ASK FATHER: Priest breaks the host during the consecration

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Can a one word sentence ever follow grammar rules?
 
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Thanks for posting this. I don’t disagree at all, but I do have one question: why? Why is the fractioning not done during the consecration itself? What’s the reasoning behind it? Always wondered that 🤔

And I guess that’s three questions… 😊
 
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pianistclare said:
So you’re saying the priests don’t know this?

What?
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I had never heard of that happening until I read Redemptionis Sacramentum. I figured it must be common somewhere but I’d never experienced it. Then in quick order I experienced it, first at a Mass celebrated by a bishop for a group of catechists and then later that summer when I attended Mass in a very small parish while on vacation.
 
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I think I’ve seen at least one priest do it at the wrong place (possibly 2?), but it’s been almost 20 years… it’s not something I run into very often.
 
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Darn, now I have to have my liturgical scorecards reprinted…I didn’t have that on the list!🤣
 
I really don’t understand. Can someone give me the dummies version
 
So, normally at Mass, the host is fractured after the Sign of Peace. This priest, however, fractured it during the actual consecration, specifically at the part “broke [the bread], and gave it to his disciples, saying…”. This is a big no-no and is against the rubrics for the Mass. This is such a big no-no that it is considered serious liturgical abuse and should not be repeated again. This, however, does not invalidate the consecration of the host.
 
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OP already did

sorry, that was uncharitable

j/k sorry meant no disrespect 😦
 
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brian_custer said:
OP already did
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yankeesouth said:
The fractio panis has a specific location assigned by the rubrics in the Roman Rite: after the Libera nos and before co-mingling and Agnus Dei. That is when it is to be done, with the accompanying prayer and then combination of a particle of the Host with the Blood in the chalice.
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Be nice if people put these things in their own words!

Ty Fauken
 
When I was in college there was a priest that regularly did this (breaking the bread at the consecration). I didn’t know until years later that it was a liturgical abuse.
 
If we had a big sports-style scoreboard that monitored the priest’s actions and scored him according to whether he had indeed read the black and did the red, would that in itself be a liturgical abuse?
 
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And we’re SURE this was purposeful and not because priests are often old and frail and not on the top of their game and hosts are delicate?

The guy is a retired priest. In my dioceses that means at youngest he’s 80+.

So much ruberic hand-wringing over what may have been an accident or a simple mistake.
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
And we’re SURE this was purposeful and not because priests are often old and frail and not on the top of their game and hosts are delicate?

The guy is a retired priest. In my dioceses that means at youngest he’s 80+.

So much ruberic hand-wringing over what may have been an accident or a simple mistake.
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Breaking the Host in half cannot happen by accident.

Yes, occasionally a small break might occur if the host is already cracked or damaged before the Mass starts. However, actually breaking a host in half takes too much pressure to happen accidentally.
 
Not what I’ve heard from elderly priests with unstable hands. Perhaps they were using a different brand, but I know that one reported that he feared breaking It during elevation, as he had done it once or twice. I think there are many factors and one shouldn’t automatically jump to the priest doing something wrong.
 
If they broke the bread at some random point in the prayer, then I would say it is likely an accident. If more than once it occurred at the point where the prayer said 'he took the break and broke it" then it was likely not an accident.

There was one priest I knew from the 70s who always broke it during the prayer at that point. I knew nothing of the rubrics at that time, other than that he probably was the finest priest I ever knew.
 
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