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There definitely is that element of church members who believe everything must be done with exactness, which would include taking the sacrament with the right hand and saying the prayer exactly right. These people also tend to be the “strict obedience” types. Also, there are those who believe that since the sacrament and baptism prayers are the only prescribed prayers outside the temple that they are more sacred or important than other prayers. Our bishop leans toward “if it doesn’t change the meaning let it go,” and I like that. He also will step over there and show the kid what’s wrong if he has to do it more than twice and the other kid hasn’t shown him – that is part of the job of the second or third blesser. If someone has to say the prayer more than three times, it is a failure of leadership and planning. There are easy ways to eliminate things like that. nibbler wrote:A bishop that believes the words have to be spoken exactly as written otherwise the ordinance doesn’t count. The bishop is probably more concerned with the congregation being able to participate in a legitimate sacrament than he is about the feelings of the kid trying to bless the sacrament.
…or perhaps the bishop is more concerned with who will come up to him afterwards and tell him he should have made sure it was correct…instead of the kid trying their best.
If I had someone make a mistake at the sacrament table, I’d correct it a couple times, and if they still got it wrong, I’d let it go. If anyone objected, I’d see it as a fabulous opportunity to bring much-lacking judgment to that black and white members’s thinking. I would tell the story of someone I knew who, in spite of adequate training beforehand, made the mistake repeatedly and resolved never to ever bless or pass again. I would share the frustration of members who feel a loss of the spirit due to stalling the meeting that way. I would help them see there are many sides of the issue, and that black and white thinking
ignores so many other perspectives and variables.I might even share my knowledge of a “silent but significant minority” of people who don’t express disapproval with the kind of absolutist thinking that leads to excessive correction such as prayer-rereading. That I don’t want to alienate that group, just as we don’t want to alienate lurkers here at StayLDS….At any given time, there are likely people in the congregation who will find the meeting a stumbling block rather than an uplifting experience when it becomes a frustrating reading exercise, and not an exercise is meditation and reflection.
I am left handed and I remember as a kid maybe 8 or 9 going to take the sacrament with my left hand and my mom (who was a convert) very strongly telling me that I needed to take it with my right. I never thought about it much before now. I did have to remind myself sometimes to take it with my right. Now after this thread I might upset the status quo and start taking it with my left. Really as long as I’m remembering Christ it shouldn’t matter which hand I take it with. This is an interesting part of human psyche that we like ritual, and like feeling good about doing it correctly and somehow feel smug about knowing how to do it right and self-righteously correcting others who don’t know as much as we do. It shows how so many different elaborate religious rituals in a wide variety of traditio s may have evolved. Tim wrote:This is an interesting part of human psyche that we like ritual, and like feeling good about doing it correctly and somehow feel smug about knowing how to do it right and self-righteously correcting others who don’t know as much as we do. It shows how so many different elaborate religious rituals in a wide variety of traditio s may have evolved.
In a way…that is what all rituals are.Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 3 wrote:It is the custom to extend the right hand in token of fellowship. The right hand is called the dexter, and the left, the sinister; dexter means right and sinister means left. Dexter, or right, means favorable or propitious. Sinister is associated with evil, rather than good, Sinister means perverse. We take the sacrament with the right hand. We sustain the authorities with the right hand. We make acknowledgment with the right hand raised.
Now to through this topic complete off track, remember the evil enemy of Underdog? His name was Simon Bar Sinister. Bar Sinister meant that on his crest, his bar went from the upper right corner to the lower left corner. This was a sign of illegitimacy. So basically his name was “Simon the Bastard”.
No telling what it means if we take the sacrament with our “sinister” hand!
Katzpur, I’m sorry for your frustrating experience, but I’m glad you brought this up; it’s a very interesting topic. I’m going to offer a few points to slightly counteract the prevalent view on this board. In no way do I disagree with you. I love your term “right hand police” and I believe that it is pointless to tell people that they must take the sacrament with their right hand. But, I will say that it is proper to take the sacrament with the right hand. Does that mean that it is improper to take it with the left? No. Just that there are good reasons to use the right hand as a matter of symbolism.
