COMMUNION IN THE HAND AND SELF-INTINCTION: Two Wounds of Modernist Irreverence

...what is passed from hand to hand in the Modernist ecumenical service falsely called the New order of Mass is not the Body of Christ, but a symbolic bread of men, a shadow without substance.

Preamble

As an applicant to the Congregation of the nominal Servants of Charity in January of 2008, I was  scandalized by a few  things which struck me as alien to the Faith. Chief among them were communion in the hand and self-intinction.

At first, I obeyed with a trembling heart, my soul shrinking at the thought of handling what was said to be “the Body of Christ.” Years passed, and though the shock dulled by familiarity, my conscience never fully consented. There remained a quiet ache — a sense that something sacred had been profaned.

When at last Divine Providence led me to the Traditional Catholic Faith — the Mass, the Sacraments, the catechisms untainted by Modernism — light broke upon my confusion. I discovered that my unease had not been vain scrupulosity, but faith itself resisting profanation. Both communion in the hand and self-intinction are fruits of that Modernist spirit which dares to reduce the supernatural to the natural, the sacred to the social.

The soul, once accustomed to reverence, cannot bear to see the Majesty of God treated as common bread, nor His Chalice as a casual cup. And so, even now, when certain occasions recall those years of error, I am moved to gratitude that grace rescued me from the shadow of sacrilege — to the light of the true Altar of God.

From the Altar of God to the Table of Man

In the days of Faith Catholics knelt before the altar of the living God -this uncompromising Catholics do still.

The priest, clothed in the vesture of sacrifice, raises the white Host with trembling hands and whispered,

 “Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam.”

He placed the Lord upon the tongue of the kneeling soul — Heaven descending into a heart made small.

But since the false reforms of the 1960s, this divine act has been replaced by a man-made show.

In the Novus Ordo ecumenical service — the counterfeit liturgy of a counterfeit church — people stretch out their hands, take what is presented as the Body of Christ, and even dip it into a cup as though serving themselves at an earthly meal.

Yet the true Church teaches:

Without a valid priesthood and the true Sacrifice of the Mass, there can be no true Eucharist.

Make no mistake about this: with the absence of valid Orders as shown here and here, amongst others,  what is passed from hand to hand in the Modernist ecumenical service falsely called the New order of Mass is not the Body of Christ, but a symbolic bread of men, a shadow without substance.

 Communion in the Hand — A Dead Custom Revived

Modernists claim that giving the host into the hand “restores the practice of the early Church.”

Yes — in times of persecution, some of the first Christians received the Sacred Host in their hands, but only with trembling reverence and holy fear.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem said:

 “Make of your left hand a throne for your right, which is to receive the King.”

He immediately added: “Take care that not a crumb be lost!”

The Holy Ghost led the Church to a fuller reverence.

By the 7th century, the Council of Rouen (A.D. 650) declared:

 “Let not the Eucharist be placed in the hands of any layman or woman, but only in the mouth.”

From then until the modern apostasy, Communion on the tongue was the universal mark of Catholic worship. 

Yes, the hand-reception died a holy death, buried by reverence, replaced by the lowly posture of the tongue—the child receiving from the hand of his father-priest.

 The Modernist Trick: False “Restoration”

Centuries later, when faith had grown cold, the Modernists unearthed this dead practice and dressed it up as “primitive purity” and “ancient simplicity”. They despised the Church’s living development and the warnings of the true Popes.

But as Pope Pius XII warned in Mediator Dei (1947):

“One would be straying from the right path who wished to restore ancient rites and ceremonies on the plea that they be more suited to modern times.”

He called this deception false antiquarianism.

The innovators did not restore the faith of the martyrs — they restored irreverence.

They taught Catholics to stand where they once knelt, to grasp what they once adored, and to see equality where they once saw mystery.

 Self-Intinction — The Second Wound

From Communion in the hand soon came another abuse: self-intinction — when the communicant takes the host and dips it into the chalice.

The General Instruction of the Modernist Roman Missal (§245) of the so-called Novus Ordo missae decrees that what is called “the Blood of the Lord” may be received “by drinking from the chalice directly, or by intinction.”

This regulation is a Modernist invention, foreign to Catholic tradition. In the true Roman Rite, the laity never handled nor administered the Chalice, nor did they mingle the Sacred Species by their own action. The Council of Trent solemnly declared that Christ is received whole and entire under either species, and so the Church, in her wisdom, restricted the Chalice to the priest alone. This was no deprivation, but a safeguard of faith and reverence.

What the innovators call a “restoration” is in fact a rupture — a return, not to apostolic simplicity, but to irreverence cloaked as reform. The so-called intinction of the Novus Ordo service, whether done by lay hand or by communion in the hand, profanes what it pretends to honor. It confuses the sacred act of administration by the consecrated priest with a casual self-service unworthy of the Divine Victim.

