Eucharist question?

[Dsivanish]

I may be splitting hairs here, and may sound a little crude, but what is the proper way to take the wafer then the wine? Should I swallow the wafer first, then drink, or does it matter? Are the wafer and the wine supposed to mix?

I

 

[giuseppeTO]

I may be splitting hairs here, and may sound a little crude, but what is the proper way to take the wafer then the wine? Should I swallow the wafer first, then drink, or does it matter? Are the wafer and the wine supposed to mix?

I

If someone gives you a wafer and wine, you are in a Lutheran Church. In the Catholic Church, you will be receiving the Blessed Sacrament and the Precious Blood.

The priest will consume the host, then the preciuos Blood. The entire Sacrament is contained in both species so they dont have to mix. Once you have received the Body of Christ, you have in fact received the entire sacrament. Consuming the Precious Blood is sacramentally redundant.

To solve your dilemma, stick out your tongue.

 

[jdc209]

I may be splitting hairs here, and may sound a little crude, but what is the proper way to take the wafer then the wine? Should I swallow the wafer first, then drink, or does it matter? Are the wafer and the wine supposed to mix?

I

I don’t think you’d be committing intinction or anything since the clergy are only allowed to intinct and give it to communicants on the tongue (but even if the Body and Blood of Our Lord mix when you receive them, I doubt your at fault.) But I know I have the same difficulty at Mass too.

 

[MarkThompson]

I may be splitting hairs here, and may sound a little crude, but what is the proper way to take the wafer then the wine? Should I swallow the wafer first, then drink, or does it matter? Are the wafer and the wine supposed to mix?

I

It does not matter either way. The Church has no position on that question, much as it has no position on whether you ought to chew the wafer. (By the way, Giuseppe, it is a wafer; “wafer” just describes the shape and form.)

 

[maurin]

Dont let anyone lead you astray. The proper–the ONLY-- description of the Blessed Sacrament is the Body Blood Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Only one who denies His Real Presence would describe the Sacrament differently.

 

[MarkThompson]

Dont let anyone lead you astray. The proper–the ONLY-- description of the Blessed Sacrament is the Body Blood Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Only one who denies His Real Presence would describe the Sacrament differently.

Are you talking about me? That’s the second time you attacked me in that fashion, maurin. By the way, don’t be dense. Bread shaped like a wafer does not cease being a wafer when it is consecrated any more than wine ceases being a liquid. And if a priest has one host left in his ciborium and two people left in line, what can he do? Does he divide the Body Blood Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ into two parts? No, impossible. If it is a wafer, he divides the wafer in two. Each remains completely Christ. Or, if a flatbread has been used instead of individual pre-produced wafers, he can divide a morsel in half. Again, each is completely Christ.

I know that parading your fetish for special words in this way is supposed to toughen your street cred as a “faithful Catholic,” but in the end it leaves you looking foolish when you realize you’ve spurned the terminology necessary to describe what happens when a priest breaks a consecrated wafer in half.

 

[system]

To solve your dilemma, stick out your tongue.

Nice to see you said TONGUE and not HAND.
In our culture of death today, it’s so easy to be irreverent to the real presence.
Receiving in the hand says you arrogantly take it. While receiving it on the tongue says you humbly receive it… And PLEASE genuflect before receiving.

 

[system]

I may be splitting hairs here, and may sound a little crude, but what is the proper way to take the wafer then the wine? Should I swallow the wafer first, then drink, or does it matter? Are the wafer and the wine supposed to mix?

I

First, let me say this is what hares do best…go forth and multiply…LOL
Unfortunately, many Catholic churches are becoming more Protestant by copying them.
WHY WHY WHY?? Must everything be backwards. How about them copying us?
It doesn’t matter which you consume and in what order. The body, blood, soul, and divinity are contained in both species.

 

[maurin]

Are you talking about me? That’s the second time you attacked me in that fashion, maurin. By the way, don’t be dense. Bread shaped like a wafer does not cease being a wafer when it is consecrated any more than wine ceases being a liquid. And if a priest has one host left in his ciborium and two people left in line, what can he do? Does he divide the Body Blood Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ into two parts? No, impossible. If it is a wafer, he divides the wafer in two. Each remains completely Christ. Or, if a flatbread has been used instead of individual pre-produced wafers, he can divide a morsel in half. Again, each is completely Christ.

I know that parading your fetish for special words in this way is supposed to toughen your street cred as a “faithful Catholic,” but in the end it leaves you looking foolish when you realize you’ve spurned the terminology necessary to describe what happens when a priest breaks a consecrated wafer in half.

Let’s see, first you ask me a question, and without waiting for a response, you go on an attack.

Sure Mark, and I’m the one with a fetish. Good for you.

 

[BrianIndy]

I don’t remember ever being offered the Precious Blood in the Extraordinary Format.

 

[Love_Divine]

Dont let anyone lead you astray. The proper–the ONLY-- description of the Blessed Sacrament is the Body Blood Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Only one who denies His Real Presence would describe the Sacrament differently.

Try explaining that to the police when you’re stopped at a road side impaired driver stop on your way home from Saturday evening mass and they smell alcohol on your breath. I had that happen to me once when I was a new driver (and still under the zero tolerance for alcohol law for new driviers.) and thankfully the officer had common sense and a good sense of discretion. I asked some about this and they said it doesn’t matter.

