Letters to a Bishop

In February 2010, I attended weekday Mass at a local parish church. While attending Mass, I experienced a problem with the parish priest and communicated with the bishop regarding the problem. However, in my letter, I addressed only part of the problem and the Bishop, in reply, addressed only part of the problem, which involved the practice of kneeling to receive Holy Communion. I noted in my communication that it would be helpful to have kneelers at the altar steps so that communicants could receive the Holy Eucharist while kneeling as Pope Benedict XVI does.

The Bishop wrote: “Kneeling to receive Holy Communion is an option (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 160-161; Redemptionis Sacramentum, 91) but the rule in the United States is that the assembly comes forward in a processional line to receive the Eucharist and that each individual makes a gesture of reverence, i.e., a bow or genuflection before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, distributes the Eucharist with a kneeler before him so that each individual may kneel to receive Holy Communion. Recall that when the Holy Father distributes Holy Communion, the whole world is literally watching and so he emphasizes the great reverence and dignity that everyone should have in his or her heart when they approach to receive the Lord in Holy Communion in this way.”

I responded to the Bishop: Thank you for your letter. Please understand that I attend Mass to love, reverence, worship and adore Our Lord, Jesus Christ. One morning at Mass at a local parish church, while kneeling to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion, I suddenly fell to the floor. I don’t know why this happened, but it did. The parish priest, after placing a piece of the Host he had consecrated during Mass in my mouth, grabbed me by my upper arm, lifted me up and told me to “stand when receiving.” I repeat – I kneel in reverence to Our Lord and His Holy Presence in the Holy Eucharist, in His House and in His Church. Thankfully, the Church which Our Lord established is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. We are all creatures of God, Who made each one of us and in Whose world we live. He does not live in our world. He has given us His rules of the Ten Commandments to live by, which His Son, Our Lord, affirmed while He was here on the earth.