Consuming excess precious blood

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ramsfan10

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Hello,
I was recently certified as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion for the diocese of my university. Today at mass, the priest asked for two ministers to come forward, and so I went up. There was a large amount of wine in the cup for the amount of people present. Of the 60 or so people that come up to receive, less than 6-7 took the Precious Blood, so this left nearly half a cup of the Precious blood. As the same thing had happened to the other communion minister, I feared that the priest would have to consume a lot of the Precious Blood, so I finished what was remaining from my cup and returned it. Only afterwards did the other minister tell me that there was only a little left in her cup, and so there wouldnt have been a problem for the priest to consume all of what was remaining in my chalice. I acted on what I thought was right to do, but I did consume several mouthfuls of the Precious Blood. I feel bad about this, did I do something wrong. I guess I should have consumed some, taken it to the priest, and asked if he needed help in consuming the rest, but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do, and i was a little nervous. Any opinions? thanks.
 
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GRIM) states that any remnants of the blood of Christ should be consumed at the alter by either the Priest, Deacon, or Instituted Acolyte who adminstistered the cup.

However, the overriding concern is covered by GRIM # 279 which states, “Care must be taken that whatever may remain of the Blood of Christ after the distribution of Communion is consumed immediately and completely at the altar.”

It is not an uncommon practice for the EMHC who adminster the cup to consume the remnants of the Blood after returning to the sanctuary. Especially in large Parishes where there may be several EMHC serving the cup at Mass with only one Priest and no Deacon.

I don’t think you did anything grossly illicit. As an EMHC at my Parish we are instructed to consume the remainder of the blood from our cup after returning to the sanctuary. For peace of mind I would discuss this with your Priest and follow his guidance on how to handle this type of situation in the future.
 
OldRedleg said:
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GRIM) states that any remnants of the blood of Christ should be consumed at the alter by either the Priest, Deacon, or Instituted Acolyte who adminstistered the cup.

However, the overriding concern is covered by GRIM # 279 which states, “Care must be taken that whatever may remain of the Blood of Christ after the distribution of Communion is consumed immediately and completely at the altar.”

It is not an uncommon practice for the EMHC who adminster the cup to consume the remnants of the Blood after returning to the sanctuary. Especially in large Parishes where there may be several EMHC serving the cup at Mass with only one Priest and no Deacon.

I don’t think you did anything grossly illicit. As an EMHC at my Parish we are instructed to consume the remainder of the blood from our cup after returning to the sanctuary. For peace of mind I would discuss this with your Priest and follow his guidance on how to handle this type of situation in the future.
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I hate extra blood. I had a serve once who used to fill the chalice with wine before mass when we only had like 15 people. so I always had like 3/4 a chalice of blood leftover. man, that blood sure can give you quite a rush. thank GOD I only celebrated one mass a day. 😃
 
I recently went through EMHC training and this was what we were told to do. If there is excess precious blood then we were told to consume it, or if we didn’t want to or couldn’t then just leave it for the priest/other EMHC to consume.
 
While normally the rest of the Chalice should be consumed by the Priest or Deacon, I’m sure your intentions were the best.

In the future, ask the celebrating priest what he wishes, before Mass if possible.
 
I am still trying to figure out why EMHCs are needed at a weekday Mass with 60 people receiving communion.
 
Chatter163 said:
I am still trying to figure out why EMHCs are needed at a weekday Mass with 60 people receiving communion.
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So everyone can be involved and participate in the Mass, regardless of the need.

That was supposed to be dripping with sarcasm, for those that couldn’t tell. I think EMHC’s are grossly over-used and have almost become OMHC’s.
 
Chatter163 said:
I am still trying to figure out why EMHCs are needed at a weekday Mass with 60 people receiving communion.
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It’s still pretty hard to distribute the Eucharist under both species when there’s only 1 priest.
 
curlycool89 said:
It’s still pretty hard to distribute the Eucharist under both species when there’s only 1 priest.
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Not at all, the priest can distribute via intinction - that’s how the priest at daily NO mass in my parish distributes communion, no EMHC necessary. Since we have an altar rail most people receive kneeling, although there are a few people with bad knees, backs etc who stand to receive. 👍
 
ramsfan10 said:
Hello,
I was recently certified as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion for the diocese of my university. Today at mass, the priest asked for two ministers to come forward, and so I went up. There was a large amount of wine in the cup for the amount of people present. Of the 60 or so people that come up to receive, less than 6-7 took the Precious Blood, so this left nearly half a cup of the Precious blood. As the same thing had happened to the other communion minister, I feared that the priest would have to consume a lot of the Precious Blood, so I finished what was remaining from my cup and returned it. Only afterwards did the other minister tell me that there was only a little left in her cup, and so there wouldnt have been a problem for the priest to consume all of what was remaining in my chalice. I acted on what I thought was right to do, but I did consume several mouthfuls of the Precious Blood. I feel bad about this, did I do something wrong. I guess I should have consumed some, taken it to the priest, and asked if he needed help in consuming the rest, but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do, and i was a little nervous. Any opinions? thanks.
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Not only was what you did not wrong (although maybe not smart,) you are new at this, so give yourself a break. Furthermore it was commendable that you offered to help when the call went out. 👍
 
A2SciTeach said:
Not at all, the priest can distribute via intinction - that’s how the priest at daily NO mass in my parish distributes communion, no EMHC necessary. Since we have an altar rail most people receive kneeling, although there are a few people with bad knees, backs etc who stand to receive. 👍
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I’ve got to be perfectly honest, I have never seen communion by intinction (except at the Ukrainian Catholic Divine Liturgy I once attended, but never in the Roman Catholic mass). There’s also no rail at the college chapel where I attend daily mass. Most people receive CITH (standing).
 
curlycool89 said:
I’ve got to be perfectly honest, I have never seen communion by intinction (except at the Ukrainian Catholic Divine Liturgy I once attended, but never in the Roman Catholic mass). There’s also no rail at the college chapel where I attend daily mass. Most people receive CITH (standing).
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You could ask your priest if he would consider distributing by intinction, he may like the idea and go for it. It wouldn’t hurt to ask, anyway.
 
A2SciTeach said:
You could ask your priest if he would consider distributing by intinction, he may like the idea and go for it. It wouldn’t hurt to ask, anyway.
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No, please don’t, not without checking if there’s any coeliacs in the congregation, as that would mean they couldn’t receive Holy Communion unless a separate chalice was provided for them.

And even if there’s no coeliacs right now, you will need to check this at least once a year.
 
The only time I was last in line to receive the precious blood was at a daily Mass. The one administering the cup asked me softly to finish consuming the remains and then said “The Body of Christ”. It seems like a simple solution to the problem. The communicate receives what is offered and no one self-communicates.
 
paperwight said:
No, please don’t, not without checking if there’s any coeliacs in the congregation, as that would mean they couldn’t receive Holy Communion unless a separate chalice was provided for them.

And even if there’s no coeliacs right now, you will need to check this at least once a year.
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Considering that celiacs have recently been in the news about the Eucharist in our diocese, I’d say that it wouldn’t be likely that they’d introduce intinction right now.

But this thread isn’t about EMHC, so let’s not drag it off topic.
pnewton said:
The only time I was last in line to receive the precious blood was at a daily Mass. The one administering the cup asked me softly to finish consuming the remains and then said “The Body of Christ”. It seems like a simple solution to the problem. The communicate receives what is offered and no one self-communicates.
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I’ve had this happen to me too. It seems like a wise idea (unless there’s like half a chalice left or something).
 
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