Rev. Fr. Giuseppe Pace, S.D.B., has published an article, "S. Cirillo di Gerusalemme e la Comunione sulla mano" Chiesa Viva (January 1990) (Civiltà , Brescia.), arguing that the words attributed to St. Cyril of Jerusalem ("When thou goest to receive communion ... [place] thy left hand as a throne for thy right, ... to receive so great a King, and in the hollow of the palm receive the body of Christ, saying, Amen") are an historical deception promoted by a crypto-Arian.
The author, says the article, was "an anonymous Syrian, a devourer of books, an indefatigable writer who poured into his writings, indigested and contaminated figments of own his imagination" -- whose writings became part of the Mystagogical Catechesis through the work of a successor of St. Cyril, who most scholars identify as "Bishop John," a crypto-Arian, influenced by Origen and Pelagius and thus contested by Sts. Epiphanius, Jerome, and Augustine.
A translation by Rorate contributor Francesca Romana is available under the title of "The great Catholic horror story: the pseudo-historical deception of Communion in the hand" (Rorate Caeli, Octobwer 26, 2011).
It will be interesting to hear what the patristic scholars have to say about this.
Chrysostom says,How can you take the body in your hand and then raise your hand against your brother?; how can your lips be stained with the blood and then speak ill of your brother?
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