First, the direct issue. Does the HPGL or counselor need to make a statement? No. LDS people are told and it is modeled to them to use the right hand, but there is rarely any thought beyond that. So, reiterating a norm like that without any further discussion is… regrettable. If I were to have a lesson about it, I would start by saying that the absolute highest priority in the sacrament is to put yourself in a bond with God/Jesus… what we eat or how we do it is a far-distant also-ran in the rite… and that it doesn’t matter which hand anyone uses, but now let’s explore the reasons why right-handedness in these rituals has symbolism… then I would want to have a discussion about the following (and I wish you and I could discuss, rather than me writing all this out at once, but such is the realm of these forums)…
Right-handedness in non-Mormon rituals: When people make the sign of the cross, they use only their right hand. When the priest puts the wafer, representing the body of Christ, into the practitioner’s mouth, he uses his right hand (I’m pretty sure, but I’m open to others correcting me on that). When presidents, citizens, witnesses, doctors, lawyers, are sworn in, they, they raise their right hand. When the King/Queen of England takes the Oath of Coronation, they do not raise a hand, but put their right hand on the Bible, and say, “The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God.”
Right-handedness in Mormon rituals: baptism, sustainings, temple.
Right-handedness in culture/custom: Handshaking is the obvious one, but as hawkgrrrl pointed out, there is a significant population of earth that only touch food with their right hand. They also will only give or take money with the right hand. The reasons are not spiritual.
Right-handedness referenced in the gospel:
– Jesus sits at the right-hand of God
– The “righteous” will be at the right-hand of Jesus, and the wicked at the left; the sheep on the right, the goats on the left
– In Revelation, the Son of Man holds the Seven Stars (seven church communities to whom the Revelation is given) in his right hand; the Enthroned Figure later holds the Sealed Book in his right hand
– “I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10)
– Israel blessed Ephraim and Manassah with his right and left hands, respectively, showing favor toward Ephraim
– in Luke, Jesus heals the right hand of a man… not just the hand… the right hand.
Right-handedness as symbolism: Going back a long time, as Roy pointed out, the right side is sort of the ‘true’ side and the left the weak or askew or ‘off’ side. The right hand, therefore symbolizes being in-line or connected with God and the left side symbolizes being at odds with God. It is a manifestation of the dichotomy in all of us; the potential for good (righteous) and evil (sinister). The distinction represents the battle of good and evil that rages within each of us.
OK, so what to do with this… There is no doctrinal enforcement of using the right hand to take the sacrament… that is number one. If someone wants to take the sacrament with whichever hand is… well… at hand… then fine. No argument or even notice from me. But if someone else wants to take the sacrament with their right hand and they do that every time, I have no problem with that either. After all, the sacrament is between the individual and God. For me, I think using the right hand is proper as I said earlier. It’s a way to add myself to the symbolism. I take the bread and wine/water. I eat and drink, signifying both a reliance on the spiritual nourishment that comes from God/Jesus, but also the participating in the atonement, offered to me and taken by me. The right hand is just another (minor) aspect of the symbolism; that I do so with a desire to be righteous or on the right hand of God… I take it with the hand that represents good or a desire for good or the possibility of good in me. This is symbolic (but nothing more).
Nice points On Own Now, On Own Now wrote:When presidents, citizens, witnesses, doctors, lawyers, are sworn in, they, they raise their right hand.
From what I understand, that comes from Masonry.This week I intentionally took the sacrament with my left hand – not to be a rable-rouser, but just to make myself think more about what I was doing.
Quote:Scrupulosity is the modern-day medical diagnosis that corresponds to a traditional use of the term scruples in a religious context to mean obsessive concern with one’s own sins and
compulsive performance of religious devotion. I believe that we create our own symbols. Our way of blessing and administering the sacrament is very different from other churches but each method for performing the ritual is rich in symbolism. For instance, some people highlight the fact that the bread was blessed
beforeit was broken. Breaking the bread before it is blessed might “destroy” the symbolism people find in blessing the bread before it is broken. Most churches use grape juice and some have argued that using water removes many symbols from the ritual.
1) Supposedly grapes can only survive because they hang together on the vine in bunches, grapes wither and die if they’re on the vine in isolation.
2) There are many references in the bible to fruit of the vine, the vine symbolism isn’t retained when we use water. There are even some mentions of the “blood of the grape:”
Genesis 49:11 wrote:Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
Deuteronomy 32:14 wrote:Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
Sirach 50:13-15 wrote:All Aaron’s sons were in their glory, and they held the Lord’s offering in their hands in front of the entire assembly of Israel. When he was finishing his service at the altar, after he had arranged an offering to the Most High, the almighty, he stretched out his hand for the cup used for drink offerings and he poured a libation of wine. He poured it out at the base of the altar, a pleasing aroma to the Most High, the king of all.
