Altar Rail Returning to Use

Michie

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Architects, pastors and parishioners find it enhances reverence in church.


In Tiverton, R.I., when some parishioners suggested returning altar rails to the sanctuary of Holy Ghost Catholic Church, Father Jay Finelli gladly accepted, little knowing shortly thereafter the Pope’s 2007 motu proprio letter Summorum Pontificum would follow and he would be interested in learning how to celebrate the extraordinary form of the Mass.

In Norwalk, Conn., when a groundswell of parishioner support encouraged pastor Father Greg Markey to restore St. Mary Church, the second-oldest parish in the diocese, to its original 19th-century neo-gothic magnificence, he made sure altar rails were again part of the sanctuary.

Altar rails are present in several new churches architect Duncan Stroik has designed. Among them, the Thomas Aquinas College Chapel in Santa Paula, Calif., the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wis., and three others on the drawing boards.

Altar (Communion) rails are returning for all the right reasons.
Said Father Markey: “First, the Holy Father is requiring holy Communion from him be received on the knees. Second, it’s part of our tradition as Catholics for centuries to receive holy Communion on the knees. Third, it’s a beautiful form of devotion to our blessed Lord.”

James Hitchcock, professor and author of Recovery of the Sacred (Ignatius Press, 1995), thinks the rail resurgence is a good idea. The main reason is reverence, he said. “Kneeling’s purpose is to facilitate adoration,” he explained.

When Stroik proposed altar rails for the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
“Cardinal [Raymond] Burke liked the idea and thought that was something that would give added reverence to the Eucharist and sanctuary.”
In Eastern Orthodox churches, there is an iconostasis — a wall of icons and religious paintings that separate the nave from the sanctuary — rather than altar rail separating the sanctuary. While the altar rail is usually about two feet high, the iconostasis veils most of the sanctuary.

“The altar rail is nothing compared to that,” he says, “and these are our Eastern brethren. We can benefit and learn something.”

Altar Rail History

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/altar-rails-returning-to-use?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NCRegisterDailyBlog+National+Catholic+Register&utm_content=Google+Reader#When:2011-07-3#ixzz1R4P7egAr
 

AMDG

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Beautiful article. I only wish the article was present when, months back, we were discussing altar rails. Someone was claiming that the altar rails were meant to separate us from the priest, and I mentioned that I remembered a gate, so it wasn't for that purpose. Well, it seems like my memory wasn't that off because the article mentions a gate too.
 
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freezerman2000

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My church has always had a rail and gate.Some people choose to stand if they are uncomfortable in the kneeling position.
Folks who can not make it to the alter can sit in the front pews and receive communion there after the rest of the congregation has partaken of the hosts.
 
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Virgil the Roman

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Not every Church has kneelers or even pews. In the East, kneeling is a sign of penitence, done only during the Mystery of Confession or Vespers; in the West, kneeling has always been understood as sign of prayer, humility, and reverence; as acceptable sign of humility whenever at Holy Mass or more specifically: when receiving the most Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Not all Christian Churches have kneelers, as some do not even have pews. Keep in mind pews are a modern invention; generally the pale of Protestants during the Protestant Rebellion. Prior thus in Catholic Churches, There chairs lining the wall to seat the elderly and infirm, otherwise folks would sit, stand, prostrate, or kneel on the bare, open floor in whatever position they felt most comfortable or worthy positioning themselves to worship our Blessed Lord during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Kneeling to receive the Blessed Sacrament as a general practise dates from the early to middle Mediaeval era; although the practise itself occurred much earlier. It was also in the Mediaeval-era and late Roman-era 500-900s that communing under both species of the Holy Eucharist gradually became discouraged and proscribed. Until eventually to protect against profanation, reception of the Precious Blood was entirely removed from the laity, leaving only the Sacred Host to be received.
 
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Bryne

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If kneeling is such a sacred position, then why don't other Christian churches have kneelers?

Many if not most older people have difficulty kneeling. And older people are, in general, more frequent churchgoers than younger people.


We have an altar rail at my church and we almost always receive communion on our knees.

Back in my pre-Lutheran days, the churches that I went to often had altar calls after the service for prayer (not just altar calls to get saved). People would pray at the altar on their knees. Also, often during the service, people would turn around and kneel at their seats.

Kneeling is not just a Catholic thing by any means.
 
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JoabAnias

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ebia

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AMDG said:
It always strikes me as somewhat hypocritical for folks to sing that song that has "Every knee shall bend, every tongue confess" when they refuse to humble themselves enough to kneel themselves.

That one annoys even me.
 
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JimR-OCDS

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So if the Church mandates kneeling at an altar rail in order to receive Holy Communion, are you personally being more reverent, or just conforming to the mandate?


People who receive from the Pope kneel and receive on the tongue. Are they more reverent, or just confirming in order to receive from the Pope?

There are just as likely people receiving while standing who's hearts are filled with love and reverence for Jesus, while another person receiving from the Pope is doing so in order to receive from a celebrity.

God cares for what's in the heart, nothing more.

Jim
 
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JoabAnias

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So if the Church mandates kneeling at an altar rail in order to receive Holy Communion, are you personally being more reverent, or just conforming to the mandate?

The Church would never do that.

People who receive from the Pope kneel and receive on the tongue. Are they more reverent, or just confirming in order to receive from the Pope?
Not for those reasons but it depends.

There are just as likely people receiving while standing who's hearts are filled with love and reverence for Jesus, while another person receiving from the Pope is doing so in order to receive from a celebrity.
Don't know about "just as likely" but I am sure thats true.

God cares for what's in the heart, nothing more.

What is in the heart that would move someone to kneel before the Lord?

And what would make one think there is anything wrong with that?

Lets be careful not to make emotional inspiration synonymous with reverence either way.

Faith that fails to inspire reverence is dead. God knows that.
 
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JoabAnias

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You're right, Jim, but what you might be missing is that the exterior posture of the body has an effect on our interior attitude. C.S. Lewis said as much on multiple occasions.

And visa V. My interior disposition moves me to kneel. I have the same disposition either way, but if there is a kneeler there, I use it. ;) As Cardinal Arinze said, those who remove kneelers, hurt the Church.
 
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