Drinking after others

[HOMM]

A priest I know has had two sick days in 50 years.

Well, not sure his good fortune and strong constitution has anything to do with the scenario, since he would take from a cup either reserved for his exclusive use, or would take first, before the lips of countless faithful come into contact with the cup…a more legitimate study would be the health of a person receiving from a communal cup last.

 

[JackMcCoy]

Life is a risk/reward proposition. Partaking in the Cup is a risk, but it also is a Big Reward. Hallelujah, Amen!

 

[JackMcCoy]

I do not partake in the Precious Blood, because I fear dropping the Chalice. But if I did, your sentiments would be mine, exactly.

 

[Camehome4john6]

I never receive from the chalice not because I am worried about getting sick but because I don’t want to keep others after me from refraining. I have chronic sinusitis. I’m quite sniffly but not infectious. I just have a lot of scar tissue and inflammation from allergies, past sinus surgeries, and lots of past sinus infections. I don’t want the person who was sitting behind me refusing the cup because he/she heard me sniffling and would think they’d catch something after me.

 

[Bluebright]

Trust in God and ask him to help you not drop his blood. I have a dizziness disorder and ask him this all the time. I have his blood every day and never drop it. Of course out of respect I am careful with him and would also step past if I needed to or ask to minister to help me. God is no doubt careful with me and my unintentional clumsiness in return. Perhaps try it if you wish to receive the blood but if it worries you this much you need not receive you have all of Him in the Eucharist.

 

[TomH1]

If you are so concerned you do not have to drink from the chalice.

In my experience as a biologist, people have become paranoid about germs and hygiene.

 

[HeDa]

The priest or deacon present at the Mass would also be the one who consumes the last of the Blood of Christ. Rinsing the chalice with water to get every drop of the Precious Blood and drinking that as well as germs.

 

[PetraG]

I have seen information from the CDC saying that churchgoers who partake of a common cup do not experience sickness at a rate any higher than churchgoers who do not or even compared to people who don’t attend church. This is probably because people who care enough to go to church probably take common-sense precautions to avoid passing around infections when they know they have a communicable disease and to avoid as many risks as possible if they are particularly vulnerable to infection.
If you have a particular concern, it is OK to receive under only one species.

 

[PetraG]

We always joked that our kids probably got extra resistance because we let them play near the bird feeder, since it apparently didn’t kill them.

I do think it is reasonable to take steps to avoid transmitting microbes or viruses when there is something serious going around, because there are vulnerable people who need the herd to help them avoid exposure.

I also remember an experiment in which preschools cut their respiratory illness rate in half one winter simply by having the children wash their hands as soon as they came into the school room and immediately before they went home. There is a middle ground between over-sanitizing and not caring about hygiene at all.

If you are so concerned you do not have to drink from the chalice.

In my experience as a biologist, people have become paranoid about germs and hygiene.

I wish I could find it, but I laughed hard at the cartoon depicting one hunter-gather saying to the other: “Do you have any hand sanitizer I could borrow?”

I try to be super-careful around airports, because the chances of picking up and transmitting something weird is higher where there are people coming in from so many different and distant places, but IMHO there is a point at which the immune system has to be allowed to do its job.