Every Sunday at St. Anne Church in Richmond Hill, Georgia, the Hilleary family — mother Michelle, father Brian and five children — receives Communion at the altar rail.

“It creates a more sacred space. And it draws your attention to the sacred,” Michelle Hilleary told the Register.

“It sets apart the sanctuary,” observed her 15-year-old daughter, Malia.

That wasn’t always the case.

When St. Anne’s was built in 2016, there was no Communion rail. Today, a redwood altar rail — installed in July 2024 — now surrounds the sanctuary. 

St. Anne’s is among churches new and old returning these altar rails for the reverent reception of Communion.

Father Dawid Kwiatkowski says the development is welcomed by his flock.

“More people were coming,” recalled Father Kwiatkowski of 2022, when he became the new pastor and met “younger families who were looking for more reverent reception of the Holy Eucharist.” 

Father Kwiatkowski recounted that the former pastor had placed one kneeler in front of the sanctuary. Father Kwiatkowski added a second kneeler to enable a more reverent reception. Then one family offered $50,000 toward an altar railing if he could raise the remainder of the money needed to complete the project. “Within a week, I found the rest of the sponsors,” he said, explaining that parishioners supported the addition of the altar railing costing a total of $90,000.

“I needed to install an altar railing that would serve the needs of everyone,” the pastor explained. That included those who wanted to kneel and receive on the tongue, kneel and receive on the hand, or stand and receive either way.

Liturgical aesthetics played a part. “We wanted to make sure that the altar railing would basically look like it had always been here,” Father Kwiatkowski said of the new railing.

For weeks before each Sunday Mass, he explained to parishioners how to use the altar rail, depending on people’s choice of how to receive Communion, and he posted these explanations on the parish website.

So far, he has found that “about 90% of the people will kneel to receive Communion. Even if they are receiving on the hand, they will still kneel and use the altar railing.” Naturally, those unable to kneel will stand.

Parishioners like the Hillearys are indeed appreciative. 

“When you’re receiving in a kneeling position, it gives you time to contemplate Who it is that you are receiving,” Michelle Hilleary said. “It definitely creates an atmosphere of reverence, and it still allows everyone to receive in the way that they are most comfortable.”

Husband Brian also appreciates the Communion rails.

“St. Anne was an absolutely beautiful church before, and over the last several years it has only become a more reverent and beautiful place to worship,” Brian said. “I know that bringing an altar rail into a church where there was none before can cause concern for some Catholics, but I really do think it helps us remember that the altar, where Jesus is truly present in our church, must be a welcoming place to gather around and receive him, but always a place set apart.”

The Hilleary children recognize the value, too.

“It allows the servers to assist at Mass in a more reverent and orderly way, which reduces distractions that would take away from the beauty of the Eucharist,” said Seamus, 17, an altar server. His brother Christian, 12, also an altar boy, added, “It has increased reverence because I feel like more people kneel down now than stand up when they’re receiving.”

Even 6-year-old Kolbe chimed in: “I like it how it is.”

 

In Springfield, Virginia, St. Raymond of Penafort Catholic Church was completed in 2006 — without altar rails. In 2010, its new pastor, Father John De Celles, began emphasizing reverence toward the Eucharist. Each year, he began introducing changes “to encourage and teach reverence,” he told the Register, including instituting a Friday evening extraordinary-form Mass, to which he consistently invited “the regular Sunday crowd to attend.” 

Since there was no altar rail, a carpenter made a moveable rail across the front of the sanctuary for that Friday Mass.

“When the time was right, about eight years ago, I kept that temporary rail up for some of the ordinary-form Masses,” Father De Celles said. “It became so popular I soon easily extended that to all the parish Masses. Then, in 2020, we were able to install permanent marble rails, which was enthusiastically welcomed by the parishioners.” The rails were made in Italy from the same quarries used to source the stone for the church’s altar.

Father De Celles has found that “about 80%-90% of the people kneel.” Most who don’t kneel “tend to do so because they physically have a hard time kneeling and standing back up, or because they are visiting the parish.”

