Using the words “dunking” and “gross” when referring to receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord?
Surely there’s a way to express any concerns, and still be respectful.
Good point. I’ll watch out in the future.
Actually, that is not possible, no. You are incorrect in your reasoning. The sacred species are not immune from disease because think about it: if they were immune, then it would be scientifically possible to precisely discern consecrated Eucharist from ordinary bread and wine. It is not possible to discern these physically, so the sacred species must retain all the physical properties of their natural form.
That being said, I sincerely agree with your proposal for intinction. It is a fantastic way to reverently disallow CITH. The only problem is the logistics. First of all, not all parishes want to offer Precious Blood at all, due to cost of wine and risk of profanation and staining of purificators and excess Extraordinary Ministers. Also, intinction is difficult for one minister to accomplish without a specially-made sacred vessel. Also, people are really unfamiliar with this method in the Church today, and so you will get a lot of resistance from people who are simply weirded out by it. But otherwise, I say go for it. Convince your pastor it’s a good idea, I’ll support you.
But please disabuse yourself of the superstition about the sacred species and disease. And seek some professional help, because you are coming across as something of a germophobe.
That’s a good point about the Blood. I was mainly just saying that so I didn’t get accused of being unfaithful by believing the blood can carry germs, since that’s the reaction I usually get when starting this conversation. I’ll have to remember that, although I won’t bring it up to my M-I-L, i’ve decided to stop bringing up our differences of faith since they cause nothing but discord and I’m not going to change her ways, anyhow.
I’m very far from a germophobe. If you told that to anyone at my office, or my wife, they would probably laugh because I’m not a very clean person at all. But drinking the backwash of a hundred people is where I draw the line.
I have seen people place the host in the chalice themselves and the priests dont mind at all.
As for catching germs or diseases i like to think that the blood of Christ heals everything it touches there is no need to worry about someone elses spit.
As an EHMC we always wipe the chalice before letting the next person receive.
Plus, when i have given out the Body of Christ you will be surprised how one cant help to touch peoples tongues on the odd occassion!! It is not an automated process! It is done with piety and the love of God.
Actually, I also get the host on my tongue. I have no problem with the priests hand there, even if it touches my tongue, because I’m sure he washes his hands, and even though he is touching the mouths of other people, he doesn’t touch EVERYONE’S mouth (only some on accident), and even so, there’s no backwash involved.
See? I’m not a clean freak if I’m letting someone put stuff in my mouth! I understand that there is no possible way of making sure everything handed out is 100% sterile, and that’s perfectly fine. I’m just searching for the compromise where we’re at least PRETENDING to be conscious about food safety.
(Oh, and thanks for the clarification on the spoon and straw thing. I was under the impression they were just regular spoons and straws, but looking at pictures they seem like perfectly acceptable alternatives. Oh, and ditto on the “Orthodox priest dips each piece of bread before distributing it” thing.)
Perhaps you feel much worse off now, but for me, it is entirely the opposite. For me the Mass is so much more meaningful. I constantly find new meaning in the words of the liturgy and the language helps me to raise my mind to God, something that never happened with the Latin Mass, even when I was studying Latin. (Admittedly, I have less than no aptitude for languages, a weakness I share with many other.) Despite my best efforts I constantly became lost in attempting to translate and lost my focus on the Sacrifice or else lapsed into rote and meaningless parroting.
And I never had an opportunity to attend Mass in Latvia or Japan so that was never an issue, nor is it for most Catholics 99% of the time.
I agree, although as I mentioned I still prefer the Priest to face the same direction as me when praying. Makes more sense.
And I never understood the “travelling abroad” argument. If I go to Japan, it doesn’t matter whether or not the mass is in Japanese (a language I don’t know) or Latin (a language I don’t know). I’m equally confused either way.
The wine that is change to Christ Blood, does have some alchol in it, I do not know how much, but it could be enough to kill most germs.
Not enough, sorry. It’s hard to explain without going into great detail about how alcohol is created, but wine and beer are both created by living things called yeast. Yeast eats sugar and converts it into alcohol, but too much alcohol, as you said, will kill, even the yeast that created it. Thats why you can never find a wine or beer above about 15-20% alcohol, because that’s the area where the yeast start to die off. Any drink above that (whiskey, vodka, etc) is made artificially, by removing the water from the brew and therefore increasing the alcohol content.
You know, this was meant to be a lighthearted thread but, as always as happens in this forum, I learned a lot of neat things.
)