In the sacramental mystery it is the body and the blood that, as the Creed puts it, was born out of the Holy Spirit and Mary the virgin, the most praiseworthy bearer of the Eternal Word. It is the body and blood that appeared to men in Palestine when Augustus and Tiberius ruled in Rome; the blood that first began to flow at His name-giving on the 8th day of His life; the body that was nailed to the cross and the blood that was the very life of the obedient Servant of Yahweh; the body which God raised from the dead and over which death no longer has dominion, and the blood that pleads for pardon and reconciliation of a world of sinners. -- A. C. Piepkorn,
The Church, p. 190, 191
3 comments:
Fr. Weedon:
Apart from my pronounced distaste for the manner in which the host and the chalice are held in this picture, I must say this is a beautiful quotation from Piepkorn. It succinctly expresses in a most catholic and evangelical way both what the Sacrament of the Altar is, and what it gives or profits. Very nice.
Why is there distaste... forgive me, I am a novice in this regard
If the man, person, whatever, in the picture were to hold the host and the chalice in the traditional manner, it would better protect against particles of the Sacred Species ending up where they shouldn't, ie., anywhere but the sacred vessels, the celebrant's fingers (which will be washed again after Communion), and the cummunicant's mouth (which I would argue is another sacred vessel).
Don't get me wrong, Anonymous, no doubt the one pictured is a good pastor, and what is of even less doubt, the Sacrament is what it is, no matter how it is handled. Yet I suppose that is why how it is handled is important to me.
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