Is Communion in the hand eroding the Faith in the United States?

I am currently re-reading the book “Get Us Out of Here” by Nicki Etsy. It is a wonderful tribute to the Poor (Holy) Souls in Purgatory, and the faithful and humble woman they have been appearing to and visiting with for decades. You may wonder how this works when the Church vehemently forbids the practice of mediums and contacting the dead. Well, Maria Simma, who passed from this world in 2004, did not contact the dead, they contacted her. She had received full support of her Bishop and parish priest/spiritual director, and claimed that Pope Saint John Paul II was aware of her ministry and supported it as well. The Poor Souls visited her frequently with requests for prayers and Masses, and in return they were able to share with her their experiences of Purgatory and the great suffering and joy they were exposed to there.

They are also able and have been given permission to reveal to us divine revelations about our lives, purpose, and the validity of Church Teaching on various subjects. They offer help to those who are willing to call upon them, pray for them and offer sacrifices and suffering to help them. All these efforts will help them to transition into Heaven. Only our prayers and offerings of suffering and sacrifice can help the poor souls in purgatory, and since they have been forgotten by so many in the Church today, they have been granted permission by God to visit and relay their urgent need of prayers, sacrifices and Masses for their release. 

The poor souls have much to say about Communion in the hand. So much so, that the subject is frequently referenced and laced throughout many chapters of the book. The souls don’t sugarcoat anything, they know the wishes and desires of God now, and their mission is to help us and themselves to get to the ultimate destination we should all be striving for. These poor souls now lament that they wasted much time during their Earthly lives on things other than the pursuit of Holiness. They plead with us to head this warning and to not do the same. 

You see, what they now truly and intimately understand is the awesomeness, the truly righteousness and reverence that God commands of us, not because he needs it from us, (God needs nothing from us,) but because we need it to live lives of Holiness for ourselves. When we fail to revere God the way we must, we lose ourselves in the process. We lose the part we can play in his plan for salvation, we can lose our own place in that plan, and we fail to recognize what a gift our lives are and how significant we are to him and each other. When we lose the realization of what God is, and how we relate to him, we lose ourselves and how we relate to each other in the process. That is why we must always recognize and approach the Eucharist with the utmost reverence and awe. This is our Lord Jesus Christ after all, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. To think that it is okay to hold the Eucharist, can be pretty prideful, if you really think about it, and the poor souls hammer away at that throughout this book. After all, didn’t Jesus instruct us in humility. Isn’t being fed the Eucharist an act cloaked in just the kind of humility that the Lord desires from us. If we are too humble to admit and subject ourselves to this sort of submission and obedience, are we able recognize if we are in the state of Grace required for the reception of this Sacrament as well? Do we even understand that we must be in a state of Grace, free from any mortal sin to receive the Eucharist? Do we recognize what the Church teaches and expects of us when it comes to the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist, and if we don’t, are we making an effort to learn what they are? 

This is a pretty big deal, so much so, that Maria claims she was asked to suffer the most for the sin of Communion in the Hand. In the years that a special dispensation for Communion in the Hand was given, we have also seen “Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion” become “Communion Distributors” or just “distributors”, the lack of the extraordinary has become lost on us today. We even neglect the terminology that highlights and shines the reverence on what we do and who we receive in this Sacrament. Yes, it is subtle and it is hidden in the details, but isn’t evil most effective when cloaking itself in the innocuous or even the noble?

We must come to recognize our place in this hierarchy of beings, and we must come to terms with the fact that we must be submissive to God our Father and Christ His Son, and show Him the reverence that is deserved. If we don’t then we minimize our place in HIs plan as well. If Christ is unworthy of our upmost respect, worship and reverence, then what are we worthy of as significantly less created beings? Showing him deserved and due reverence elevates our own worth, value and significance in his creation and as his creatures. So, essentially, when not displaying and honoring this respect and reverence, we are devaluing, and disrespecting ourselves as well. What follows is what we now see in this country, a country with people steeped in sin and depravity, with no respect for Truth, God, life, or the dignity of each human being.  Definitely this is something to ponder in the heart and think about. 

Not even the poor souls can save us from our innoculation from the miraculous and extraordinary. They can only warn us of the destructive course we are on, and hope that we heed the message.