COMMUNION
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COMMUNION
donee is not wanting to show that the other Conse-
crated Species was also given in similar circumstances
(cf. Sebastiano Giribaldi, Op. Mor., I, c. 72). That in-
fants and children not yet come to the use of reason
may not only validly but even fruitfully receive the
Blessed Eucharist is now the universally received
opinion, but it is opposed to Catholic teaching to hold
that this sacrament is necessaiy for their salvation
(Council of Trent, Sess. XXI, can. iv).
II. Present Discipline. — The existing legislation with regard to the Communion of children has been definitely settled by the Fourth Latcran Council, which was afterwards confirmed by the authority of the Council of Trent. According to its provisions chil- dren may not be admitted to the Blessed Eucharist until they have attained to years of discretion, but when this period is reached then they are bound to re- ceive this sacrament. '\\'hen may they be said to have attained the age of discretion? In the best-supported view of theologians this phrase means, not the attain- ment of a definite number of years, but rather the ar- rival at a certain stage in mental development, when children become able to discern the Eucharist ic from ordinary bread, to realize in some measure the dignity and excellence of the Sacrament of the .\ltar, to be- lieve in the Real Presence, and adore Christ under the sacramental veils. De Lugo (De Euch., disp. xiii, n. 36, Ben. XIV, De Syn., vii) says that if children are observed to assist at Mass with devotion and attention it is a sign that they are come to this discretion.
Thus it is seen that a keener religious sense, so to speak, is demanded for the reception of Communion than for confession. Moreover, it is agreed that children in danger of death ought to be admitted to Communion even though they may not have the same degree of fitness that would be required in ordinary circum- stances. In answer to a question as to whether a cer- tain episcopal ordinance should be \ipheld that fixed a definite age-limit under which children could not be admitted to First Communion, the Congregation of the Council replied in the aflfirmative, provided, how- ever, that those children adjudged to have reached the discretion required by the Councils of Lateran and Trent might not be excluded (21 July, 1888). This reply bears out the interpretation already given of "the years of discretion" and it may be said in the wordsof the Catechism of the Council of Trent (pt. II, e. iv, q. 6.3) that "no one can better determine the age at which the sacred mysteries should be given to young children than their parents and confessor".
The duty of preparing candidates for First Commu- nion is the most important that can fall to the lot of a pastor (O'Kane, Rubrics of Rom. Kit., p. 391). This is amply recognized by the Church in every countrj', for almost every diocese has its statutes regulating with scrupulous exactness all the preliminaries of this sacred and solemn event (cf. Deer, of III Plen. Bait., no. 217, 218, etc.). A long course of religious instruc- tion is usually prescribed while the moral training and virtuous formation of the mind is also urgently in- sisted upon. In regard to First Communion it may be observed: (I) that it should take place during pas- cal time; (2) that it should be received as a rule in the parochial church, unless the consent of the pastor is had for receiving it elsewhere; (.3) that no effort should be spared to fix the occasion indelibly on the mind of the young communicant; and (4) that for this purpose the Mass at which it is received should be celebrated with special solemnity, boys and girls being suitably attired and assigned to separate sections of the church. A short address may be given in this case immediatelv before the distribution of Commu- nion (De Ilerdt' Praxis Lit., I, 277; Rom. Rit., De Euch., t. XXIII). The decree "Sacra Tridentina Synodus", published Dec, 190.5, about daily Commu- nion applies to all persons, young and old, who have made their First Communion ( Anal. Eccl. , 1906, p. 833) .
In addition to the ordinary handbooks on Christian doctrine,
see also: De Lugo, De Sand. Euch. Sacr., disp. xiii; Liguori,
Tlieot. Mor.. I, lib. VI; Lehmkuhl. Thcol. Mor. Comp.. II;
Gaspabrj, Tract. Can. de Euch., II; GuiR. L'Eucharislie.
Patrick Morrisroe.
Communion of Saints {communio sanctorum, Koivuuia ayiuiv. a fellowshiii of, or with, the saints), the doctrine expressed in the second clause of the ninth article in the received text of the Apostles' Creed; I believe . . . the Holy Catholic Church, the Commu- nion of Saints. This, probably the latest, addition to the old Roman Symbol, is found in the Gallican Lit- urgy of the seventh century (P. L., LXXII, .349, 597) ; in some letters of the Pseudo-Augustine (P. L., XXXIX, 2189, 2191, 2194), now credited to St. (\esarius of .\rlcs (c. .543); in the "De Spiritu Sancto" (P. L., LXII, 11), ascribed to Faustus of Riez (c. 460); in the "Explanatio Symboli" (P. L., LII, 871) of Nicetas of Remesiana (c. 400) ; and in two documents of uncertain date, the "Fides Hieronyini" (Analecta Maredsolana, 1903), and an Armenian confession (Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, § 128). On these facts critics have built various theories. Harnack (Das apost. Glaubensbekenntniss, Berlin, 1892, p. 31) holds the addition to be a protest against Vigilantius, who condemned the veneration of the saints; and he connects that protest with Faustus in Southern Gaul and probably also with Nicetas in Pannonia, who was influenced by the "Catecheses" of St. Cyril of Jerusa- lem. Swete (The Apostles' Creed, London, 1894) sees in it at first a reaction against the separatism of the Donatists, therefore an African and Augustinian conception bearing only on church membership, the higher meaning of fellowship with the departed saints having been introduced later by Faustus. Morin thinks that it originated, with an anti-Donatist mean- ing, in Ai-menia, whence it passed to Pannonia, Gaul, the British Isles, Spain, etc., gathering new meanings in the course of its travels till it finally resulted in the Catholic synthesis of medieval theologians. These and many other conjectures leave undisturbed the traditional doctrine, ably represented by Kirsch, ac- cording to which the communion of saints, whereso- ever it was introduced into the Creed, is the natural outgrowth of Scriptural teaching, and chiefly of the baptismal formula; still the value of the dogma does not rest on the solution of that historical prob- lem.
Catholic Doctrine. — The communion of saints is the spiritual solidarity which binds together the faith- ful on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the saints in heaven in the organic unity of the same mystical body under Christ its head, and in a constant interchange of supernatural offices. The participants in that soli- darity are called saints by reason of their destination and of their partaking of the fruits of the Redemption (I Cor., i, 2 — Greek Text). The damned are thus ex- cluded from the communion of saints. The living, even if they do not belong to the body of the true Church, share in it according to the measure of their union with Christ and with the soul of the Church. St. Thomas teaches (III, Q. viii, a. 4) that the angels, though not redeemed, enter the communion of saints because they come under Christ's power and receive of His gratia capitis. The solidarity itself implies a vari- ety of inter-relations; within the (■hurch ^Iilitant, not only the participation in the same faith, .sacraments, and government, but also a mutual exchange of ex- amjilcs. prayers, merits, and satisfactions; between the Chiu-ch on earth on the one hand, and purgatory and heaven on the other, suffrages, invocation, inter- cession, veneration. These connotations belong here only in so far as they integrate the transcendent idea of spiritual solidarity between all the children of God. Thvis understood, the communion of saints, though forni.-dly defined onlv in its particular bearings (Coun- cil of Trent, Sess. XXV, decrees on purgatory; on the
