You can find here the catholic point of view:
Straight Answers: Why Is the Precious Blood Not Distributed at Every Mass?:
"...While affirming this teaching, the "General Instruction on the Roman Missal" (No. 240) did assert that the "meaning" of Communion is most clearly signified when given under both species — both the Precious Blood and the Sacred Host. Here the imagery of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ and of being joined with the Messianic Banquet becomes most clear. Nevertheless, since a person receives "the whole and entire" Christ under each species, the Church is obedient to the command of the Lord to eat His Body and drink His Blood by just offering one species to the congregation, even though this partaking is best signified when both species are offered and consumed. For this reason, the Church has not mandated that both species should always be offered. (Please note that in the Eastern Rite, the priest regularly administers Holy Communion with a spoon, distributing the Sacred Host soaked with the Precious Blood.)
Granted, in the very early Church, Holy Communion under both species was distributed. The practice, however, gradually changed to avoid "some dangers and scandals," according to the Council of Constance (1415). These reasons ranged from the spillage of the Precious Blood in its distribution, to health concerns from sharing the same cup, to inebriation, and to absconding with the sacred vessels. However, some areas of the Church continued to offer Communion under both species even into the 12th century.
...
In 1984, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in America decided that the policy was left to the local ordinary of each diocese. Each bishop must weigh the spiritual needs of his diocese with any practical concerns. In the Diocese of Arlington, Holy Communion may not be administered under both species on Sundays and Holy Days. Whatever regulations a diocese issues regarding this practice, no one should construe the reception of just one species as a violation of what our Lord instituted at the Last Supper..."
But the most outrageous Catholic doctrine is the following:"
The Council of Trent, session 21, CHAPTER IV, teaches: "Little children
without the use of reason are not bound by any necessity to the sacramental Communion of the Eucharist, since having been regenerated through the bath of baptism (Titus 3:5) and having been members of the Body of Christ they cannot at that age lose the grace of the children of God which has already been attained."
It is a defined doctrine (dogma) of divine and Catholic faith that the actual reception of the Eucharist is not necessary for the salvation of infants (Council of Trent, session 21, canon 4).
The Eucharist is
morally (not absolutely) necessary for adults to persevere for a long time in the state of grace.
The Church is the guardian and minister of the sacraments. Her teaching and practice show us how to make use of the sacraments according to God's will."
So in this context, as the Catholic church thinks of it, the Eucharist becomes an anti-immorality filter that preserves "the state of grace", "with the use of reason" and it satisfies the need that "bounds by the necessity" of "lost grace". This
most false doctrine is due to the Roman-Catholic ignorance of the personal experience of the Eucharist as a personal meeting with Christ !
According to St. Maximos
Orthodox point of view, Eucharist is offerd to every member of the Church, because every member of the Church has the will (not the need) to meet Christ:
"
The exhortation by the Bishop or Priest, "With fear of God, faith and love draw near", indicates the three classes of the saved. To the first category
(with fear) belong the slaves, who do the will of God from fear. To the second category
(with faith) belong the mercenaries, who out of a desire for promised benefits bear with patience the burden and heat of the day, that is, the affliction innate in and yoked to the present life by the condemnation of our first parents, and the temptations from it on behalf of virtue. And in the third category
(and love) are listed the sons of God, those who are never separated from God, but struggle to maintain this relationship and unity, and they do not do it out of fear of threats or out of the desire for promised things, "but rather by the tendency and habit of soul towards what is good in spirit".
Thus, by this interpretation, the divine Eucharist indicates man's whole journey to sharing in the eternal blessings and participating in the everlasting age to come. There already exists a foretaste of the future blessings."
Of course in this context everyone, including the little children and infants can participate into the "eternal blessing in the everlasting age to come", because this experience
is an ontological experience of meeting Christ as man, a bodily experience, and not an experience based on reason.
The distorted Roman-Catholic point of view comes from the Augustinian-platonic conception of "the meeting with God", as a mere noetic "knowledge" of God, and not as a living experience. The bodily experiences, for Roman-Catholics are the means to accomplish this intellectual "knowledge".
The Greek Orthodox experience is that "the meeting with God" is a personal meeting inside our hearts, that includes the whole man - body included. One can realise this by seeing the little babies as they receive Communion with their parents and grandparents. In Greek Orthodox Church this is how we understand the words of the Lord:
Luke 18:16 "But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Also, the Greek Orthodox Church never experienced "health concerns from sharing the same cup, and inebriation problems in relation to Eucharist ". I guess this is due to fact that the received "wine" and "bread" never turn out into the peptic system of Orthodox Christians! (I wonder, why the roman-catholics have to use their peptic system on their "holy communion", as the Council of Constance faced this as a problem to be solved)