Catholic standards know nothing of such liberties. The hands that touch the Sacred Host must be anointed, the lips that receive must be purified by faith, and the soul must kneel before the King of Kings, not approach Him as a meal companion.

Thus, this “intinction” of the Modernists stands condemned by the very spirit and discipline of the Church: a counterfeit ceremony for a counterfeit altar.

Yes. In the true Church, such an act was forbidden and unheard of.

Even in the Eastern rites where both species were received, only the priest administered them.

But in the Novus Ordo, the communicant becomes his own minister, reaching into the chalice as though God were a common drink to be tasted.

It is a gesture that denies the priesthood, mocks the Sacrifice, and turns the altar into a table of man.

St. Thomas Aquinas taught:

“Out of reverence for this Sacrament, nothing touches It but what is consecrated; hence the priest alone may touch It.” (Summa Theologiae, III, q. 82, a. 13)

The Council of Trent taught:

“It is most becoming that the administration of this Sacrament be performed by the priest alone.”

Such was the doctrine and practice of every true Pope until the second Modernist Papal Impostor, Montini, (“Paul VI”), who dismantled the sanctuary, profaned the altar, and reduced the King of Kings to a common meal.

It must be simply stated that:

• To touch, to take, to dip — these are acts of self-service.
• To kneel and receive — that is the act of faith and love.

Two Tables — Two Spirits

Picture it.

• In a humble chapel where the Traditional Latin Mass is offered, a small group kneels at the altar rail. The priest, with eyes downcast and heart aflame, places the Body of the Lord upon each tongue. Bells ring softly. Angels adore. Heaven is there.

• In a modern hall of the modernist Novus Ordo, the same outward gestures hide another spirit. Bread, once consecrated by no true priest, is passed from hand to hand. Some dip it into a cup; others walk away chewing. No bells, no silence, no faith.

Both call it “Communion.”

But only one is the Holy Eucharist.

The Only Safe Refuge: The True Mass

The true Faith is not preserved by vain talk of “active participation” or “ancient practice.”

It is preserved by adoration, obedience, and humility.

The soul that kneels and opens the tongue confesses more than words can say:

“Lord, I am Thy servant; feed me with Thyself.”

Therefore it is not enough to remain within the Modernist, ecumenical, synodal, pan-religious impostor-church that has usurped Catholic buildings and desecrated Catholic altars, while rejecting only communion in the hand or self-intinction. These are but symptoms of a deeper malady — the poisoning of the sanctuary by a false religion that mimics the Church while denying her spirit.

One must go further: he must renounce the counterfeit altogether, and seek the True Mass of the Catholic Church — the Mass of All Time, offered by valid priests who have not bowed to the new idols of humanism and false unity. Only there does the Sacrifice of Calvary live in unbroken continuity; only there does the Lamb of God rest upon an altar, not a table; only there may the faithful receive the True Eucharist, kneeling, adoring, and trembling before the Majesty of God.

To remain in the impostor church while deploring her abuses is to stay aboard a sinking ship while lamenting the leaks. Fidelity demands not half-measures, but a full return to the altar where Christ is truly offered, where His ministers are truly ordained, and where His Presence is adored, not handled.

 “Depart ye out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins.” — Apocalypse 18:4

The Lesson of the Gesture

The way we receive God reveals what we believe about Him.

• The hand that grasps proclaims pride — it treats the Creator as a gift among many.
• The tongue that receives proclaims faith — it confesses that here is the Lord of Heaven veiled in Bread.
• The man who serves himself says, “I am equal.”
• The soul who kneels says, “My Lord and my God.”

Every posture, every gesture, every glance at the altar is a profession of faith or a betrayal of it. The proud stand where angels veil their faces; the faithful bow where saints have wept for joy.

We are not to return to the dust of dead customs nor to the table of false altars, where the Presence is denied by familiarity and truth is buried under novelty.

Let us return to Calvary — to the Sacrifice, not the supper; to the Altar, not the stage; to the True Presence, not the imitation.

Let us draw near with trembling love, receive upon the tongue as children fed by their Father, and adore upon our knees Him Who once hung upon the Cross and now reigns upon the Altar.

 “For the posture of the body should be in harmony with the humility of the soul.” — St. Augustine 

Summing Up

Communion in the hand and self-intinction are not progress; they are the outward signs of a deeper apostasy - the fact that what is passed out as the Body of Christ in the Modernist ecumenical service is not in fact the Body of Christ, is negligible.

Yes. What the Modernists take to be the Body of Christ is bread without grace, ritual without Sacrifice, symbol without the Savior.

Let us, with the saints of old, guard the true altar, kneel before the true Host, and adore the living God Who hides Himself beneath the form of bread — not to be taken, but to be received.

"Adoro Te devote, latens Deitas…” (I adore Thee devoutly, hidden Deity).