Communion Wafer Expiration Date?

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TheDenMan

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I have always wondered if the communion wafers have an expiration date. They always taste so stale. Do communion wafers expire?
 
I know the Host used for perpetual adoration has to be changed once a month, but I don’t know if that’s just a good rule of thumb or law. There is no expiration date. The Real Presence remains as long as the accidents do. Once the Sacred Host or Precious Blood no longer look, act, smell, feel, or taste like bread and wine, then they are no longer Jesus. Any Host that may be found under a pew or some other place should be reverently consumed. The Host, if He cannot be consumed, should be reverently burried even if the Host doesn’t have the original appearance just to be on the safe side.

This brings up another question in my mind. If the Sacred Species are no longer the Sacred Species when the accidents change, then isn’t that a second transubstantiation? The species undergo transubstatiation at the consecration and then again durring digestion. Am I getting that right? Seems like I’m missing something.

Pax
 
I heave read of miraculous hosts, having undergone transubstansiation and being consumed after decades still being fresh. I belive it!

Its is possible for them to last many decades if properly concecreted.
 
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TheDenMan:
I have always wondered if the communion wafers have an expiration date. They always taste so stale. Do communion wafers expire?
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If sealed in the original packaging unconsecrated hosts will usually last several years. Once opened usually several months if kept in a sealed container. Consecrated Hosts will usually be used within a few days to a few weeks. Again the ciborium is required to have a “tight fitting lid”.
 
I have tasted some wafers that taste stale but the funny thing is that those were at the Novus Ordo. I have no recollection of stale hosts at the Tridentine. 🙂
  • Joe
 
Br. Rich SFO:
If sealed in the original packaging unconsecrated hosts will usually last several years. Once opened usually several months if kept in a sealed container. Consecrated Hosts will usually be used within a few days to a few weeks. Again the ciborium is required to have a “tight fitting lid”.
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They may still be consumable, but in no way will they still be fresh. By definition they cannot contain preservatives. Even in their original sealed packaging, they’ll be semi-fresh for a year or two at best.

Keeping them in the freezer would certainly help…
 
We keep ours refrigerated. Sometimes we get an old batch however and they are very brittle. Sometimes they break when you put the consecrated host in someone’s hand. Most folks consume the host revertly, but it can be worrysome. It’s almost a case to bring back communion on the tongue, only. Also, when doing the purification of the vessels, some older hosts leave more particles that must be carefully consumed. This is Jesus! I pray that God will send his grace on those who no longer believe in “True Presence,” that they may once again believe.

Deacon Tony SFO
 
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Bill_A:
Its is possible for them to last many decades if properly concecreted.
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Bill,

I hate to disillusion you, but “proper consecration” (whatever that means) has nothing to do with how long a Host “lasts”. The wafers still retain the accidents of bread, even after consecration and, in most instances, will deteriorate eventually because of the accidents.

Many years,

Neil

Many years,
 
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