Eucharist cold and flu season precautions

  • Thread starter Thread starter newcalling
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Maybe NOW some people will finally get that drinking from the Cup after someone who’s contagious drank before them can, indeed, make those behind them sick!!!
 
Yes, I was just sick. Stay home. From Church and work and school. Please. I mean if you are really not well.
 
Last edited:
Quite right. Allergies are a reaction of our immune system to substances to which it innately reacts to via genetics, or has developed a sensitivity to. Pollen, pet dander etc. cause some immune systems to react, producing cold-like symptoms, but antihistamines stop the reaction. It is quite different in the case of pathogens, which are the common bacteria, viruses and fungi that enter our bodies.

In an odd twist, I acquired numerous food allergies from my son - his immune system (hematopoietic stem cells) having been transplanted into me with the hope that it would identify and kill cancer cells that bypassed my immune system. Thanks be to God, it seems to have done just that.

All the same, I am immune compromised/suppressed due to transplant rejection issues. The flu which is currently circulating could potentially kill me. So, as much as the Precious Blood brings me to tears, I must forego it, knowing that His Body arrives with the Blood also Sacramentally present.
 
I’m a daily mass goer and every cold/flu season I change my behavior to avoid getting sick. I’m a contract worker, if I get sick … I don’t work and I don’t have a paycheck.

I stop receiving on the tongue and receive in the hand instead. I use hand sanitizer before and after. I don’t shake hands if I have a cold or if the person coughing up a fit near me appears to have a cold. (I pull a kleenex out of my pocket and hold it up as I incline my head towards them and say “Peace be with you”).

I avoid the children’s mass (my parish has a catholic school with once-a-week-mass with the whole school). Those kids are germ-factories-on-legs. I’m 3-for-3 of going to the children’s mass, sitting way apart and keeping to myself and still coming up sick… I have no kids … I have no immunities. A retired teacher friend of mine kind of chuckled and told me “yes at the beginning of the year we all kind of pass our germs around to each other in school and then eventually it starts to normalize…”

Coughing and hacking into your hand and then insistently shaking hands with all the people around you during the sign of peace is transmitting as many germs (if not more) than the shared communion cup. In my opinion it would be helpful if those who think they may be contagious and/or able to pass on their germs to make an effort to keep (their germs) to themselves, as much as is possible, in whatever form they are able.
 
Last edited:
When l am sick or if l can’t tell if it is a cold or allergies I smile and say “Peace be with you. You dont want what l have.” at the sign of peace.
 
I’ve just stopped attending for now. I had already skipped my OFS gathering this month, and hadn’t attended mass in 2 weeks because of this cold. I thought I was over it the Sunday I attended, but apparently I wasn’t. I hope I’m over it in time for next month’s OFS meeting, as my friend and I are supposed to be discussing profession. We’ll see.

I’m a fairly new Catholic, a couple of years, and I was pagan for over a decade (high priest, called shaman, and interfaith minister until I became Catholic.) I don’t like missing mass and potentially getting out of the habit. Maybe my commitment to the OFS, the choir, and Lent starting soon will help mitigate it. I still have quite a healthy prayer life.

Some replies to comments:

Yes, I was individually singled out and chastised by someone, who also had a cold by the way. I didn’t take personally the note in the bulletin.

I don’t cough into my hands, I cough into my sleeve. I also wash and sanitize my hands frequently, especially in public and especially when I’m sick. However, germs are airborne, and the church is an enclosed place; so, I’m staying home for now.

I live too remotely for someone to bring me the Eucharist.

Thank you for the responses, both the kind ones and the unkind ones. May you all be blessed with good health.

Pax et bonum and God bless.
 
Stop by the local hospital or medical clinic, or online. Have a stash of medical face masks. Yes, you will be looked at like a freak, but you and others will all be safer from infection.
 
Also be very careful of the holy water fonts. They are little petri dishes!
 
I went to a church this weekend that entirely removed holy water fonts until the flu season is over. Does anyone know if this is allowed?
 
LisaB said:
I went to a church this weekend that entirely removed holy water fonts until the flu season is over. Does anyone know if this is allowed?
Click to expand...
It is not. Rome has addressed this. The Holy Water fonts must be available.
 
Hope1960 said:
Maybe NOW some people will finally get that drinking from the Cup after someone who’s contagious drank before them can, indeed, make those behind them sick!!!
Click to expand...
When I take the cup, I never worry or think that the person in front of me might have something contagious. If I am not well; then I won’t take the cup, because it might upset people behind me.
 
FrDavid96 said:
There is an idea (a very wrong one) that somehow germs cannot be on the Communion Cup because the True Presence of Christ won’t allow that to happen.
Click to expand...
Alcohol kills germs however, and that’s science. And the accident of alcohol is effective too for its germicidal properties.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top