Tuesday, August 16, 2022

On Canonical Digits and Eucharistic Particles

 From The Liturgy Guy:

“Why does the priest keep his index fingers and thumbs together after consecration?” It’s no doubt a question that some Catholics are asking themselves as an increasing number of priests return to this traditional liturgical practice.

The answer is simple. They do it out of love for Our Lord. They do it to prevent the loss of Eucharistic particles through carelessness. And while the rubrics for the new Mass do not require it, more priests are embracing the historical practice which is required in the traditional Mass.

Answering this very question a few years back, Fr. John Zuhlsdorf (blogger Fr. Z) explained that:
…what the priest is doing, by keeping his index and thumbs together, is consistent with what priests have been required by the rubrics to do during Mass after the consecration. Priests are still, in the Extraordinary Form, required to keep index and thumbs pressed together at the “pads”, as it were, lest any recognizable particle that might have adhered to the fingers were to fall some place outside the corporal (the square linen cloth spread out on the altar on which the chalice and Hosts rest). This is also why, after the consecration, the priest was to keep his hand as much as possible over the corporal.

(Read more.)

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