Happy New Year, Here's a Bunch of Stats
I don't even have a bishop right now
Happy New Year! Today is St. Gregory of Nyssa’s feast day. I didn’t know much about this St. Gregory until just now- he was the son of two saints (Sts. Basil and Emmilia), and raised by his older brother, also a saint (St. Basil the Great to be precise). Just his poor sister, Macrina, is without formal canonization in that family. Awkward.
St. Gregory was a bishop of Nyssa (thus the title), which was in modern day Turkey. He was bishop during the Arian crisis/scandal/heresy and seems to have made some powerful enemies during that time, as he was falsely accused of embezzlement and jailed. When his name was cleared and he was freed, the people of his diocese rejoiced.
I had no idea today was his feast day, or even who he was when I started this post. But, as in 100% of my life, when I slow down and really pay attention, I see the hand of God in it all.
My diocese has been without a bishop since early September. Every Mass we pray specifically for God to send us a new one, and that he be a man of “deep prayer, a leader of vision, wisdom, and joy, who desires above all do to Your will”. In the silence of my heart, I add something else to that prayer. I ask that the Holy Spirit come powerfully upon my tiny little diocese, that He fan the dying ember of faith into a roaring fire. I pray that a revival is started here, and spreads to all of lukewarm New England, burning people’s hearts with the fire of God’s love.
I’m sure God just loves my penchant for the dramatic.
I’ve been listening to the Rosary in a Year podcast and have been charmed by Fr. Mark Mary’s story about his reversion coming at the end of a year dedicated to the Rosary. It made me curious about what the focus of the year was was when I converted, what graces were pouring out on the whole world, pouring out on a miserable little wretch in Olive Branch, Mississippi.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by the answer. Really, like I said a few paragraphs ago, when I slow down and pay attention, I see God’s handiwork so clearly.
Ken and I started RCIA in September of 2005. The following month marked the end of a special year dedicated to the Eucharist. An entire year of the faithful turning their hearts and minds more deliberately towards our Eucharistic Lord. More Adoration. More mindful reception at Communion. More faith in the True Presence.
Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist was not only one of the main reasons I converted, but it was more or less the only thing that kept me from leaving the Church in 2020 following the McCarrick scandal and the total loss of the Sacraments during lockdowns. Someone summed it up as “being held hostage by the Eucharist” and now, 5 years later, I don’t disagree.
But there is nothing in the whole universe I’d rather be a hostage to.
How obvious now that my conversion would occur at the tail end of a year dedicated to the Eucharist. Obvious and beautiful.
My parish does not offer Eucharist under both species. Truth be told, I get the sense that the majority of bishops in Connecticut are squeamish about the Precious Blood in general, as reception under the chalice was routinely suspended every winter because of flu season, even before Covid. But now, five years out, and the Chalice is still absent.
Two years ago, while visiting my parents in Sevierville Tennessee, I went to the parish we would attend while in town. It had been quite a while since I’d been there, and the priest was new to me. Also new to me- the parish was now distributing Eucharist only through intinction, a practice I’d never experienced, but now firmly believe to be the best, most reverent way to receive.
I didn’t realize how much I had missed receiving under both species. I understand that you don’t get, like, “bonus Jesus” from the Chalice. Even the smallest particle of a Host contains all of His body, blood, soul, and divinity. But there is a reason God instituted what He did- and part of that reason, I think, is that humans get a fuller grasp on the enormity of Christ’s Passion through both the gnawing of the Body and the drinking of the Blood, and both species are needed to do that. That’s been settled since the Council of Trent in 1551.
I started wondering what other dioceses were doing. Diocese of Knoxville was offering intinction. Diocese of Norwich was only distributing under the Host (and telling priests to dip their fingers in a bowl of disinfectant every time someone received on the tongue). So I took to Instagram and asked.
I got over 130 responses, representing more than half the states in the country. I present the findings to you, in mostly alphabetical order.
Yikes. My formatting skills really leave something to be desired. Oh, and that’s a “Yes” for Harrisburg, PA.
I don’t know what it means. At first, I expected only southern states to be receiving under both species. Or at least consistency within a state. But when I saw that some parishes in Seattle, WA were offering both, while Portland, OR was entirely a nope, I gave up trying to shoehorn a theory in place (in my mind, both Washington state and Oregon are basically the same. And I’m not sorry for that statement. I live in New England, and I know the rest of the country more or less assumes all six states in the region are the same thing). I’m trying to take the advice of sage Ted Lasso, and “be curious, not judgmental”.
I miss receiving under both. Yeah, I know that the Mass is not about me, not about my entertainment or whims. It’s about God. But God clearly desired us to receive Him both through the bread and the wine, and according to the USCCB’s website, that was the norm for the Church for the first millennia. By 1415, it seems that reception only took place under the Host, but Vatican II returned the option of both species. From the GIRM:
Holy Communion has a fuller form as a sign when it takes place under both kinds. For in this form the sign of the Eucharistic banquet is more clearly evident and clearer expression is given to the divine will by which the new and eternal Covenant is ratified in the Blood of the Lord, as also the connection between the Eucharistic banquet and the eschatological banquet in the Kingdom of the Father.
I wonder what St. Gregory of Nyssa did. I wonder what the new bishop of Norwich will do. Mostly, I wonder what the Holy Spirit has planned. Whatever it is, I trust that it is better than anything I could imagine.
I always receive under both species if possible! I totally get it.