Communion in the hand...to avoid spreading germs?

[GandalfTheWhite]

I really really dislike communion in the hand and I always get a bit irritated when I see it. I rather don’t look at people during the communion because it doesn’t help me in my prayer life. Basically I strongly believe that the old practice of kneeling while receiving communion on tongue should be restored.

BUT there is one special exception about which I’m split. What if you are sick? Now, of course people should stay home if they are sick…but not always being sick means that you are sneezing and spitting germs all around you. So what do you think about communion in the hand if one gets sick and wants to avoid the (pretty significant) possibility that priest would touch his tongue/lip? The other option one has is to not receive, but abstaining from the sacrament for 1-2 weeks doesn’t sound like a good option either.

Also, how was it done before the communion in the hand was allowed (I’m too young to remember that )? Would you just stay behind *or *ask the priest for permission beforehand *or *just risk it?

Pax Christi,
G

 

[smellslikeroses]

Personally I would continue to take it by mouth, and not by hand. Chances are any germs the person has is also on their hands because most people touch their hands to mouth alot. I think the risk of becoming sick or sharing your germs is the same for both ways.

 

[ncjohn]

Personally I would continue to take it by mouth, and not by hand. Chances are any germs the person has is also on their hands because most people touch their hands to mouth alot. I think the risk of becoming sick or sharing your germs is the same for both ways.

Actually, I would think the risk of spreading germs is much higher when done on the tongue. When one receives in the hand, one will possibly come into contact with whatever germs the person distributing has. But in receiving on the tongue, whatever germs are around will be passed on to the person distributing–either by touch or through breath–and then passed on to the people who receive after.

That being said, I wouldn’t personally change the way I receive in either case. I do refrain from the cup on occasions when I have an obvious cold as that contact seems much more likely to spread germs than that from the host.

 

[Liberanosamalo]

One of my children will not normally take it on the tongue any longer because of incompetent Eucharistic ministers. She has a thing about people touching her tongue to begin with. And one time she was in line and stuck out her tongue and the woman ordered her to take it in the hand. So now in order to avoid that kind of embarrassment ever again, she now takes it in the hand.

Thanks, EM! You really helped me try to teach respect for the Eucharist!

 

[bear06]

I really really dislike communion in the hand and I always get a bit irritated when I see it. I rather don’t look at people during the communion because it doesn’t help me in my prayer life. Basically I strongly believe that the old practice of kneeling while receiving communion on tongue should be restored.

BUT there is one special exception about which I’m split. What if you are sick? Now, of course people should stay home if they are sick…but not always being sick means that you are sneezing and spitting germs all around you. So what do you think about communion in the hand if one gets sick and wants to avoid the (pretty significant) possibility that priest would touch his tongue/lip? The other option one has is to not receive, but abstaining from the sacrament for 1-2 weeks doesn’t sound like a good option either.

Also, how was it done before the communion in the hand was allowed (I’m too young to remember that )? Would you just stay behind *or *ask the priest for permission beforehand *or *just risk it?

Pax Christi,
G

This irritates me to no end (not you Gandalf but this stupid theory). The germ reason for Communion in the hand is bogus. There are germ killing properties in saliva that aren’t found in the mucous membranes. You never kill germs in hand to hand contact. You only spread them that way. In short, you risk spreading viruses more readily in Communion in the hand.

I really think that people don’t understand how viruses are spread. It’s hardly ever through ingestion but through mucous pathways such as the eyes and the nose. People receive Communion in the hand and then rub their eyes and nose depositing the germs right where they need to go to flourish.

 

[Carrie_Andrews]

When I have an illness, I take communion in the hand, because I don’t want to spred my illness, otherwise I receive communion in the mouth. I’m too young to know what I would have done back in the day, maybe you just couldn’t receive if you couldn’t receive in the mouth?

 

[bear06]

When I have an illness, I take communion in the hand, because I don’t want to spred my illness, otherwise I receive communion in the mouth. I’m too young to know what I would have done back in the day, maybe you just couldn’t receive if you couldn’t receive in the mouth?

Please see above. Saliva has far more germ killing properties than the mucous membranes. Unless everyone is going to wash their hands just prior to Communion and not touch anything until Communion, Communion on the tongue is the safest way to receive.

 

[DaveBj]

If I really thought I was contagious, I would avoid Communion for that day. It’s not a sin to avoid communion, as long as one receives it at least once a year. And if I’m really hacking, sneezing, and coughing, I think my fellow mass-goers would probably bless me for abstaining that day.

