.
[Taken from Book 7, Ch. 7: THE APOSTLES AND DISCIPLES MEET IN ORDER TO SOLVE SOME DOUBTS, IN PARTICULAR ABOUT THE FORM OF BAPTISM; THEY ADMINISTER THAT SACRAMENT TO THE CATE-CHUMENS; SAINT PETER CELEBRATES THE FIRST MASS; THE DOINGS OF MARY IN THE MEANWHILE. – Mystical City of God, Life of the Virgin Mother of God, by Mary of Agreda]
On Dec. 3, 1976, Our Lord said: “The great disaster in My one and true Church is the desecration of the Blessed Sacrament, because it has gained ground in the whole world since the council of the popes John and Paul, and it provokes the anger of God. My blessing be with those who have preserved, and still do preserve, faith and reverence before the Blessed Sacrament. This blessing is eternal, and cannot be expressed by words nor comprehended with the senses.”
• Cardinal Canizares calls for Communion on tongue, kneeling (CNA)
In 2012 the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship strongly endorsed the practice of receiving Communion on the tongue, while kneeling. Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera told the Catholic News Agency that the traditional posture is a “sign of adoration that needs to be recovered.” When Catholics receive Communion while standing, they should show their reverence with a bow, the Spanish cardinal said; but in practice few people do that. He said: “I think the entire Church needs to receive Communion while kneeling.”
On March 29, 1969, Our Lord said to Madre Concepción, a Franciscan religious in Mexico City: “Write. Do not keep to yourself, My daughter, neither through fear nor through human respect, what I spoke to you on Sunday, the second day of this month at Holy Mass.” The things Our Lord told me that day are the following. That morning I was walking to the Church of San Francisco (on Madero Ave.) and Jesus said to me: “Hurry! You have to shout very loudly!”
“What, Lord?”
“Many things. Tell everything to everyone. Do not keep anything to yourself, for I do not tell you things for yourself, but for My Church. Send it to your bishop, and let him send everything to My beloved Vicar.”
“What things, Lord?”
“Everything I have told you and what I will tell you from now on.”
When I heard such an order, I feared it might be the devil and that it was auto-suggestion and that is why I dared to ask His Divine Majesty for proof, proof He gave me immediately. (I may not make this proof known because it is exclusively a matter of conscience.) Immediately afterwards, when I was in church hearing Holy Mass, Jesus deigned to tell me a formula of how Holy Mass should be heard at present, within the forms that have been made to it. I will make this known later, because it is urgent that I send out this sheet now. Well, during Mass, at the time of the memento of the dead, Jesus told me this:
“Tell them it disgusts Me that they receive Communion standing and without reverence. Those who receive Communion cynically, giving bad example, the women without veils and naked, offend Me. Tell them that soon fire will come down from Heaven if they do not amend, and they will be burned alive and will be condemned. Because, how will those bodies enter to rejoice on the day of the resurrection, that here below took delight in filth, the filth of sin and of provoking others to sin? It is not right for them to receive Communion standing, nor should those who have received Communion stand, nor should they receive the blessing except on their knees! You must go devoutly to the Table of Communion.”
It is very interesting to make known the following that His Divine Majesty also deigned to reveal to me at the time of Holy Mass, at the memento of the dead. He said to me then:
“Now is when you should ask for the eternal rest of all those who have died and have not been able to enter Heaven, held back by their sins. I ask suffrages for those souls! But tell My priests they must say Mass out of devotion and not for money, because I am tired of their avarice and their commercialism.” [ atonementbooklets.20m.com ]
http://albertdrexel.20m.com/agreda/com2.html
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