Communion Services -Their Origin and Future
In response to a question posed in the Zenit Daily Dispatch some time ago, Father Edward McNamara wrote that “a Catholic who has even an inkling of the full meaning of the Mass would never voluntarily settle for a Communion service.” F ar too many Catholics have no clear understanding of what is happening and who is present at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Until this lack of clarity is resolved, any discussion about Communion services will have very limited value. Out of necessity then we must begin with these questions: What is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? What happens at the Mass? Who is really present there? What benefits do we receive by participating at the Mass? In his powerful book, The Way to God , the late Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S. tells us that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, “is not a mere commemoration of the Sacrifice of the cross. No, it is the same, the actuality, the renewal, the continuation, the representati...