Two small but significant changes regarding Communion receptionKANDRA: A website calls attention to this item in a USCCB newsletter on the new Roman Missal, from January:
What does the Missal say about the posture of the faithful when receiving Holy Communion? What about Communion in the hand?
Both of these questions are covered in no. 160 of the GIRM. It states clearly there that the “norm” established for �the United States for reception of Holy Communion is standing. In the 2003 GIRM, it stated that no one should be refused Communion if they kneel, but that afterward they should be properly catechized. In the current edition, the exhortation to catechesis is removed and the exception to the norm of standing is left to the discretion of the faithful: “unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling.”
