The Devil Has No Knees: On Kneeling and Reception of the Eucharist - Catholic Exchange

“The devil has no knees,” once declared the Desert Father Abba Apollo. Truly, the devil has no humility, and no body either. His assault on Holy Communion is nothing new. Since the time of Christ, he has tried to efface belief in the Real Presence. As St. John recorded, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (Jn. 6:60). Many disciples walked away because they could not accept that Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist.
Today, the war against Holy Communion continues. Across dioceses in the United States and abroad, some bishops and cardinals have forbidden altar rails or demanded Communion only standing and in the hand. In the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, portable kneelers used for communicants at the Cathedral of St. Patrick were recently removed, and the altar rail at Charlotte Catholic High School banned. In Argentenia, the Archbishop Jorge Eduardo Lozano of San Juan de Cuyo wrote: “In the celebrations of the Sacraments of Christian Initiation, catechumens (of …