A question for Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion

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Sir_Knight

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I’m an EMHC. I usually minister to the sick & homebound and normally do not distribute during Mass except when asked to do so because they are short-handed. As a result, I have very limited experience in distributing during Mass and thus the reason for my question which follows below …

Immediately after receiving, we go off to distribute our Lord to others concentrating on the task at hand. When do we focus on our Lord, Whom we have just received?

Thank you in advance for your replies.
 
Sir Knight:
Immediately after receiving, we go off to distribute our Lord to others concentrating on the task at hand. When do we focus on our Lord, Whom we have just received?
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The model Jesus left for us is Servant Leadership. You are focusing on Him as you perform your ministry. It is easier to be a holy man alone on a mountain top than to walk in holiness among the people as you perform your daily duties. You have taken a higher road. Let go of your doubt.
 
I wasn’t having doubts. Just wondering how it was done. When I normally receive, I thank our Lord for suffering & dying on the cross for my sins. I apologize to Him for my failures & offenses. I thank Him for all of the things that He has blessed me with and I ask for His continued help in all areas of my life.

When I was distributing our Lord to others, there was no time to focus on any of that and was wondering how it was done.
 
Sir_Knight said:
Immediately after receiving, we go off to distribute our Lord to others concentrating on the task at hand. When do we focus on our Lord, Whom we have just received?
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(I am not an EMHC.) That is an interesting question, and one that I had not thought of. I assume that there is enough time after the distribution of Communion and before the post-Communion prayer to silently reflect and pray by yourselves… at least, I hope there is!

The priest is in the same boat as you, in the E.F. and O.F. of Mass. He doesn’t have any reflection time until after Communion has been distributed. But his manner of reflection is different from ours, because (ordinarily) he will be purifying the sacred vessels at this time and there are prayers for him to say at this time.

I think your question is a reason why there should be ample silence provided for personal prayer after Communion has finished and before the post-Communion prayer.
 
japhy said:
(I am not an EMHC.) That is an interesting question, and one that I had not thought of. I assume that there is enough time after the distribution of Communion and before the post-Communion prayer to silently reflect and pray by yourselves… at least, I hope there is!
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Actually, there isn’t. This happened this past Sunday and just as I knelt down in my pew, it was time to get up. Thus the reason for my question from those more experienced than I in this matter.
 
Sir_Knight said:
Actually, there isn’t. This happened this past Sunday and just as I knelt down in my pew, it was time to get up. Thus the reason for my question from those more experienced than I in this matter.
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I would speak to the priest, then, and request that a little more time be allotted in the Mass for silent prayer after Communion has been finished.
 
japhy said:
(I am not an EMHC.) That is an interesting question, and one that I had not thought of. I assume that there is enough time after the distribution of Communion and before the post-Communion prayer to silently reflect and pray by yourselves… at least, I hope there is!
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Often, EMHCs who minister to the sick receive Communion, are given the Blessed Sacrament to take their brothers and sisters and IMMEDIATELY leave the church to do that. They don’t go back to their pews. Their ministry IS their prayer.
 
Sir_Knight said:
Immediately after receiving, we go off to distribute our Lord to others concentrating on the task at hand. When do we focus on our Lord, Whom we have just received?
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This is something you have to develop on your own. Personally when I do it I pray in the car. Depending on the distance between the church and the hospital/homebound person I either pray spontaneous prayer, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and/or the Rosary. It is a wonderful blessing to be able to pray with the body of Jesus on your person.

You shouldn’t be treating the trip to the person you are visiting as a “normal” car trip. You should have the radio off and be in quiet prayer (of course also paying attention to the road.)
 
Originally Posted by Sir Knight
Immediately after receiving, we go off to distribute our Lord to others concentrating on the task at hand. When do we focus on our Lord, Whom we have just received?
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If I don’t get time at Communion, I like to stay after the final hymn for a few minutes.
 
Request that there be a few seconds of quiet time after communion. Usually the Priest will sit for a bit to pray after communion silently, and we should be able to also. There should be silence available for everyone to pray and reflect.

