A reader writes:
I recall reading once that one could offer the reception of Holy Communion for the benefit of someone else.
Can you clarify this? I have been offering the reception as of late for a priest who was badly injured in a car wreck. (He was in a coma, but now he is out of the coma and continues to recover.)
Is it acceptable to offer the reception of the Lord for the intentions of someone else? I would hate to think I was doing something sacreligious.
This is not something that is provided for in the Church’s official documents, but it seems to be something that is part of folk Catholicism, at least here in America (perhaps elsewhere as well).
Understood in one sense, this would be problematic, but understood in another sense, it is not.
If someone had the idea that they were transferring some or all of the graces that they would otherwise receive to someone else–i.e., serving as that person’s proxy–then this would be a false understanding and the reception of Communion would be done in a superstitious manner that misunderstands what happens in Communion.
God’s grace is not something that we can control and manipulate in this manner. If he gives us grace via a sacrament then we receive that grace. We can’t direct it to somebody else.
What we can do, and this is what leads to the second and non-problematic understanding, is ask God to bless somebody else. In fact, we do that all the time through intercessory prayer.
The question would be why we would want to do so at Communion time. Well, for a start, it is the most intimate way that we encounter God liturgically. By asking God to bless someone else at this particular moment is to underscore how important the request is to us. It’s one thing to ask God for a favor when you’re laying at home in bed. It’s another thing to ask God for a favor when you are in church and are receiving him in holy Communion.
We also please God when we receive Communion worthily, and this also gives us a basis for asking God for a favor. We can say to him, "Lord, if I have pleased you by receiving you in Communion, please bless my friend."
Further, this is a place in which God is giving us his grace, and we can ask–if we choose–that he share with someone else part of the blessings that he is bestowing. But we can’t ask that he give them all to someone else, because that would contravene God’s known will, which is that we receive is grace when we receive Communion worthily.
If offering Communion for the sake of someone else is understood in these latter senses then it is not theologically problematic.
Indeed, we can point to the custom of saying Mass for particular intentions as a parallel (e.g., "This Mass will be said for the intentions of the Jones family"). The fixed prayers of the Mass are not changed to include that intention, but the priest is asking God to fulfill a particular intention or set of intentions in association with the Mass. The kind of considerations outlined above would also undergird the concept of Mass intentions: We’re asking God to bless someone else, without the idea that those assisting at the Mass will be deprived of grace.
It is ultimately the priest, though, who controls what intention a Mass is said for. We layfolks don’t. What we do is worship and receive Communion, and the custom of offering our Communion for certain intentions parallels the priest’s offering of the whole Mass for certain intentions.
Note that you don’t have to run through all this theology in your head or run through detailed verbal requests when you do this. Having understood all this, you can simply say to God, "Lord, I want to offer my Communion for this intention." You don’t even have to use words when you do that, for God knows what your intentions are even when they aren’t expressed in words.
Hope this helps!
I don’t ask for part of the grace God gives me to be given to the person for whom I’m praying. I figure that He’s got plenty to go around (like the wine at Cana, or the 12 wicker baskets of bread), and He’d be happy to share with me (and whomever) as much as we can handle.
Especially if I ask His Mom. 🙂
Isn’t there a tradition of offering your Communion for a specific intention? I know that in my Bible, on the page for First Communion it lists “Intention” as one of the spaces to be filled in. Clearly, your intention could be for another person. (I guess I am writing to suggest that this is not a novel idea, it’s very much recommended.)
The Little Flower offered her Communions for others all the time. Her last was for a fallen-away priest.