Hi, Heather —

Thanks for the question.

There are two questions that should be addressed:

• What is the proper way to receive the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church?
• What is the best way to receive the Eucharist, faith-wise, in the Roman Catholic Church?

Historically, the Church has always and will always allow [three to four] ways for the faithful to receive the Blessed Sacrament. Because the Church allows each way, they are all "proper".

One may:

1. receiving standing, with one's hand stretched out flat, one hand on top of the other,
   in the form of a throne. This requires needless self-communication and consumption
   of the Blessed Sacrament before leaving the priest and going back to the pew.
   
   A sign of reverence should be made before receiving Our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist, e.g. a bow or making the sign of the Cross.
   
   
2. receiving standing with one's tongue stuck out so the priest can place the
   Blessed Sacrament on the tongue of the recipient.
   
   A sign of reverence should be made before receiving Our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist, e.g. a bow or making the sign of the Cross.
   
   
3. receiving kneeling with one's tongue stuck out so the priest can place the
   Blessed Sacrament on the tongue of the recipient.
   
   No sign of reverence is required as kneeling is, itself, an act of adoration.
   
   
4. Note: Most churches where kneelers are used at the altar, the faithful kneel and receive the Blessed Sacrament on the tongue. Though I don't see it much in the Boston area, one could receive kneeling on an altar kneeler with one's hand stretched out flat, one hand on top of the other, in the form of a throne.
   
   In this situation, no sign of reverence is required as kneeling is, itself, an act of adoration.

Side note: In all the above cases, the recipient should say, Amen, after receiving the
Blessed Sacrament from the priest. When we say Amen, we are saying, I believe.

Important Note: No bishop nor priest can deny any of the faithful from receiving the
Blessed Sacrament in any posture the recipient wishes. e.g. standing or kneeling.

Historically, the Early Church received the first way: standing, with one's hand stretched out flat, one hand on top of the other, in the form of a throne.

As the Church developed and got more organized, we saw practices that emphasized more reverence to the Blessed Sacrament.

If the liturgical renewal in your parish is authentic, encourage your pastor to start having Eucharistic Adoration on a regular basis, like Cardinal O'Malley has done!

Thanks to his efforts downtown Boston now has Perpetual Adoration.

I would expect it to encourage practices that are more reverent like kneeling to receive
Our Blessed Lord.

Heck, order some kneelers for the parish.  There is no rule that states:

• Vatican II did away with kneelers or
• kneelers can only be used for the Tridentine or Extraordinary form of the Mass.

My view on this non-doctrinal practice:

We are humans and the five senses greatly affect the way we think and how we do things in life.

This is important because the Blessed Sacrament requires sense-oriented faithful to totally ignore their senses and to receive, what appears to the senses, to be bread, but is really Our Lord Himself, in faith.

For this reason, my personal advice and view would be to:

1. if possible, age- or health-wise, receive kneeling with one's tongue stuck out, or
2. receive standing with one's tongue stuck out

Despite what DRE's are saying, there is no real good reason to self-communicate by receiving in the hand. This practice opens up the possibility of sacrilegious actions by the recipient.

Whenever I explain the faith to my niece and nephews, I always try to throw in a sense of humor.

I say:

Look guys, don't you like the idea of sticking your tongue out at a priest once a week : ) If they don't like the priest, they may a good reason to go this route, but in the process receive more reverently.

Final note: Kudos to my colleague John and his answer below. His very last statement hit the nail on the nose.

Hope this helps,

Mike

Hi, Heather —

The first Eucharist was received reclining on the floor at the table by the Twelve Apostles, as it was part of the Passover meal.

While it is true that kneeling is understood to be an act of reverence in the Western Church,
this is not now and has never been the case in Eastern Church. In the East, the tradition has always been to stand at attention as an act of reverence.

These are cultural matters and not matters of faith as Mike has said.

The most important part of reverence for the Eucharist is realizing who you are receiving.

Reverence for the Eucharist started declining when we started to treat the Eucharist merely as Something Sacred. As opposed to Some One, namely Jesus Christ.

John

Hi, Heather —

Thanks for the kind comment.

You said:

• Do you all stand after receiving Our Lord and remain standing until all the faithful have received?

No, I can only speak for the Boston area as I assume other parishes follow an identical pattern
that we do:

A few years ago we had a pastor who brought some great ideas from the religious (monastic) life down to the parish level.

One idea that I really liked was at the end of daily Mass, he invited the faithful to stay with him for a period of 10 minutes of Holy Silence.

It wasn't required and he totally understood if people had to leave to get to work. Nevertheless, many stayed for that 10 minute period of Holy Silence.

Sadly, our current self-centered pastor, did not like the idea so, despite Pope Benedict encouraging this, he stopped it.

I hope this answers your question.

Mike