Eucharist

[AveMaria]

Anyone have any strong preferences or opinions one way or the other?

Bread vs. wafer?
Intinction?
Stand or kneel to receive?
Do you cross yourself before receiving, after, or both?
Anyone fast beforehand, and for how long?

And why? Are your reasons theological or practical, or "because it's always been done that way!"?

[SirTimothy]

Wafer is nicer than the pitta we had last sunday. I intincted as well, but it felt... I dunno, wrong. Taking them seperately feels right. So that's what I'll be doing in future. :)
I kneel, cross both before and after, and make sure I don't eat an hour before (giving that I've to be there half an hour before the service starts this isn't too hard.

Timothy

[Cjwinnit]

I don't normally eat before church, but that's more of the case that I wake up about 30 seconds before it starts.. :sorry:

One thing I do have to remind myself is to sit down after communion. I'm so used to being in a choir that I usually stand from force of habit. I do end up looking like a bit of a wally....

[Mic]

Sorry...stupid question...

What's intinction?

Mic

[jhollas]

When I have time to go to Eucharist (It's on Wednesday afternoon's at Uni, and I usually go to work on Wednesday's - bad), I always kneel to receive, and cross myself afterwards. To be honest, crossing myself afterwards seems to be more appropriate, as it's a thanks. But, I'm not aware of any theological connotations behind it.

[benedictine]

Intinction is dipping the host into the chalice.

[RobNJ]

Intinction is dipping the host into the chalice.

Kneeling, with the wafer..and I do intiction because at that odd angle it keeps the contents of the cup from hitting the mustache & getting on the shirt and/or tie;)
I cross myself just after kneeling at the rail, and just before getting up.

[jhollas]

Intinction is dipping the host into the chalice.
Ah, right. No, we don't do that.

[PaladinValer]

Wafer or any unleavened bread; it was the kind of bread Jesus would have used.

Yes, I intinct. Why? Well, when I'm home, I always go if there's a chance to the Wednesday Bible Study and Eucharist morning service, and we pass the chalice and hosts around, giving it to each other. And I'm usually right after this really old (very nice too however) old man who sort of, um, slobbers over the chalice and doesn't use the cloth to wipe up the chalice. So no doctrinal reason; just bad experience.

I kneel because I believe I should kneel before my God and especially before my God now literally in front of my face, against my breast, and then, within me.

I cross myself before and after; the first to prepare and the second in thanks.

I don't usually have breakfast on Sundays, so the morning mass is automatically done with a fast beforehand. For Canterbury services, I try not to eat the hour before. If I receive Holy Communion on any other day, I try to not eat or drink anything (except water) for an hour before. It is just Traditional to do so.

[Father Rick]

Anyone have any strong preferences or opinions one way or the other?

Bread vs. wafer? Definitely some form of unleavened bread
Intinction? I prefer to receive the elements separately, and always do so unless I am ill (don't want to spread germs). Fortunately, as priest I can do it however I want:D
Stand or kneel to receive? On this I'm neutral. I usually go with the custom of the church I am in when I am not the one celebrating.
Do you cross yourself before receiving, after, or both? After
Anyone fast beforehand, and for how long? I normally fast a couple of hours beforehand... but not really out of deliberate choice, but just because I am at the church getting things ready for service, etc. ahead of time so it works out that way.

And why? Are your reasons theological or practical, or "because it's always been done that way!"?My responses are above in red.

Good questions Ave...

[gtsecc]

My Priests always look directly at the consecrated wafer, not at the person receiving or anywhere else. When I was attending a different parish over Christmas, the Priest flew past like he was handing out poker chips not the Body of Christ.

[Songspinner]

Kneel at my church ...don't at any cathedral servises...no alter rail

Cross myself before and after

Definalty prefer Wafer...seems wrong to chew on the body of Christ, but I will Intict if they are not using wafers though (I find it to much of a rush to gnaw down the bread before the wine)

[Albion]

wafer, no intinction, kneeling.

Crossing self yes, but not a biggie to be always done a certain way.

I would add something else while we are at this--how to take the host/wafer to the lips. I hate to see people fingering it. The proper way to me is to raise the host with the arms to your lips while it still is where the minister placed it in your hand.

[Songspinner]

wafer, no intinction, kneeling.

Crossing self yes, but not a biggie to be always done a certain way.

I would add something else while we are at this--how to take the host/wafer to the lips. I hate to see people fingering it. The proper way to me is to raise the host with the arms to your lips while it still is where the minister placed it in your hand.

Thats how i do it...always hated the "baby bird"method of opening your mouth...sticking out your tounge and waiting for the celebrant to place it on your tounge...

