Dropping the host

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Brendan_64

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If a person drops the Eucharist by accident at Communion, what ought to happen? Pick up the host, consume it and mention to the priest after Mass?
 
you mean no one knows it? the Priest will consumes the host,or else the person consuming the host,or if no one notices it ,you can consume it or just inform the priest or the sacristan
 
The priest use to wipe or swab the area on the floor with a wet white cloth, after picking up the fallen host, ,but now a days, they don’t do i any more ,i feel very sad !
 
Aren’t people not supposed to touch the Eucharist? A friend of mine once told me that in his church the priest dropped the Eucharist while placing it in someone’s mouth and did not allow anyone to touch it and started yelling at people who had lunged forward to pick it up.
 
Salibi said:
Aren’t people not supposed to touch the Eucharist? A friend of mine once told me that in his church the priest dropped the Eucharist while placing it in someone’s mouth and did not allow anyone to touch it and started yelling at people
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Yes, i used to be a altar server ,in my school days ,the priest reprimanded me, not to touch it and he yelled at me,at that moment i felt bad but later my dad explained me of the same and why only the priest where allowed to touch the host.but not any more except few churches still do it.now this happens every day during mass throughout the world .
 
@Francis
This is not a hand vs mouth debate (which is not acceptable on these forums). The question was asked and answered appropriately. Please don’t invent more problems than there are with the OP’s question.
 
Cor_ad_Cor said:
This is not a hand vs mouth debate (which is not acceptable on these forums).
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i never said it was! My Apologies
Cor_ad_Cor said:
The question was asked and answered appropriately. Please don’t invent more problems
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Thanks for your gracious words, this is not the way to answer a brother in Christ ,forum rules also states to be polite and charitable right! Praying for you brother. God Bless
 
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If you don’t want to consume it you can give it to the priest and he’ll dispose of it. I think he can burnt it and bury the ashes “in a clean place”. What do they do with cloth stained by the Holy Blood? Same thing.
 
Cecilia_Dympna said:
The topic of in the hand or on the tongue has been done to death on CAF. Use the search function.
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Many of those threads will be closed or have many many comments to sift through. It is a question that comes up very very frequently but it is a question that will have to be answered and discussed very very frequently as people seek answers. Evangelizing and teaching our faith should never be considered “done to death”. There will always be new people coming to the forum and they will be asking the same old questions but the answers may be new to them.
 
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I accidentally dropped one within the past year. I still feel horrible about it. I got part of the host the priest raised at consecration (it was more fragile since it wasn’t circular like the ordinary ones) and it crumbled in my hands.

Tell the priest after Mass and pick Him up if you see where He fell.
 
Thom18 said:
Tell the priest after Mass and pick Him up if you see where He fell.
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Why would anyone think it was necessary to tell the priest if a Host had been dropped then reverently picked up again and consumed?

What would there be for the priest to do about it? The situation had been handled.
 
One time I was altar serving, the servers sat off to the left of the Priest and Deacon chairs. This church used hosts and square homemade bread at the time for consecration.

Well one time during the Agnes Dei, as they were putting the hosts and breads in different bowls, one of the breads flew under the altar (as the altar has a section under it that’s open but very dark since the altar is stone). Meaning, nobody would ever notice this consecrated bread (looks like a crouton). So I got up right during the Agnus Dei and rapped the Deacon on the shoulder (the Deacon was actually related to me) and said that a piece of bread just flew under the altar.

They quickly got the piece and ate it. After mass the Priest came over to me and shook my hand and said he was extremely glad I said something because he said two weeks ago he noticed a piece of bread under the altar that got really hard like a rock and he said he felt terrible and was had cried over it. So he said he was extremely grateful that I quickly told him. He’s really a nice priest. The church no longer uses bread, just hosts and this was one of the main reasons why, so no bread would get hard if not noticed. They also weren’t making this bread correctly, they were supposively adding stuff which isn’t allowed
 
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I was taught to pick up the host and consume it and then the Eucharistic ministers were to place a purificator on the spot so any crumbs on the floor, which are fully our Lord, would not be walked on and then drug around the floor on the bottom of a person’s shoe. If you saw a purificator on the floor you weren’t to step on it because you’d be walking on our Lord. After mass the Eucharistic minister or the priest were to come over and pour water over the purificator (since the host is just flour and water) so that it would be broken down and adhere to the purificator. The purificator was then to be washed in the sink in the sacristy.

I recently saw a host dropped at my parish and mentioned it to the deacon in training and he had no clue why I was informing him that a host was dropped but he went to ask what was to be done. The deacon in my parish immediately walked out with a couple purificators and washed the location. Sadly, the Eucharistic minister didn’t know to put a purificator down so people had walked over the location so who knows if there were crumbs carried off. 😭
 
Simply follow the directives of the extraordinary minister.
If he does not react and you reasonably do not wish to consume the host pick it up and ask the minister if you can place it on the open corporal on the altar. He will then deal with it from there. It would usually be dissolved in water until it is no longer functionally bread and then the liquid disposed of in the usual respectful fashion.
 
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It only happened to me once, it was the EMHC at a parish we were singing at, that dropped it. I immediately picked it up and consumed it, invoking the “3 second rule”. The EMHC thanked me profusely as it obviously saved him a major hassle.

I don’t see the need to mention it to anyone if you consume it. It happens. Jesus understands we aren’t perfect. If one doesn’t consume it then presumably the EMHC is trained to deal with it, and most certainly the priest is, if he was distributing. If it isn’t consumed, it likely will be set aside and will end up in the sacrarium with reverence by the priest.
 
So, as an EMHC, this my concern:

What is the correct thing to do when the precious blood is spilled during distribution of the Eucharist?

_The answer per Catholic.com is: _

The spill should never be left to dry. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal states: “If any of the precious blood spills, the area should be washed and the water poured into the sacrarium” (280).

All ministers of Holy Communion should show the greatest reverence for the Most Holy Eucharist by their demeanor, their attire, and the manner in which they handle the consecrated bread or wine. Should there be any mishap—as when, for example, the consecrated wine is spilled from the chalice—then the affected area . . . should be washed and the water poured into the sacrarium. ( Norms for the Distribution and Reception of Holy Communion Under Both Kinds in the Dioceses of the United States of America , 29)

But this doesn’t entirely make sense to me. As an EMHC, Should I leave my place, go get water, and pour water on the floor where the spill occurred and wipe it up with the purificator?

Luckily this hasn’t happened to me, but it is a possibility, so being prepared would a save me from be frozen in place if it were to happen.
 
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