@chris griffin Why is it so wonderful? Is it more reverant?

@frawley....Hi Frawley. Jesus said "take and eat" not "open your mouth and stick out your tongue". Communion in the hand was the norm in the Church for the first 800 years. Thanks.

@chris griffin Since communion in the hand, belief in the real presence has fallen to less than half of practicing Catholics. We now have to station ushers near communion lines to prevent people from walking off with hosts. Hosts falling on the floor is common now. No attempt is made to insure particles of the host do not end up on the floor as pattons are no longer used. And I do not think we know for sure how the early church consumed communion. We do know for sure that they considered it so holy that martyers gave their lives to prevent the Euchrist from being desecrated.

@frawley I certainly respect your viewpoint and the points you made. Personally, I can go either way.

@chris griffin I also like being able to receive both ways

I was bottle fed for the first couple of years but it does not mean I should go back to that practice. Jesus said "Take and eat" to the apostles, and priests today still take and eat. I am not a priest and my hands are not consecrated, so I, in humility receive from the priest.

@Proverbs ch1 v7...Jesus "gave" the bread to the men on the Emaus road who were not priests or bishops therefor their hands were not consecrated. Luke 24:30.

@chris griffin thank you for the bible reference. I do not think the bread on the road to Emmaus is a justification for receiving Communion in the hand. The gesture was an act of divine revelation, not a model for lay reception. Taking the other parts of the same chapter you can see what I mean. Luke 24:16 "but their eyes were held, that they should not know him" this tells us they did not recognize Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:18 "Art thou only a stranger to Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days?" speaking to Jesus that way since they did not know it was Him. In Luke 24:30 they received the bread but then Luke 24:31 says "And their eyes were opened, and they knew him: and he vanished out of their sight." here after the bread verse (Luke 24:30), they recognize Him, but only after they received the bread. If you say that it was Communion then you would also be saying that they received Communion without recognizing that was Jesus who they were receiving. In Catholic teaching, you must be properly disposed and recognize the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist to receive Communion.

@Proverbs ch1 v7... they recognized Jesus when they received the bread.
He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him
Jesus did nothing wrong and the men did nothing wrong. Everything was on the up and up for Communion in the hand. thanks.

@chris griffin I still disagree with your position on Communion in the hand. I do appreciate your commitment to defend your position, not lukewarm for sure. I still think the Church in its wisdom discouraged and eventually prohibited that practice to increase reverence for the Eucharist and the prevention of sacrilege. We have all heard the statistics in recent years about the decline in belief in the Real Presence. Maybe that is what the Church of old tried to prevent.