 

Eucharistic Catechesis

Sharing how altar rails bring back sanctity and reverence when receiving the Eucharist, the pastor pointed out that “kneeling before Our Lord is the greatest physical expression of reverence and adoration we can make toward him, short of falling on our faces, as Scripture tells us they do in heaven. And what we do with our bodily signs of reverence, especially such a different and striking action, affects the way we interiorly understand the Eucharist and ourselves in relation to the Eucharist. The body expresses the worship and awe of the soul, and the body draws our soul to worship.”

Father De Celles also noted that Cardinal Robert Sarah once wrote: “The greatness and nobility of man, as well as the highest expression of his love for his Creator, consists in kneeling before God. Jesus himself prayed on his knees in the presence of the Father …”

With the return of the altar rails, the pastor has “seen such spiritual growth in my people, not simply regarding reverence at Mass but in their understanding of the meaning and profundity of the Eucharist and the Real Presence.”

Parishioner Renee LeBoeuf grew up without altar rails. After hearing Father De Celles’ teaching, she understood their purpose. “It is an incredible experience to kneel in reverence and anticipate Jesus in the Eucharist coming toward me. When Father approaches, the only thing you see is the Eucharist,” she said. “You’re not in line looking around, or distracted by anything. It is just you and Jesus. It is such a sacred moment.”

LeBoeuf has realized that using the altar rails at Communion “allows us to prepare ourselves, on bended knee, to receive our Lord and Savior. The altar railings have deepened my understanding and love of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist.”

The National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, has also restored its Communion rails — responding to pilgrims’ and locals’ desire to kneel when receiving Communion, beyond the use of a two-person kneeler, and in support of the National Eucharistic Revival.

When Marian Father Matthew Tomeny became the shrine’s new rector, he spearheaded the effort “to foster a greater sense of reverence for the Eucharist.” With unanimous approval of the Marian provincial council, the new altar rails were installed this Jubilee Year of Hope and blessed on Feb. 15, the feast of Blessed Michał Sopoćko, St. Faustina’s spiritual director, and in time to honor the 65th anniversary of the dedication of the shrine on May 30, 1960.

Retaining the beauty of the shrine chapel was also important. “We wanted it to look seamless with the rest of the design,” Father Tomeny explained. The rails were designed to blend with the original altar rails remaining in the side chapels. The white Carrara and brown marble arched pillars replicate those originals, and the rounded arches repeat architectural elements throughout the shrine, including the altar and the pillars of the stained-glass windows.

Father Tomeny reported that “people have been very excited,” offering “much positive feedback” about the returned rails — and the increased sense of reverence is evident.

“It is beautiful for me how people can come to the altar rail, how it’s been seen as the extension of the altar called, sometimes, ‘the people’s altar.’ It’s that threshold between heaven and earth, heaven being the sanctuary and earth being the nave where the people are gathered,” the rector said. “It’s a beautiful symbol of the priest, the spiritual father, representing Christ, reaching from heaven over the threshold of that altar rail to give Communion to the spiritual children.” 

Father Tomeny emphasized that “no Church document,” including the documents of Vatican II, “ever called for the removal of the altar rail.” Recent official Church documents, including the Vatican instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum (No. 91), have emphasized the right of the faithful to receive Communion standing or kneeling.

Many may be surprised to learn that the documents of Vatican II and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal do not call for the removal of altar rails. But since people could receive Communion standing up, in a misguided and imprudent move, the altar rails became part of the sacred architecture that was done away in many churches and left out of new ones being built — all to fit mistakenly into what was regarded as renovations for the reform of the times.

 

Eucharist’s Effect

The witness has other effects, too. Father Kwiatkowski said he has seen people who usually receive on the hand decide to receive on the tongue after observing fellow parishioners kneel to receive, adding that every person kneeling has more time “to reflect before receiving Communion.”

The peace is palpable, Father Tomeny also observed: “It’s more peaceful for the people because they can either kneel or stand waiting without feeling rushed to move on.”

Other benefits of the altar rail have reappeared. In addition to reverence, it’s an efficient way of distributing Communion, and Father Kwiatkowski finds no need for extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. 

Reverence has increased yet another way. Father Tomeny described how, outside of Mass, the faithful come to kneel at the rail and pray before the Blessed Sacrament or the Divine Mercy image or other images in the sanctuary, including images of the Immaculate Conception and the Trinity.

As this renewal is spreading, Father Kwiatkowski sees a simple answer for Who is responsible: “The Holy Spirit.”