Communion Rails

I read often lately about how many parishes are restoring their communion rails. This is a very good thing (especially since it was against the rules to remove them in the first place!). Whether people kneel or not (some cannot and either stand or remain in a wheelchair) the rail says something that cannot be done by mere words. It says "sacred". The border line of a communion rail says that something sacred is happening and there is a boundary that is not to be taken lightly.

I remember once at St. George someone came to ask me a question after Mass when I was up in the chancel getting the Missal. He started to step up onto the chancel and immediately pulled his foot back and stayed in the nave and said "sorry, Father, I wasn't thinking". It would not have been a sin for him to enter the chancel, but it might very well have been disrespectful. The boundary made it clear to him that something special happens up there and it is not to be treated the same as other places.

We in America (and much of the world) have lost the sense of the sacred in many things. Sadly, even Catholics have a hard time understanding the concept when their priests stand up at the altar with their backs to God, clapping their hands to pop tunes and ad-libbing prayers like a talk show host. A communion rail can change all that. The devil hates them, and he wants them gone (and, according to the testimony at the exorcism of Anneliese Michel, the demons were the original instigators of the removal of communion rails back in the 60's and 70's). Catholics are wise to restore them.

I rejoice that at St. George we already have a communion rail. We do not need to "restore" one, because God has already given us the grace to have one from the beginning. We must not take this for granted. To be able to come forward with that clear and encouraging statement of the sacred nature of the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of Christ is something that many of our brothers and sisters are still without. Let us pray for the restoration of many more rails, and for them to be used by Almighty God to restore reverence to the Blessed Sacrament.