Proponents of the 'reform of the reform' claim that by eliminating abuses and enforcing the directives of Sacrosanctum Concilium the modern liturgy will be improved and Catholics will no longer leave churches in droves. Yet these are merely external considerations. What really should be addressed is the fact the modern liturgy is simply a Catholic version of the Service of the Lord's Supper as commemorated by Protestants with the addition of a few anaphoras (think Eucharistic prayers) reconstructed from Eastern liturgies, not the Sacrifice of the Mass and Sacrament of Holy Communion as offered by Catholics from the time of the apostles.

On another matter, next time you intend receiving communion in the hand just pause for a moment and realise that you are self-communicating, that is administering the body of Christ to yourself. Never mind that you have been given the host by a priest or deacon (or extraordinary minister) because they are merely dispensers of this divine handout, if I could borrow a phrase from a book I recently read. Sure people use to receive as such in the age of the apostles and fathers but remember they did so with the greatest of ceremony and reverence to avoid manhandling the body of our Lord.