{"id":30950,"date":"2011-08-25T20:36:04","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T20:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/theanchoress\/?p=30950"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:33:44","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T17:33:44","slug":"spiritual-communion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Communion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It seems like a small thing, but this story stirred something in me<\/a><\/strong>, and gave me hope:<\/p>\n

\nMore than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a venerable Catholic tradition: \u201cspiritual Communion\u201d<\/strong><\/a> or the \u201cCommunion of desire.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a wild storm Aug. 20 at World Youth Day in Madrid left six people injured \u2014 including two with broken legs \u2014 Spanish police collapsed the tents where most of the unconsecrated hosts for the next morning\u2019s Mass were being kept.<\/p>\n

Without the hosts in the tents, organizers had 5,000 ciboriums holding 200 hosts each; they were consecrated by the pope at Mass Aug. 21 and distributed to pilgrims in the section closest to the altar.<\/p>\n

Distributing Communion to just 100,000 people wasn\u2019t a decision anyone took lightly, and apparently there were long discussions with World Youth Day organizers and Vatican officials trying to find a solution. In the end, it just wasn\u2019t possible logistically to locate another 1.5 million hosts.<\/p>\n

A couple of hours before the Mass, organizers announced that most of the people present would not be able to receive; they asked the pilgrims to offer up that sacrifice for the pope\u2019s intentions and told them they could receive Communion later in the day at any church in Madrid.<\/p>\n

The decision to cancel Communion for most Mass participants was reached \u201cwith the greatest pain,\u201d Yago de la Cierva, director of World Youth Day Madrid, told reporters Aug. 21.<\/p>\n

Whenever there is a huge crowd for a Mass, whether in St. Peter\u2019s Square or at a World Youth Day, there always are some people unable to get to the Communion distribution point in time to receive. But in Madrid, de la Cierva said, \u201calmost everyone\u201d was among those not receiving.<\/p>\n

Obviously, receiving Communion is the way to participate most fully in the Mass, but it\u2019s not always possible for everyone to receive at every Mass, nor do many Catholics in the world even have regular access to Mass.<\/p>\n

The idea of \u201cspiritual Communion\u201d \u2014 inviting Jesus into one\u2019s heart and soul when receiving the actual sacrament isn\u2019t possible \u2014 is part of Catholic tradition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can read the rest here<\/strong><\/a>.
\n
\nI can\u2019t rightly say why this makes me hopeful, but it does.<\/strong> It almost feels like a \u201ctraining day\u201d \u2014 a necessary lesson to impart, for those times in our not-too-distant future when the church is smaller, and persecuted, and Holy Communion is not always available to us. It just makes me feel like, yeah\u2026the Holy Spirit is seeing to things.<\/p>\n

Others will likely disagree.
\n
\nRelated:
\nHow Benedict Has Influenced WYD<\/a>
\n10 Amazing Young Catholics<\/a>
\nGenies in Bottles; Toothpaste in Tubes<\/a>
\nWhere the Mass comes from<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems like a small thing, but this story stirred something in me, and gave me hope: More than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a venerable Catholic tradition: \u201cspiritual Communion\u201d or the \u201cCommunion of desire.\u201d After a wild storm Aug. 20 at World Youth Day in Madrid left six people injured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4831,4842,4861,572],"class_list":["post-30950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholicism","tag-eucharist","tag-jesus-christ","tag-wyd"],"yoast_head":"\nSpiritual Communion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It seems like a small thing, but this story stirred something in me, and gave me hope: More than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spiritual Communion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems like a small thing, but this story stirred something in me, and gave me hope: More than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Anchoress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-25T20:36:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T17:33:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Scalia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Scalia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/\",\"name\":\"Spiritual Communion\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-25T20:36:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-13T17:33:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/89fc1174c0d765bb372cf892e199b06b\"},\"description\":\"It seems like a small thing, but this story stirred something in me, and gave me hope: More than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Spiritual Communion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/\",\"name\":\"The Anchoress\",\"description\":\"Elizabeth Scalia\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/89fc1174c0d765bb372cf892e199b06b\",\"name\":\"Elizabeth Scalia\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18a7adac49c37442f07444789de0e73?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18a7adac49c37442f07444789de0e73?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elizabeth Scalia\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/author\/elizabethscalia\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Spiritual Communion","description":"It seems like a small thing, but this story stirred something in me, and gave me hope: More than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Spiritual Communion","og_description":"It seems like a small thing, but this story stirred something in me, and gave me hope: More than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/","og_site_name":"The Anchoress","article_published_time":"2011-08-25T20:36:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-13T17:33:44+00:00","author":"Elizabeth Scalia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elizabeth Scalia","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/","name":"Spiritual Communion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-25T20:36:04+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-13T17:33:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/89fc1174c0d765bb372cf892e199b06b"},"description":"It seems like a small thing, but this story stirred something in me, and gave me hope: More than a million young Catholics learned the hard way about a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/08\/25\/spiritual-communion\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Spiritual Communion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/","name":"The Anchoress","description":"Elizabeth Scalia","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/89fc1174c0d765bb372cf892e199b06b","name":"Elizabeth Scalia","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18a7adac49c37442f07444789de0e73?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18a7adac49c37442f07444789de0e73?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Elizabeth Scalia"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/author\/elizabethscalia\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}