Eucharist cold and flu season precautions

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Hope1960 said:
Yeah, but when the symptoms first appear, a person might not know if they’re coming down with a cold or the flu.
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I can tell pretty easily. The symptoms are quite different.

With 6 kids and 2 adults and the average cold symptoms lasting 7-10 days, we would not leave the house for weeks on end some years. If I kept my kids out of school for having cold symptoms, they would miss a lot of school and I would end up in truancy court.

Quarantine isn’t the solution to a cold - keeping hands away from the face and frequent hand washing are very effective.
 
I can tell the difference after a day or two, but not at first. And by then you’re already contagious.
 
If the accidents of the Eucharist didn’t behave exactly like bread and wine, there wouldn’t be much point to transubstantiation. (Obviously special additional healing miracles can occur, but usually transubstantiation is the miracle.)
 
Our bishop asked that we refrain from shaking hands at present. The cup was not offered last night, though today it was (different parishes).
 
I don’t see how receiving on the on the tongue is going to pass on illnesses…you don’t touch the persons tongue??

If one believes extraordinary ministers don’t know how to minister communion without touching the persons tongue…perhaps the advice should be to go to the priests line instead of advising someone to refrain from communion on the tongue.

Hands are often riddled with germs anyway, from simply touching everything. I could see how germs would spread more easily with ministering communion in the hands.
 
Former EMT here. We were always required to get flu shots (gave them right at our ambulance station) and even then the guidance was always to stay at least six feet away from suspected flu patients unless it was absolutely necessary to get closer (symptoms so bad that transport to a hospital is actually necessary). Yes, that’s even with our masks on, which really don’t do much of anything against the flu, because there are so many different strains.

If you have the flu, or suspect you have the flu, there is a six foot radius cloud of disease around you just from breathing. It has nothing to do with using the cup, your hands, or your tongue to receive the Eucharist. Anyone in the pews around you, or in line, will be exposed to a potentially fatal disease. Please don’t come to Mass, where there are children and the elderly whose lives are particularly threatened by the flu. Please stay at home and get better. Please don’t go to a hospital (which will spread the flu) unless you get life-threatening symptoms. The best thing you can do is quarantine yourself and wait for your body to fight it off. There is no obligation to go to Mass when you are sick and would endanger others to attend. Please don’t assume that 100% of the other people there have been immunized, or immunized for the strain you have. You really don’t want to be responsible for the death of a member of your parish.
 
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You are a tad bit mistaken.

I was an altar boy in the late 1950’s, and 11 and 12 yea old boys have not, by that age, necessarily learned a great deal of reverence.

We would joke at school about how long a string of spit the priest had occasionally pulled from someone’s mouth.

No, it didn’t happen all the time. But it was then, and still is, a matter that is not in the control of the individual distributing Communion. If the communicant does not open their mouth widely, and/or stick out their tongue far enough, the finger is going to make contact with the tongue. And that goes the same for today.

And if an individual salivates a good bit, it is still possible that spit is going to come in contact with the finger.
 
Yup, the flu is taken very seriously at hospitals, because a lot of people at hospitals have compromised immune systems. Medical professionals of course don’t want to get sick either, because if they get sick, they can’t help other people who are in need of medical care. I know at EMT school, they hammered it into us again and again, we should do everything we can not to become patients ourselves. It’s why I laugh every time I see the Hollywood depiction of EMTs running into situations that are clearly not safe in movies or TV shows.
 
Haha that’s pretty gross. Either way, perhaps it’s better to just not go to mass with the flu rather than getting everyone sick, I would say.

Communion in the hand is, however granted as an indult, and one of the precepts that came with the indult when it was first allowed, was that communion on the tongue would not be suppressed. That’s really the issue I have…many already get the side eye and looks for receiving on the tongue (plus kneeling) as it is.
 
otjm said:
You are a tad bit mistaken.

I was an altar boy in the late 1950’s, and 11 and 12 yea old boys have not, by that age, necessarily learned a great deal of reverence.

We would joke at school about how long a string of spit the priest had occasionally pulled from someone’s mouth.

No, it didn’t happen all the time. But it was then, and still is, a matter that is not in the control of the individual distributing Communion. If the communicant does not open their mouth widely, and/or stick out their tongue far enough, the finger is going to make contact with the tongue. And that goes the same for today.

And if an individual salivates a good bit, it is still possible that spit is going to come in contact with the finger.
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I was an altar server in the late sixties as a liitle kid, so I had my experience with Latin mass. We were taught by the bigger boys (altar servers) of how to memorize our Latin.

I still remember to this day how my friend, an altar server too, would just love it to press the Communion-plate (which is to catch the host should it be dropped) to certain communicant’s neck just to have fun - usually girls from our class. And there was nothing they could do about it. We were quite naughty lots then.
 
Hebrews12 said:
Yup, the flu is taken very seriously at hospitals, because a lot of people at hospitals have compromised immune systems. Medical professionals of course don’t want to get sick either, because if they get sick, they can’t help other people who are in need of medical care. I know at EMT school, they hammered it into us again and again, we should do everything we can not to become patients ourselves. It’s why I laugh every time I see the Hollywood depiction of EMTs running into situations that are clearly not safe in movies or TV shows.
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Yup, sometimes the worst culprits are the doctors who often do not observe infection control protocol. The nurses are okay.
 
Fauken said:
My weekday parish has stopped distributing the Precious Blood (with the exception of the priest choosing Blood during Mass, of course).
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My whole diocese has suspended communion under both species for an indeterminate length of time. The pastor announced at Mass yesterday that the bishop had communicated with all parishes in the diocese, and until further notice only the host would be distributed at Mass.
 
BT3241 said:
If your sick you should just refrain from the wine and bow to it instead - that’s what I do when I have a cold and instead of shaking hands I tell the people I am sick and don’t want to pass on my cold and they are always grateful.
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If you are sick, please stay home! What is a minor cold to you could be life threatening to someone with a suppressed immune system…the elderly, babies, those on certain medications, etc. Please, please please, make the sacrifice and stay home if you think you are ill.
 
It’s very selfish for a person to prioritize their own attending of Mass and receiving of Communion when they don’t have an obligation because they’re sick, over the attending of Mass and receiving of Communion of all the people they will make sick by going.
 
I don’t disagree. I think there’s a few reasons why people continue to go to Mass anyway.

One, it’s been so engrained that missing Mass on Sunday is a sin that they don’t realize that missing because you are sick means it is not a sin. I’ve met people who think they are sinning by not going to Mass even if they are sick and even if the conditions are dangerous (i.e. icy roads)

Two, I think different people have different definitions of what “sick” means. For some, anything less than 100% means they are “sick.” For others, having a runny nose and a slight cough doesn’t even occur to them as being sick. For still others, if they are physically capable of getting up and going to Mass without passing out, then that means they can’t possibly be sick enough to justify skipping Mass. 😝

This flu season has definitely been a teaching moment with regards to this, though.
 
Interesting. Byzantine rite Catholics and Orthodox probably have no precautions they can take since they are received together. But then again, most Orthodox don’t think you can get sick from receiving communion.
 
When I am near the back of the queue, I never think that people in front of me may or may not have germs. I know that out Lord died a horrific death for me, I just try and focus on our Lord when I take the cup.
 
I have chronic bronchitis and every time I drink from the cup l get sick. So I don’t do it any more.
 
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