I've never met Father Joe Grayland of Our Lady of Lourdes Palmerston North, but it's not for want of trying: I hope to go down on my knees before him to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, but alas! the times I've been present at OLOL for a weekday Mass, Fr Grayland wasn't.
Why should I wish to receive Communion on the tongue from Fr Grayland? Because I'm told he doesn't allow it. Fr Grayland is not the only priest in 'Palmy' who has refused Communion on the tongue, and that's manifest disobedience to the universal law of the Latin rite. And disobedience also to:
- the Council of Saragossa (AD 380, which excommunicated anyone who dared to continue receiving Holy Comunion by hand)
- the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (680-681)
- the Synod of Rouen (650 - "do not put the Eucharist in the hands of any layman or laywoman but only in their mouths")
- the Council of Trent (1545 - 1565, "only the priest gives Holy Communion"with his consecrated hands)
- Pope John Paul II ("to touch the sacred species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained").
Why did JP II not stop the practice of Communion in the hand, distributed now in NZ and in Orstrylia by non-ordained hordes of 'Eucharistic Ministers'? Probably because the forces aligned against him were too great.
What's more, the Angelic Doctor St Thomas Aquinas wrote that "out of reverence towards this Sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest's hands, for touching this Sacrament … it is not lawful for anyone else to touch it except from necessity, for instance, if it were to fall upon the ground."
To bring us into the 21st century, the GIRM states that: "The consecrated host may be received either on the tongue or in the hand, at the discretion of each communicant." NB: at the discretion of each communicant - not the priest's and not the bishop's.
I was told recently of a woman in the PN Diocese presenting for Communion on the tongue who was treated with outrageous disrespect, both to herself and to the Host. If she'd been one of the #Me Too persuasion she could easily have gone straight to the police station and laid a charge of harassment. But Father - not Father Grayland - escaped that fate. She was deeply upset but being the sort of woman who goes down on her knees before the Blessed Sacrament, she didn't complain.
Unfortunately, an opportunity to meet Fr Joe Grayland - who some (surely not I!) might say is the new whiz kid in the Diocese, was denied me by reason of my sex: one week ago he and Fr Robin Kurian of St Mary's, PN, conducted a much-anticipated Retreat for Men. But someone who knew I'd just love to be there took notes.
- The retreatants were repeatedly assured that they were "priests, prophets and kings". In the Church, "everyone is a priest but only a few are ordained". (Which is authentic, scriptural teaching; but its repeated emphasis suggests it wasn't so much a retreat for these men as an advance - into leading Liturgies of the Word for example, or giving 'Reflections'. I mean, we don't want to hand everything over to the women.)
- "Standing is the posture of the redeemed" - an echo of Bishop Peter Cullinane's 30-year old instruction for the Eucharistic Prayer, which Father Grayland takes to mean that because some of the bewildered faithful have been standing for 30 years it is now local custom, so under canon law accepted practice. I guess that if Palmerston North Diocese is happy to be considered aberrational that's fine, but Father G omitted to mention +Peter's perhaps forced rethink, which toed the GIRM line, assuring the befuddled that we could either stand or kneel.
- Sin might not be sin; it all depends on the circs.
- The term "priest" was not used in the first 200 years of the Church.
- In the early Church there were many female deacons (an echo of the late Mark Richards and a plug surely, for women priests. What relevance does this have to a 'Retreat' for men?
- One group, says Fr Grayland, baptized naked so the sexes were segregated and women deacons baptized the women - which just goes to show, doesn't it, that there must have been women deacons? (In fact, and significantly, it has been established that deaconesses were not equivalent to deacons.)
- But the highlight of the day came when the retreatants were paired off and one baptized the other - which goes to show, again, that all the retreatants were priests. Imagine it. Grown men performing faux baptisms. 'Faux' because baptism cannot be repeated.
I guess they were thankful they didn't have to do it naked.
I've had a #Me Too moment also … violence with the Host. I guess it just shows that some priests don't believe in the Real Presence. You are doing an amazing job Julia exposing all this evil here in our Church. Thank you. Will keep you in my prayers.
I say: I'm very grateful, Philippa. I didn't want to detail the incident but yours sounds very similar. A post on belief - or non-belief - in the Real Presence is coming soon, I think.
Philippa adds:
Cardinal (Robert) Sarah wrote a good piece recently … he thinks our priests are too busy administrating and not being priests. I guess if a priest can sexually abuse a child they they are able to abuse the Eucharist.
I say:
Let's hear it for Cardinal Sarah!!!
Anonymous says:
Excellent post re "Joe". It is more and more evident that the clerics leading the Diocese, also Wellington, may be ordained priests, but functionally they are not that. They are using political arguments to persuade the poor sap NO (Novus Ordo, New Mass) Catholics to join their revolution.
I say:
You remind me that my informant reported that Fr Grayland took a political swipe at Donald Trump. I might have known, but what I don't know is what politics in general and Donald Trump in particular have to do with the come-on, which advertised the Retreat as "Baptismal Spirituality and Calling, Adult Faith and Discernment of Spirits".
The 'Spirit' I discern here is, as Anonymous comments, a spirit of revolution. How do clergy like Fr Grayland reconcile that with, for instance, the Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church of the Second Vatican Council, which states:
" 'Preach the gospel to every creature.' … The duty has weighed upon the Church to spread the faith and the saving work of Christ"
Not to foment political discord or spread revolution, as proposed by Cardinal Cupich and his cronies which seem to include clergy of the Palmerston North, but to spread the faith and the saving work of Christ.
Jesus was not a revolutionary. In a country ruled by a foreign power, Jesus never talked politics..
Bob Gill says:
With a visiting priest to St Joseph's lately getting the congregation, except me, to hold hands during the Our Father on two occasions (it's happening worldwide, I know, but new in Dannevirke - to emphasise the oneness that should exist in any congregation, he explained to me later,
I wish I had suggested to him then that a better emphasis of oneness would have been for him to celebrate mad 'Ad Orientem', as the good Cardinal Sarah also has been encouraging. If that were to happen in St Joseph's, it would be some talking point in the Diocese, I'm thinking!
Philippa O'Neill says:
Groan ,,, it is not about the people, people, it's about the Sacrifice. Fr Mike Schmitz presented a great talk at Seek 2019 recently on the Mass. Many priests should watch it and learn.
I say:
You'd think that visiting priest at St Joseph's Dannevirke is trying to drive people away. The whole congregation (except Bob Gill) holding hands.
How effeminate, how puerile. What teenage boy would enjoy that, unless his girlfriend were beside him - but the other side there'd quite likely be his best mate. At best it would mean embarrassment and the girlfriend giggling, at worst a walk-out.
Anonymous says:
It seems that what the Bishop and priests are doing with regard to the Stand/Kneel issue is trying to create a precedent, so it time they can make standing mandatory (in the Eucharistic Prayer). Which shows they never had any intention of taking notice of complaints on the matter.
We must take care not to become too weighed down with rituals else we become like the pharasees in Christ's time. Love the Lord and love one another are the two gretest commands. How we express these may vary and we need to accept and appreciate the diversity more.
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