Listen to this note instead: https://morefrmoore.podbean.com/e/august-26-2026-pastors-note/
First Day of School
Wednesday was the first day of classes for our parish school. I love our school and believe that it is the highest impact ministry we offer in our parishes, second only to Sunday Mass. I see many of our students graduate with deep and life-long relationships with Jesus and I am proud of how robust our Catholic identity continues to be when many Catholic schools across the Archdiocese are struggling not to feel like private schools with mandatory (and middling) religion class. School ministry is often entrusted to a vicar in large parishes, but I have kept it as a personal ministry focus – teaching 8th grade religion once each week and always doing the school Mass myself – because it brings me so much joy.
This year we added a new element to the first day of school – a building blessing! It was a joy to pray with each floor and to give everything a thorough sprinkling with holy water. We will likely continue this practice in future years.
Why a building blessing? First, because it is very Catholic. [Fun fact: Pastors are recommended to bless every Catholic home in their parish every year; logistically impossible in today’s context, but I still bless houses when I am over for dinner.] We have always started our school year with prayer, but this felt like a more tangible and intentional way to dedicate our space and our year to the Lord.
Second, some priest friends of mine do it and I got jealous. Granted, these priests are super attentive to the presence of evil, even going so far as to do a formal blessing of every hotel room they ever stay in (as they put it, “No one really knows what went on in this room before I arrived.”). I am not super worried about this aspect with our school, since we are regularly praying in our classrooms and invoking the power and presence of Jesus. But it can’t hurt, right? Maybe this will finally exorcise the demon of 7th grade drama.
Posture After Receiving Communion
I have had parishioners point out to me recently that we are still inconsistent in whether we sit, stand, or kneel after receiving communion at Mass.
The short answer is to kneel at the Lamb of God, stand to process to communion, and kneel or sit after returning to your pew.
The long answer is GIRM (General Instruction for the Roman Missal), Paragraph 43:
The faithful should stand from the beginning of the Entrance Chant, or while the Priest approaches the altar, until the end of the Collect; for the Alleluia Chant before the Gospel; while the Gospel itself is proclaimed; during the Profession of Faith and the Universal Prayer; and from the invitation, Orate, fratres (Pray, brethren), before the Prayer over the Offerings until the end of Mass, except at the places indicated here below.
The faithful should sit, on the other hand, during the readings before the Gospel and the Responsorial Psalm and for the Homily and during the Preparation of the Gifts at the Offertory; and, if appropriate, they may sit or kneel during the period of sacred silence after Communion.
In the Dioceses of the United States of America, they should kneel beginning after the singing or recitation of the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) until after the Amen of the Eucharistic Prayer, except when prevented on occasion by ill health, or for reasons of lack of space, of the large number of people present, or for another reasonable cause. However, those who do not kneel ought to make a profound bow when the Priest genuflects after the Consecration. The faithful kneel after the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) unless the Diocesan Bishop determines otherwise.
For the sake of uniformity in gestures and bodily postures during one and the same celebration, the faithful should follow the instructions which the Deacon, a lay minister, or the Priest gives, according to what is laid down in the Missal.
The kicker for us in the Archdiocese of Seattle is the phrase “unless the Diocesan Bishop determines otherwise”. In 2003, Cardinal Mahony of L.A. required that his Archdiocese continue standing after the Lamb of God – as the GIRM allows him to do – but he also required that his Archdiocese continue to stand until the last person has received communion. This second requirement violates the instructions of the GIRM (as well as a clarification from Rome), but it caught like wildfire and many bishops, including our own Archbishop Brunett, promulgated Mahony’s instructions in their own dioceses. (It is fascinating to read this online forum discussion from 2005.)
Shortly after Archbishop Etienne arrived in Seattle, he chose to return us to what most dioceses across the United States do – telling us to kneel after the Lamb of God and to kneel or sit after receiving communion. Unfortunately, his letter about this was published in April 2020, when we were locked down for the pandemic, so many people did not realize a change had been made when they returned to Mass.
Please note also that there is zero mention about postures after communion being related to closing the tabernacle or waiting for the priest to sit. Your focus after receiving communion should be on the Eucharistic presence of Jesus in your own soul, not on the remaining hosts or on the priest. You can sit or kneel whenever you’d like, according to how you pray.
Fr. Moore 