“Austere” is the watchword for the liturgical celebrations of the Season of Lent. The Church has proclaimed a time of fasting and self-denial, and she teaches by example. The priest is vested in violet, “the gloomy color of affliction and mortification.” During Lent the sanctuary is bereft of flowers, we use less ornate altar coverings, the Gloria is not sung and the Alleluia is entirely absent. By this penitential “fast of the senses,” Holy Mother Church prepares our hearts for a jubilant Easter renewal.
In keeping with liturgical tradition and Church guidelines, Lenten liturgies are sparser and shorter. One way we accomplish that in our parish is by distributing the Eucharist only under the species of bread, something that we’ve been doing since the COVID epidemic started. Although receiving Holy Communion under both species is more perfect from the point of view of the sign, it is important to remember the Church’s teaching that Christ is received whole and entire under either species. Thus, one’s Holy Communion is perfectly complete when it is received under the species of bread alone. One is not deprived of extra graces by not receiving from the chalice.