3) The interesting thing about wine… you have to be moderate when consuming it. A little wine, no biggie; a lot of wine, inebriation. Perhaps a hidden symbol warning against fanaticism?
Some churches will administer the sacrament by dipping bread in grape juice, where both emblems are taken at the same time. Some churches have the congregation approach the sacrament as opposed to passing. Some churches make it a point to use unleavened bread because leaven symbolizes sin. Different symbols can be found in different practices, that’s not to say that any one way is wrong and another right, we’re cafeteria symbolists after all.
According to the D&C the lord doesn’t have a problem with people creating their own symbols.
Quote:For, behold, I say unto you, that it mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory—remembering unto the Father my body which was laid down for you, and my blood which was shed for the remission of your sins.
Perhaps a person that is left handed finds more meaning in using
theirdominant hand to take the sacrament, thus creating their own symbol. We’re going to destroy or create our own symbols no matter how we end up performing the ritual. Perhaps that’s another casualty of correlation. We miss out on new symbols and meaning by insisting on homogeneous worship.
LookingHard wrote:This week I intentionally took the sacrament with my left hand – not to be a rable-rouser, but just to make myself think more about what I was doing.
Me too.
:think: Not counting myself one other person took the bread with their left hand (DW, and she didn’t know I was keeping score. It was one of those situations where the tray was passed and secured with the right hand and the left was the only free hand). There were 5 people that took the water with their left hand. Nothing major, I just thought I’d play the part of social anthropologist.I should back up a step. We don’t really have a say in whether the bread used is leavened, broken pre-blessing, or whether we use wine/grape juice. We do get to decide which hand to use and if someone finds more meaning in exclusively using their right hand then there’s nothing wrong with that. For me the rub is when we start to decide what actions other people should be taking and what meaning they should be deriving from those actions… said in the context of an ordinance which is largely defined for us. Why do we put our right hand over our heart when we pledge allegiance to the flag? I never understood why…but I was always told to do it. I think it has become etiquette, hasn’t it?
Isn’t that the same discussion as the sacrament? Or different?
For perspective… I get a lot of my Catholic understanding from an faithful and active Parishioner who I work with. We’ve had a number of chats over the years, and it’s been very enlightening. It’s always so interesting to hear the parallels. Anyway, I asked him about this topic… here is an abridged version: On Own Now: In my “congregation” recently, we’ve been talking about which hand to use for different things, like the Sacrament, and I wanted to get your take on it.
Catholic Friend: Sure, no problem.
OON: So, you always make the sign of the cross with the right hand?
CF: Yes.
OON: What if you walk into the church and you are holding a baby in your right arm, do you just do it with your left hand?
CF: No, I switch the baby to the other arm.
OON: Why do you use the right hand?
CF: I don’t know, it’s just the way we do it. It’s kind of like saluting with your right hand or shaking hands or covering your heart. We just always do it with the right hand. I suppose the reason probably has something to do with Jesus being on the right hand of God or something along those lines.
OON: Do they teach you to do it that way?
CF: Yes. From the time you are little.
OON: So, if you noticed that one of your kids was doing it with the left hand…
CF: We’d show them the right way to do it. Or maybe we didn’t notice, but they were in Sunday School and they did it wrong, someone might let us know so we could correct it.
OON: How about Communion, how does that work? Does the priest place it in your mouth?
CF: They no longer do that as much. Nowadays, they place it in your one hand and you use the other to take it and put in in your mouth.
OON: Which hand do you use for that?
CF: You use your dominant hand. They put the wafer in the other hand and you take it to your mouth with your dominant hand. In my case, I’m left-handed, so I take it with my left hand. My wife is right-handed, so she takes it with her right hand.
OON: So, are you supposed to use the dominant hand all the time, or can you just use either-or?
CF: Well, that’s the way I was taught… to use the dominant hand… all that long time ago, but it’s not like any one is following you around and watching. There’re not going to say, “Hey wait a minute, I saw that man signing a check with his other hand. What the hell?” [then my friend mimics taking the guy out back for a punching out].
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