Eucharist left-over particles in hand during Corona pandemic

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Katsuobushi

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Hi,

Tokyo resumed Masses 3 months ago.
I wash my hands thoroughly before Mass because everyone is required to receive Eucharist on hands.
Today, after consuming It, I saw 2 visible left-over particles on my hand.
I picked and carried them to my tongue using my forefinger. I had to lick my finger to do that.
You know, licking a finger is not a recommended practice even after washing hands.
What do you do when you see the Eucharist visible particles on the hand after consuming?
My ideas are:
  1. Believe that my forefinger contains too few Corona pathogens to infect me and pick the particles and eat them.
  2. Believe what my priest told me before, “these particles are no longer food”, and ignore them.
  3. Try to dispose the particles respectfully after Mass. Such as going to the garden in the Church territory
    with a cup of water and rinse the hands so that the particles dissolve and go back to soil.
  4. Do combination of the above depending on a size of the particles. Some may or may not look like food.
Everyone else here does not seem to care about the particles.
But after viewing discussions on this forum, I’ve gotten more thoughtful about the particles. I tried to look for the thread, but could not so created a new topic.
 
You should also mention to your priest that you found particles, as it sounds like someone was careless putting them out or perhaps he needs to change the supplier if they break that easily.,
 
Occasionally there are particles and these should of course be consumed. If you think about how many times you touch your face during the course of any given day, or put you fingers to your lips or near you mouth (for example, when you yawn or rub your face), you’ll realise that this is really a non-issue.
 
Thanks for the reply. I carry the host with my right fingers by lightly picking the edge and place It on my tongue without my fingers touching my tongue. Even if the virus gets attached to Host, it will go down my throat and gets digested. I think this is not the case when my tongue directly licks my finger. The infected saliva may go into the lung. Perhaps my reasoning is not too scientific.
 
Thanks for your comment. I think I am one of a few ones in my church to be worried about this. I will think about making this request.
 
Thanks for your reply. Yeah. I remembered that I put my finger in my nose while working in Tokyo another day. That worried me too. Perhaps licking a finger of a washed hand won’t make much difference.
 
I don’t know what the protocol is but after I receive Communion in the hand, I have often found broken bits and dust from the Eucharist. After consuming the wafer I now “hoover up” or suck up the crumbs so they aren’t dropped.
 
^^This.

If you consumed a Eucharist that touched your hand, it’s no different from licking your hand.

I personally would lick my hand or finger to consume the particles, without a second thought.

I would add that I don’t know what they make Eucharistic wafers out of where you live, but in the last 3+ years of going to almost daily Mass and almost always receiving Communion in the hand, I’ve only had “particles” in my hand once out of about 900 Communions, and that was because the priest made a mistake of placing the host in my hand too hard and it snapped in half. So it’s not a common thing at all to have particles in my hand here.
 
Last edited:
Xarto said:
I don’t know what the protocol is but after I receive Communion in the hand, I have often found broken bits and dust from the Eucharist. After consuming the wafer I now “hoover up” or suck up the crumbs so they aren’t dropped.
Click to expand...
You really should not be finding broken bits and dust so often.

This really does sound like a problem with the supplier, or else rough handing by whoever prepares the Mass, and should be raised with your priest if possible… In over 50 years of receiving on the hand, I think I have noticed fragments just twice.
 
Katsuobushi said:
Believe what my priest told me before, “these particles are no longer food”, and ignore them.
Click to expand...
I do not understand this.
Is he claiming that the crumbs are not the precious Body?

I have always been taught that the line is drawn when one can no longer indentify the accidental properties of bread.

A crumb from a host is usually pretty identifiable.

I would ask for further clarification there.
 
It was happening a lot but haven’t happened recently (well 3wks ago when the Churches were last open). Even so now we can only receive in the hand I think I will continue to do so.
 
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