Silence is very important and should be available for you.

In Christ
Scylla
 
Since I started as an EMHC, I find the time when everyone else is receiving a time of great joy *with *the Lord, whether or not I am an extraordinary minister that week.

At Holy Communion, every face can be looked upon in the holy light of the Heavenly Liturgy. Every person is someone whom the Lord thirsts for! Every one is His delight, someone whom He is fitting for Heaven! It is such a joy to Our Lord, whan a soul opens itself to Him, even in the slightest degree. So much of the world is shut off to Him entirely! What can the Holy Spirit not do, if we open the door of our hearts to Our Lord, even so much as a crack? To be there, being of some small assistance as the Lord gives Himself totally to each person, as He pursues every single soul with such tireless ardor, as if each one was the only soul ever made–this is such an incredible privelege and grace!

Even so, it is a tiny thing that EMHCs do, considered in light of what a priest does. Sometimes, I do not know how they bear it. It is almost too wonderful.

As you point out, though, this cannot be something that is done just during Mass. Someone who serves as an EMHC does need to make every effort to open their hearts to Our Lord in the Eucharist in a larger way. We need to make extra time for prayer in general and Eucharistic devotion in particular, including devotion outside the Mass. This is something priests and deacons ideally do, too, but many do not have the time to do what they would like. Our little devotions as EMHCs can become a way to be some little help to their priestly ministries, as little sisters and brothers particularly given to help them in these difficult times.

Until we have more priests and deacons, so that we are no longer needed–as much as I love being an EMHC, may that day come soon!–we help them not just as hands but as hearts. Those who alone are anointed to serve at the altar need that more now that they have fewer brothers who have been ordained to share the load.

We would do well to offer everything we do as EMHC in reverence and hope, that the Lord may grant such an increase in vocations to the priesthood and diaconate that these may indeed be “extraordinary times”. May we offer our service faithfully, in such a way that we soon have so many men ordained that the days of EMHC in the Catholic Church turn out to have been a short-lived phenomenon!
 
Sir_Knight said:
I’m an EMHC. I usually minister to the sick & homebound and normally do not distribute during Mass except when asked to do so because they are short-handed. As a result, I have very limited experience in distributing during Mass and thus the reason for my question which follows below …

Immediately after receiving, we go off to distribute our Lord to others concentrating on the task at hand. When do we focus on our Lord, Whom we have just received?

Thank you in advance for your replies.
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Here everyone receives and returns to their seats and spends a few minutes reflecting. Just before the final Blessing, the Extraordinary Ministers to the Sick and Home Bound go up and receive their pyx and are sent with a blessing. Then everyone stands for the final Blessing.
 
I make sure to open my heart and allow myself to see Jesus in the eyes of those I am serving. I find that the time I spend as an EMHC is really quite meditative and really allows me to connect with Him in a unique way.
 
I think the greatest prayer you could offer to God would be to concentrate on faithfully and reverently filling in as an EMHC(the position is supposed to be tempoary and ‘extraordinary’)- as an altar sever, many times the EMHC’s I hold the paten for show very little respect for the Blessed Sacrament, and handle the sacred vessels like tupperware. Thank God for His sacrifice by worthily fulfilling your tasks and reverently handling His Body- MAKE those who receive from you see that it is GOD they are being given, by your expression, your posture, the way you handle the Sacred Hosts, and so on. In this way, while you cannot focus and contemplate the gift God has given you in the Blessed Sacrament, you can help others to realize just what it is they are doing when they approach the Lord. 👍
 
Sir_Knight said:
Immediately after receiving, we go off to distribute our Lord to others concentrating on the task at hand. When do we focus on our Lord, Whom we have just received?
Click to expand...
I understand your question. I have come to very much savor the brief moments, like when we say “Lord I am not worthy…”. There is time for us to pray prior to receiving at that time, because we are already lined up off to the side then. I have found that I cannot allow myself much reflection after receiving, or else I hold other people up for my lack of noticing what I ought to be doing. Instead, I always stay after mass to finish any thanksgiving. There is not really enough time after I return to the pew to regain my recollection and do it. However, I do have a type of prayer that I say the entire time I am distributing. I spend the time being very reverent and aware of the task at hand, to grasp each host individually, securely, to place the host lovingly, to gently smile and never frown, to see the hands of my fellows and pray for each person. It is not the same type of awareness as I normally have upon receiving, though. Perhaps if I do it for many more years, I will find better ways to pray at the same time as acting.