One sunday,as our priest was doing this, he accidentally dropped it down an old ladys shirt :o the entire choir burst out in laughter as he automatically went to retrieve it but stopped half way, thinking nope can't do that. And the lady, who thankfully has a sence of humor is kneeling there asking "now how do I get it out?" Eventually she went to the back of the church and shook out her shirt but it wasn't there :eek: she finally had to go to the bathroom and found it weged in her unmentionables...Thankfully she wasn't to embarassed and everyone had a good laugh :D

[ahab]

No strong preferences to any of that really, sometimes we kneel and sometimes we stand, I normally kneel or get on my face before my heavenly Father in prayer or worship rather than communion. I guess I prefer sharing the bread and wine amongst a fellowship group.

[Iron Sun 254]

Prefer wafer but my parish has bread...no big deal
Don't do intinction
Kneel to receive
I cross myself before and after receiving.
I don't fast deliberately though it usually ends up that way.

I have no hard preferences except for avoiding intinction because I'd be the one to drop it in accidentally.

[TomUK]

Do people cross themselves before receiving both elements, or just the host?

[RobNJ]

Do people cross themselves before receiving both elements, or just the host?

Yes..... ;)
I've seen both..Since I'm communing via intinction. I cross myself, recieve the host my hand, and hold it there until the chalice bearer takes it from me, dips it & place it on my tongue, I then cross myself & leave the rail.

[Brian Augustyn]

Preference on the form of the bread is usually not mine to make. Most churches use wafers, so that's what most familiar. On special occasions, our parish does do bread, using a good unleavened bread recipe, and that's pretty cool too. I've been to churches where they use pieces broken from loaves of crusty bread, or pita, or matzo, or squares of white bread. Those are all different, outwardly, and not all equally enjoyable, but they are all equally the Body of Christ and therefore all satisfying.

I don't intinct. I take the elements seperately by habit and preference. Sharing the common cup, even in times of health concern, is to me what community and communion are all about--risking together in pursuit of blessing. My wife and daughters do intinct--more to limit their intake of wine than out of concern for germs. My daughters are young and don't drink wine and tend to make faces at the strong flavor anyway.

At my parish, we kneel for Communion. I have been to churches where one stands. Kneeling feels right, but standing doesn't feel wrong to me. In our parish, the clergy and Eucharistic ministers make eye-contact and move efficiently, but not too quickly.

I cross myself afterwards in thanks. Many around me do not. I don't cross myself many other times during the service, though (usually only otherwise at benediction).

Brian

[pmcleanj]

The proper way to me is to raise the host with the arms to your lips while it still is where the minister placed it in your hand.Yes. But then, you are terribly old fashioned. Right* ;), but still terribly old-fashioned.

Bread vs. wafer? -- Bread; hearty, whole-grain and chewy; is a graphic kinesthetic reminder that the Incarnation was as real, solid, and material an event as such an every-day matter as plain bread. God entered into our reality, not some abstracted super-purified reality. A wafer is more abstract than bread, but being the basic staff of life -- simple starch -- it recalls the universality of salvation: whether in the form of bread, rice, manioc root, tapioca; every human culture relies on a basic form of starch, and every human being relies upon the Word of God. Since I can encounter the Christ and meditate upon the truth of Christ through either form, I'm neutral.
Intinction? Only as a matter of compassionate necessity: to avoid contaminating the cup for your brothers and sisters. Otherwise the connection to Judas, who dipped his sop at the Last Supper, and the deviation from the command to "Drink this, all of ye" (as opposed to "dip into this") make the action unfelicitous.
Stand or kneel to receive? Kneel. Although the argument is made that kneeling is inappropriate during the Great Fifty Days, and I'm willing to buy that argument, and even go along with it if that's the practice of the community where I worship. But kneeling has a kinaesthesia, doubtless informed by culture, that promotes pious devotion.
Do you cross yourself before receiving, after, or both?Before receiving, after receiving the Bread, and after receiving the Cup.
Anyone fast beforehand, and for how long?I'm another breakfast-skipper. But if I were going to communion at some different time, I'd probably fast deliberately. I fasted before my wedding eucharist, but it was a morning wedding. In fact, it's customary that any service that involves communion be held in the morning for this very reason; the exception being evening Vigil services that typically come at the end of a fast-day or day of Abstinence. I'm encouraging the daughters to fast before communion, but so far they aren't enthusiastic about the idea, and I'm allowing them to adopt their own style of piety without coercion -- guidance, even occasionally heavy-handed guidance, but not coercion.

In summary, while I have my preferances for my own piety, I can take or leave most options on these things. They are adiaphoric, after all. The one thing that I find offensive, is when someone worries, obsesses, or takes significant notice, of someone else's pious idiosyncracies. I've seen Anglicans go nearly apopleptic because someone two or three rows in front of them lifted up their hands during a moving hymn, or failed to bow when the cross was carried past. Well, that's their issue to deal with, but I'm not going to join in the post-service gossip about That Evil Awful Person Over There who intincted, or failed to intinct, or clapped during "Let my People Go". My own goal is to focus enough on the Word that I don't notice what anyone else is doing unless it actually affects me.

