Down the hall and into the bathroom?

Huh?

Read this, from OSV’s Mary DeTurris Poust, and shake your head in disbelief:

This weekend at Mass we were sitting in the front pew, as we usually do. During Communion, my husband, Dennis, and I saw two little girls receive communion in the hand but not put the hosts into their mouths. We watched the girls walk to the back of the church, their mother a few steps behind them. They went to their seats (we still hadn’t seen them consume the hosts), spoke to their mother and walked out.

So Dennis followed to see where they were going. A minute later, he saw them come out of the restroom. That’s when he saw the younger of the two girls finally put the host in her mouth. He told her she was supposed to consume the host right away, but she argued that she needed to throw out her gum first.

Sigh. Where to begin? With the fact that people — not just children but plenty of adults — go up to receive Jesus while chewing gum. Or the fact that the little girls didn’t consider (or their mother suggest) that perhaps the gum should be the thing they carry in their hands and not Jesus. Or maybe the fact that catechesis is so poor that anyone would think it’s okay to bring a consecrated host into a public restroom.

Read the rest right here.

More and more, I’m seeing the wisdom behind Benedict re-instituting the kneeler, and reception on the tongue, for communion.