Clean up after Melkite Liturgy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Entwhistler
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
E

Entwhistler

Guest
I just served my first Melkite Liturgy. Being a Roman Rite Catholic it was definitely different but awesome. The Liturgy was said in a Roman Rite church so we put up a temporary iconostasis using two huge Icons. However, I have a question. After the liturgy there were left over consecrated hosts. Being a Roman Rite church that usually has Mass the hosts couldn’t really be saved and used for Mass later since they are leavened so they had to be consumed. So Father got the older altar servers and they consumed the hosts. Being a Roman Rite Catholic, is this okay to do? I believe only a priest or deacon can consume extra hosts in the Roman Rite.
 
Well . . . Father asked me once to help him consume the remaining Precious Blood after Communion :curtsey:. This time he consecrated a little too much for the congregation, had to drive somewhere after Mass, and with the two of us . . . we were all right.

I have no idea about the leavened bread Hosts.
 
Entwhistler said:
I just served my first Melkite Liturgy. Being a Roman Rite Catholic it was definitely different but awesome. The Liturgy was said in a Roman Rite church so we put up a temporary iconostasis using two huge Icons. However, I have a question. After the liturgy there were left over consecrated hosts. Being a Roman Rite church that usually has Mass the hosts couldn’t really be saved and used for Mass later since they are leavened so they had to be consumed. So Father got the older altar servers and they consumed the hosts. Being a Roman Rite Catholic, is this okay to do? I believe only a priest or deacon can consume extra hosts in the Roman Rite.
Click to expand...
Actually, they are NOT Consecrated, but blessed. Ask a Melkite priest if you doubt me on this. Sometimes, it is called antidoron.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidoron
 
With regards to the bread being leavened, you’ll find the same thing in all Byzantine Rite churches, Catholic or Orthodox.
 
First, are you sure it was consecrated bread and not antiphoron (or whatever it’s called in the Melkite tradition)? Antiphoron is unconsecrated bread that is distributed to the attendants at the end of the liturgy. Second, in the Byzantine tradition, if there is an overabundance of consecrated bread, it is not uncommon to have servers or others participating in the liturgy to consume the consecrated bread if it’s too overwhelming for the priest and deacon. The priest has to simply dispense non-clerics to do so. It’s no different than receiving communion.
 
It was consecrated. There was a little too much made since we don’t usually have a Melkite Liturgy.
 
Then having non-clerics consume what was left over was perfectly fine and valid. What should be done with it? Serve it with shrimp as an appetizer at the reception? Stop being so anal-retentive about these things. If you believe in God, he an take care of it.
 
I’m not sure about the Melkite tradition but once, way back in grade school, we had a class mass. The priest incorrectly assumed that it was a school mass and consecrated way too many hosts (this was in a chapel which didn’t have a tabernacle) and thus gave all of my classmates multiple hosts since he couldn’t quite possible consume all of them.

So yes, there are certain circumstances when the laity can consume extra hosts such as when there is no tabernacle, and the priest can’t quite possible consume all the hosts with reverence. Another occasion comes to mind: during the daily masses in Holy Week, leading up to Holy Thursday. The priest gave us multiple hosts during Communion since the Tabernacle had to be emptied for the start of the Triduum, and there was a lot of extra hosts.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top