I never chew it, I try to let it dissolve in my mouth, but there isn’t enough time so it usually gets washed down.

 

[maurin]

I don’t remember ever being offered the Precious Blood in the Extraordinary Format.

I believe that may have been the point made by one poster above–that all of Christ is consumed in the Blessed Sacrament.

 

[giuseppeTO]

It does not matter either way. The Church has no position on that question, much as it has no position on whether you ought to chew the wafer. (By the way, Giuseppe, it is a wafer; “wafer” just describes the shape and form.)

Mark - since I’m in a particularly charitable mood today, I’ll give you the wafer … but not the wine.

To me, using the term wafer instead of Blessed Sacrament, is like kissing the hand of the Pope and describing it as kissing the hand of a “human being”. Granted, he is one of those, but …

I might also have developed an aversion/sensitivity to the term since I have heard it used by non-believers to mock Catholics for their outrageous beliefs.

 

[MarkThompson]

Mark - since I’m in a particularly charitable mood today, I’ll give you the wafer … but not the wine.

That’s entirely fair. I wouldn’t call it wine, either.

To me, using the term wafer instead of Blessed Sacrament, is like kissing the hand of the Pope and describing it as kissing the hand of a “human being”. Granted, he is one of those, but …

True, but to me the difference is like someone insisting, “You don’t kiss a hand, this is the Vicar of Christ we are talking about.”

I might also have developed an aversion/sensitivity to the term since I have heard it used by non-believers to mock Catholics for their outrageous beliefs.

This is quite true. Oftentimes if someone insists on calling it a wafer that’s the first sign that you’ve run up against someone anti-Catholic. But among Catholics it doesn’t hurt if we have a simple, easily-understood way to talk about the two species. “Blessed Sacrament” and “Precious Blood” can be tiresome to repeat, and bear their own theological difficulties, since each species may properly be called the Blessed Sacrament and each is both the Body and Blood of Christ. Other terms, too, fail to describe, say, the difference between the particular item the priest puts on your tongue, and the item he puts on the next person’s tongue: they’re both the one, undivided Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ, and you could never say “The priest broke Christ’s body in half to give to the next person.” If “wafer” is problematic due to associations, surely “morsel” fits the bill, then.

Still, whenever I see a new member innocently post a question using the words “bread” and “wine” or “Eucharistic Minister,” I mentally start the countdown to see who will be the first pedant to post an ironic, unhelpful, overly-literal statement like “Wine does not have to be treated with any particular care after Mass, you can dump it down the sink if you want” or “Really? Your wife is a priest or deacon?” It generally takes another five posts of people piling on before someone has pity on the poor OP and explains the verbal taboo he’s unwittingly violated.

 

[giuseppeTO]

Still, whenever I see a new member innocently post a question using the words “bread” and “wine” or “Eucharistic Minister,” I mentally start the countdown to see who will be the first pedant to post an ironic, unhelpful, overly-literal statement like “Wine does not have to be treated with any particular care after Mass, you can dump it down the sink if you want” or “Really? Your wife is a priest or deacon?” It generally takes another five posts of people piling on before someone has pity on the poor OP and explains the verbal taboo he’s unwittingly violated.

So true. Whenever I feel myself about to use sarcasm, even in a charitable way, I immediately dunk my head in a sink of cold water. Obviously, it doesn’t always work.

As I tell my kids ‘Charity can only be given. It can never be expected.’

 

[Love_Divine]

I believe you can legitimately refer to the wine as wine after it’s consecrated. If it didn’t still have the elements of wine and alcohol after it’s consecrated, then there wouldn’t be any issues with alcoholic priests having to use muster for themselves, rather than drink the wine after it’s consecrated.

 

[Dsivanish]

Im sorry my question caused such a stir. I didnt word it very well, but I think it was answered. To clarify, I will state it again, word it so as not to draw any further misunderstandings.

After receiving the Body at Eucharist, should one chew or swallow it before taking the Blood? Or should they both mix and be swallowed together?

I dont understand what ‘intinction’ is.

Thanks.

 

[reindeer]

BrianIndy,
I’m with you. I attend the extraordinary mass weekly at my church and the precious blood
is not given to communicants. But the priest does consume it.
Reindeer

 

[MarkThompson]

Im sorry my question caused such a stir. I didnt word it very well, but I think it was answered. To clarify, I will state it again, word it so as not to draw any further misunderstandings.

After receiving the Body at Eucharist, should one chew or swallow it before taking the Blood? Or should they both mix and be swallowed together?

I dont understand what ‘intinction’ is.

Thanks.

The answers you received in the first couple of posts were correct: it does not matter. You can chew the host, just let it dissolve, or, I guess, swallow it whole; you can swallow it before you drink from the chalice, or let the two species mix in your mouth. No difference.

Intinction is a method of giving Communion, rarely seen in the United States, in which the priest dips the host into the cup and thus gives you both species together on the tongue. It is not permitted for a layperson to intinct a host himself, and I think someone above confusedly thought that that also should make it illicit for you two let the species commingle in your mouth. It does not.

My advice would be to treat the host normally – whether you prefer to chew it, or not – and if you get to the cup while it is still in your mouth, that’s fine; if the time has come to swallow it before you reach the cup, then go ahead and swallow.

 

[Dsivanish]

In this lesson, we see what type of answer one gets when one phrases the question correctly.
thank you