Dear Parishioners,

Before we continue to look at the proper reception of communion, I want to sincerely thank everyone for
their great generosity. Fr. Joseph Gosselin from Unbound (our visiting priest from last weekend) was very, very pleased with the response of our parish towards his cause. All but seven of his people were sponsored. We are just administrators of all that God gives us; generosity is a virtue, and it is truly an awesome feeling when we know that we are doing our best to help others. God Bless you all.

We have seen how communion in the hand was born in disobedience and in defiance of the authority Jesus had placed in the hierarchy of his Church, even after Blessed Paul VI clearly taught that this was not a good practice and forbad the rest of the Church from doing it. The Church’s enemies (especially those from within) continued to promote it. What was their motive? Some priests and bishops of that time (the late 70s and early 80s) honestly believed that the future Church was to be without priests, a hierarchy, and the sacraments, and that in their disobedience they were just preparing earlier for an inevitable future reality. These horribly false and faithless ideas came from reading the writings of theologians who have since been silenced by the Church and their writings have been discredited, e.gr. Hans Kung, Edward Schillibecx, Richard McBrien, and Charles Curran. All of these “theologians” taught and proclaimed that the Church was transforming to be one without rites or sacraments. Therefore, there would be no need for a clergy or Bishops. Each community would design their own rituals and worship according to their whims. Even though we never saw this completely implemented, we have seen parts of it. Every new Catholic Church that is built is radically different from any other and it is supposed to be, “An expression of the local community.” Thus the desire of distinction and to be the latest edition of the going fad heretically outweighs the need for liturgical coherence in the architecture of the worship space. We have also witnessed how every priest says Mass differently, not based on voice or uncontrollable habits or ticks, but intentionally adding superfluous things, removing things that are required, adding comments and personal greetings throughout, etc. Our Blessed Lord warned us clearly in MT 7/15-20 not to follow false prophets and that you would know the tree by its fruits. We have seen 50 years of steep decline in the Church, too much bad fruit already.

We know that the Church was established by Jesus Christ upon St. Peter, the first Pope, and the Apostles, and at the last supper he gave them a rite that as they repeated it, would give them his very body and blood and this would be their food for the journey to heaven and ever-lasting life. This is a gift from God. We have no right to tamper with it or personalize it. The Church goes to great effort to ensure that our Missals and other liturgical books are very precisely made in order that all of the graces that God wants for us can flow from their use in the celebration of the sacraments. God has demonstrated in His Providence that He will bless us only when there is a disciplined, reverent, and accurate rendering of the rites He has established in His Church. Thus, St. John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict, and now Pope Francis call us to that precision and reverence. Now as we slowly recover our devotion and reverence, we see things beginning to improve in the Church.

(to be continued)