It has a different feeling and rhythm than bringing communion to the sick individually.
 
I apologize for jumping in here since I am not an EMHC.

But I am a mother and a choir member and in the course of dealing with music and unruly children I think I’ve learned a general principle that is applicable to your situation. After you’ve taken all the steps possible to ‘fix’ the ‘problem’ (and you’ve gotten some great suggestions) then you accept that participating in the liturgy ‘properly’ is sometimes not what you are called to do at a particular instance in time.

It was a hard lesson for me to learn but I’ve found that praying privately after communion is really more about us than it is about the Lord. And sometimes we are called to forgo the luxury of time in quiet prayer for the sake of others. I used to egotistically think that I owed that time of praise to God and that I was acting improperly if I was not praying. In reality, it’s the other way around. That time is part of what God normally gives to us. But on occasion, He calls us to postpone that time, just as Jesus sometimes had to postpone his private prayer time to minister to the sick. (Granted, that was not in the middle of liturgy.)
 
If there is no time before the end of mass why not spend a few minutes in prayer after mass. You will probably find the parking lot a lot less congested and if you spend 10 or 15 minutes in prayer you will get home only a minute or two later, at least that is the case in our parish.
 
I am not a EMHC, but when I was in the choir, I also struggled with this, we weren’t allowed to kneel during the consecration, or the Ecce Angus Dei, and we weren’t allowed even half a minute to completely swallow the Sacred Body of Our Lord before we had to start singing. It bothered me very much. At the church I go to now, they play a tape of monks singing during Holy Communion time, and after the priest has finished purifying the vessels, he stands at the altar in silent prayer for about five minutes. The Church is in complete silence, you could hear a pin drop, it is wonderful to have those five minutes of silence. He is a great priest and he was once a monk, so he learned the value of silence, and he is trying to teach it to us.

I hope that your pastor will have pity on you and allow those few minutes with Our Lord. They are precious moments, and we must savor them God has come to us, we must thank him.
 
Pug said:
…I have come to very much savor the brief moments, like when we say “Lord I am not worthy…”. There is time for us to pray prior to receiving at that time, because we are already lined up off to the side then. I have found that I cannot allow myself much reflection after receiving, or else I hold other people up for my lack of noticing what I ought to be doing. Instead, I always stay after mass to finish any thanksgiving. There is not really enough time after I return to the pew to regain my recollection and do it. However, I do have a type of prayer that I say the entire time I am distributing. I spend the time being very reverent and aware of the task at hand, to grasp each host individually, securely, to place the host lovingly, to gently smile and never frown, to see the hands of my fellows and pray for each person. It is not the same type of awareness as I normally have upon receiving, though. Perhaps if I do it for many more years, I will find better ways to pray at the same time as acting.

It has a different feeling and rhythm than bringing communion to the sick individually.
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This may be why taking Holy Communion to the Sick is more what God has in mind for you to do. That is OK!

You sound like you’re doing well. It’s like some of the other posters said: the priest, the choir, the servers holding the patens, and even the parents of small children make that sacrifice at Mass, too. You do what you can in the way of “solutions”, but then offer up the sacrifice that is asked of you for the sake of those who are in the same boat as you are, only there more often.
 
Hello, fellow EMHC! It’s wonderful to be able to answer this question. When I receive the Body and Blood of Christ and I am getting prepared to serve the Church, I make a sign of the cross right after receiving either. When I take my assigned spot on the floor, I usually focus on the humbling task at hand, because I’m usually nervous that something’s going to happen (like accidentally dropping it), that I can’t focus on anything else. Then, when I get back to my seat, I kneel and thank God for this humbling task and the ability to serve His people. I hope this helps! 🙂
 
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