 

[allhers]

Also, how was it done before the communion in the hand was allowed (I’m too young to remember that )? Would you just stay behind *or *ask the priest for permission beforehand *or *just risk it?

Pax Christi,
G

Everybody just received on the tongue. If you were so sick that you would be spreading germs (you had a fever) you would probably just stay home or not receive.

 

[Corki]

When I have an illness, I take communion in the hand, because I don’t want to spred my illness, otherwise I receive communion in the mouth. I’m too young to know what I would have done back in the day, maybe you just couldn’t receive if you couldn’t receive in the mouth?

“Back in the day” people were receiving at an altar rail while kneeling. It is much less likely that the priests hand would come in contact with a tongue in that configuration. Simple physics. Not to mention that the priests were (are if they say many EF Masses) much more adept at distributing on the tongue when everyone was receiving it that way than the EMHCs are today when it is a variant.

 

[ThuribleGuy45]

“Back in the day” people were receiving at an altar rail while kneeling. It is much less likely that the priests hand would come in contact with a tongue in that configuration. Simple physics. Not to mention that the priests were (are if they say many EF Masses) much more adept at distributing on the tongue when everyone was receiving it that way than the EMHCs are today when it is a variant.

Having been an altar boy for 8 years “back in the day” of altar rails and patens under the chin, and as an OMHC today, I can also add that people who choose to receive on the tongue today (maybe 3% of our parish) seem to have forgotten how to, uh, stick their tongue out. I find myself really having to work at placing the Host far enough in their mouth to ensure it doesn’t fall out. From my altar boy days, I recall that extended tongues were the norm, and involved far less “mouth contact” than what I experience today. So to that one extent, the “germ theory” may be slightly more of an issue today in some places.

 

[Volodymyr_988]

I don’t receive the Eucharist from a Eucharistic Minister on the tongue because (usually she) is not a priest. When receiving from a priest I always receive on the tongue.

But when one attends the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom the problem is solved because the Body and the Blood are both in the Chalice and the priest Communes the Communicant with a Liturgical Spoon.

 

[skatepixie]

If I’m too sick and I don’t want to get Father sick, I won’t recieve. If I’m like coughing all over the place, I might just stay home.

And, please, on a related note, do not recieve from the chalace (if at an OF mass) if you’ve got a virus.

 

[Liberanosamalo]

I will say on visits home when we attend one particular parish where the priest gives communion in tinction, and KNOWS how to give it, she does receive on the tongue.

But I have seen EMs who have acted like they have no clue what to do when I approach and stick my tongue out.

 

[jedi]

One of my children will not normally take it on the tongue any longer because of incompetent Eucharistic ministers. She has a thing about people touching her tongue to begin with. And one time she was in line and stuck out her tongue and the woman ordered her to take it in the hand. So now in order to avoid that kind of embarrassment ever again, she now takes it in the hand.

Thanks, EM! You really helped me try to teach respect for the Eucharist!

that woman must resign at once. how can she ordered her to take it in the hand??.. hand or tongue is a free choice. but i personally don’t use hand… if someone order me to take it by hand, i will just continue to stand there and open up my mouth…

PLS SUPPORT TLM…

 

[markadm]

that woman must resign at once. how can she ordered her to take it in the hand??.. hand or tongue is a free choice. but i personally don’t use hand… if someone order me to take it by hand, i will just continue to stand there and open up my mouth…

It’s dreadful. I think something should be done about people like that. After all, why then does the Church have guidance such as this:-

“Although each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, at his choice, if any communicant should wish to receive the Sacrament in the hand, in areas where the Bishops’ Conference with the recognitio of the Apostolic See has given permission, the sacred host is to be administered to him or her. However, special care should be taken to ensure that the host is consumed by the communicant in the presence of the minister, so that no one goes away carrying the Eucharistic species in his hand. If there is a risk of profanation, then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful (Redemptionis Sacramentum 92).”

 

[Melanie01]

Actually, I would think the risk of spreading germs is much higher when done on the tongue. When one receives in the hand, one will possibly come into contact with whatever germs the person distributing has.

… but if at a Tridentine Mass only the priest will distribute the Host and of course his hand is cleansed during the rite of the Mass…I maybe naive but I am prepared to run the slight risk of a germ on the Eucharist when chances of contagion on much higher in the pews surrounded by the congregation coughing, sneezing etc… I have attended the occasional Mass where the priest valiantly fulfilled his obligation when he really should haver been in bed…there was no communion for the congregation on those occasions…rare though they are