*in this case, and in my opinion, which being free is worth what you paid for it

[AveMaria]

I so have a very strong preference for wafers, for a few reasons:
1) If people intinct, wafers don't leave crumbs in the chalice;
2) I personally don't like chewing the Body of Christ;
3) I've been to services where a very hearty, chewy bread was used which made it difficult for some of the elderly and/or those with serious dental problems;
4) I had a choking fit during a mid-week Eucharist once, when a very hearty chewy bread was used, and the service was disrupted while I turned deep red and coughed and coughed and coughed and finally coughed it up. (The bread was really too chewy and also very dry, and they were trying to rush us). Bad memory.

I usually only intinct if I'm sick, although when I'm sick, I'm more likely to abstain from the chalice instead. Or if I'm worshiping with a congregation where everying intincts, which is pretty seldom.

I

[benedictine]

I'm the only one in my Family that doesn't intinct.

[Parishoner]

We usually have wafers. I eat the wafer first and then drink the wine, no intinction. I cross before and after.

[Albion]

Yes. But then, you are terribly old fashioned. Right* ;), but still terribly old-fashioned.

Bread vs. wafer? -- Bread; hearty, whole-grain and chewy; is a graphic kinesthetic reminder that the Incarnation was as real, solid, and material an event as such an every-day matter as plain bread. God entered into our reality, not some abstracted super-purified reality. A wafer is more abstract than bread, but being the basic staff of life -- simple starch -- it recalls the universality of salvation: whether in the form of bread, rice, manioc root, tapioca; every human culture relies on a basic form of starch, and every human being relies upon the Word of God. Since I can encounter the Christ and meditate upon the truth of Christ through either form, I'm neutral.
Intinction? Only as a matter of compassionate necessity: to avoid contaminating the cup for your brothers and sisters. Otherwise the connection to Judas, who dipped his sop at the Last Supper, and the deviation from the command to "Drink this, all of ye" (as opposed to "dip into this") make the action unfelicitous.
Stand or kneel to receive? Kneel. Although the argument is made that kneeling is inappropriate during the Great Fifty Days, and I'm willing to buy that argument, and even go along with it if that's the practice of the community where I worship. But kneeling has a kinaesthesia, doubtless informed by culture, that promotes pious devotion.
Do you cross yourself before receiving, after, or both?Before receiving, after receiving the Bread, and after receiving the Cup.
Anyone fast beforehand, and for how long?I'm another breakfast-skipper. But if I were going to communion at some different time, I'd probably fast deliberately. I fasted before my wedding eucharist, but it was a morning wedding. In fact, it's customary that any service that involves communion be held in the morning for this very reason; the exception being evening Vigil services that typically come at the end of a fast-day or day of Abstinence. I'm encouraging the daughters to fast before communion, but so far they aren't enthusiastic about the idea, and I'm allowing them to adopt their own style of piety without coercion -- guidance, even occasionally heavy-handed guidance, but not coercion.

In summary, while I have my preferances for my own piety, I can take or leave most options on these things. They are adiaphoric, after all. The one thing that I find offensive, is when someone worries, obsesses, or takes significant notice, of someone else's pious idiosyncracies. I've seen Anglicans go nearly apopleptic because someone two or three rows in front of them lifted up their hands during a moving hymn, or failed to bow when the cross was carried past. Well, that's their issue to deal with, but I'm not going to join in the post-service gossip about That Evil Awful Person Over There who intincted, or failed to intinct, or clapped during "Let my People Go". My own goal is to focus enough on the Word that I don't notice what anyone else is doing unless it actually affects me.

*in this case, and in my opinion, which being free is worth what you paid for it

reply to pmcleanj's post:

Yes...I admit that my way of communing now seems old fashioned (although everyone in my parish has always done it that way). Still, it is one of the variables that I personally feel the strongest about. If there's leavened bread, well OK. If some intinct (and only the formerly RC do around here), then OK. However, I just feel creepy and disrespectful about taking the host from the hand and sticking it into the mouth with one's fingers like you're taking an aspirin. I guess my reaction is similar to what other people have said about chewing.

And, look, as everyone knows, it's not because I believe in the Real Objective Presence, either. Additionally, it seems so unnecessary, since raising the palms is more secure and actually easier.

Well, that's just me, but I'd add that I prefer an unleavened wafer/host because (in addition to the difficulty of swallowing leavened bread chunks) that is most likely the kind of bread used at the Last Supper.

[AveMaria]

Albion, I do the same - I was taught it was a no-no to pick up the Host, after it had been placed in my palm, and to carefully raise my cupped palms to my mouth.

Wow, guess I am old fashioned in some ways!