A growing number of Catholic parishes in the U.S. are restoring altar rails, renewing reverence and transforming the faithful’s experience of the Holy Eucharist.
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.”
More: https://www.ncregister.com/features/the-return-of-altar-rails
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