What is desperately needed today is not another
bishops’ letter,
not “verba” but “facta”—deeds and not words.

Lex orandi, lex credendi

By Anthony J. Manuppella

In the year 422 A.D. Pope St. Celestine enunciated an axiom in sacred theology. “Legem credendi statuit lex orandi.” From the Latin, translated literally it means “the rule of prayer determines the rule of faith.” In other words, “the way we pray, shows what we believe.”

It is because this axiom is so true that Holy Mother the Church takes great care in making sure the liturgy, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is carried out with the greatest care. Consequently, the priest is suppose to follow certain rubrics during the Mass, such as genuflecting at certain times, folding his hands, or hands outstretched, enunciating clearly the words of the Mass, especially the Holy Words of the consecration, etc. Why? The reason is to show that the Mass is not like going to McDonalds for a Big Mac, to show, to point out that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is something very special. The Mass transcends time and space because we are being made present to the Redeeming and Salvific act of Christ’s Redemption—the Sacrifice of Calvary. The Mass is the sacred Eucharistic Sacrifice. The Mass is the Sacrificial Banquet!

Unfortunately, over the past 30 years we have seen an excessive emphasis on the meal or banquet aspect of the Mass to the detriment of the sacrificial aspect. And so how many of us have witnessed liturgical aberrations in Masses we’ve attended where the priest might dress up as a clown so “the children can better relate to him and the Holy Meal” or the Halloween Masses where the priest is dressed up in a Halloween costume, or the Masses where Father is acting more like Jay Leno on the Tonight Show rather than acting in “persona Christi” at the altar? I could go on and on.

If people come to Mass and see their priest dressed as a clown, in a Halloween costume or telling constant jokes during the Mass, what are they to think about the Mass? There is consequently a lessening of the understanding of what the Mass is and so the faith of the people is weakened. Remember the axiom—lex orandi, lex credendi—how we pray, shows what we believe?

But there is an even more insidious effect on the faith of the people in the Eucharist stemming from the changes enacted by the American Bishops’ conference which tolerated illicit liturgical abuses such as communion-in-the-hand, female altar servers, and then proceeded to legislate them into law!

Recently the American Bishops issued a pastoral letter defining Catholic teaching concerning the Real and True Presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, responding to ignorance and or unbelief in the Real Presence.

Over the past thirty years or so we have witnessed going from gold chalices to hold the Precious Blood of Christ to glasses and pottery cups; from the gold ciborium that holds the consecrated Hosts to bread baskets and dishes; from kneeling to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion—a gesture no one could mistake for anything but an act of faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, to standing to receive Holy Communion; from being fed the Holy Eucharist on one’s tongue —a definite and definitive action showing plainly that this is no ordinary food but the Bread of Angels, to receiving Holy Communion in one’s hands you would take food off a table or a snack of potato chips; from receiving Holy Communion from the hands of the priest ordained to feed and nourish his family, to being handed the Eucharist from “Joe the butcher” from down the street and from Sue my neighbor with whom I was just gossiping over the telephone yesterday; from the Blessed Sacrament being reserved on the altar in the center of our churches to the tabernacle being placed on a pedestal as if it were just another religious statue.

Why are the bishops surprised and shocked that so many American Catholics do not know and believe the teaching of Christ regarding the Most Blessed Sacrament? Why do the American bishops act so puzzled and alarmed that recent polls show over 50% of American Catholics are ignorant of or do not believe the Church’s teaching that the Eucharist is the very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and not just a symbol of Jesus? When it is they who have presided over, authorized and promoted so many of these changes pertaining to the manner of reception of Holy Communion and the reservation of the Eucharist in our Catholic Churches.

What is so desperately needed today is not a pastoral letter, not a “verba” but “facta.” The old Latin axiom rings so true—”facta non verba.” “Deeds not words.”

Our people in the pews need to see the immediate restoration of all those sacred gestures and actions which say, “Yes, we believe the Holy Eucharist we receive is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” What we need today is to make the ORANDI correspond with the CREDENDI! We need to make what and how we pray around the Holy Eucharist correspond to what we believe about the Eucharist.

The American bishops need to reassemble the apparatus that for years has safeguarded the mysterious and clear truth of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The American bishops don’t need so much to publish a pastoral letter but they need to reaffirm by DEEDS the doctrine of the Real Presence, by reinstating all the gestures and actions which say by deeds, This is the Real and True Body and Blood of Christ I am receiving in Holy Communion.

• ”See, I kneel to receive my God!”
• ”See, I receive my Lord ON MY TONGUE for he is no ordinary food but God himself.”
• ”See, I look as I enter my parish church and I can find my Lord on the altar in the center in the tabernacle—he is the focus of my life. He is really Christ my Savior and Lord in the tabernacle.”

We’ve all heard the old expression, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” There is really no substitute for the Eucharistic piety expressed by our bodies, infused into our souls, known with the power of our minds, when one’s whole being bows in adoration to the Most Blessed Sacrament.

So, we ask the question—what can be done to repair so much damage caused by the dismantling of traditional Eucharistic piety? The American bishops need to reevaluate all that they have legislated in the past 30 years.

1. Instead of proposing that standing should be the recognized posture for receiving Holy Communion in the United States, the American bishops should be saying we need to reaffirm the Catholic teaching of the Real Presence —FACTA—Kneeling for Holy Communion will now be the norm.

2. FACTA—abolishing the option of receiving Communion in the hand which has become in practicality the only option since we have a generation or two of children who were never even told there was any other option of receiving Holy Communion but in the hand.

3. FACTA—The ordained Priest or deacons are the only ministers of Holy Communion unless in case of emergency.
All of the changes can be accomplished smoothly by a year long catechesis from the pulpit, Catholic newspapers and publications on the reasons necessitating these changes coupled with preaching from the pulpit what the true doctrine of the Church regarding the Eucharist is, thereby combining the FACTA with the Verba.

You see the Pastoral Letter of the American bishops is the Verba, we eagerly await the FACTA.

You see, the Pastoral Letter of the American bishops is the Credendi, we eagerly await the ORANDI.

Bottom Line: We probably wouldn’t need a Pastoral Letter restating Catholic doctrine on the Real Presence if we were still kneeling for Holy Communion, receiving the Eucharist humbly on our tongues from the hands of the priest!

Reverend Anthony J. Manuppella is currently pastor of St. Peter’s Church, Merchantville, New Jersey. Ordained in 1976 from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, this is his fourth article in HPR.