Eucharist question

[sunflower74]

When you recieve the Eucharist, should you let it dissolve in your mouth or chew it? A few years ago, my dad told me that as he was growing up and attending Latin Mass, they would recieve kneeling and on the tounge and you were supposed to let it dissolve in your mouth, because even touching your teeth would be disrespectful. But I have noticed that the priest and EMHC’s, and everyone around me, do chew the Eucharist. While I understand why the priest and EMHC’s would, I am not sure what is appropriate for me. does this matter or are you just supposed to do whatever you feel comfortable with?

 

[stbruno]

As long as you consume it immediately there are no set rules.

 

[JRKH]

When you recieve the Eucharist, should you let it dissolve in your mouth or chew it? A few years ago, my dad told me that as he was growing up and attending Latin Mass, they would recieve kneeling and on the tounge and you were supposed to let it dissolve in your mouth, because even touching your teeth would be disrespectful. But I have noticed that the priest and EMHC’s, and everyone around me, do chew the Eucharist. While I understand why the priest and EMHC’s would, I am not sure what is appropriate for me. does this matter or are you just supposed to do whatever you feel comfortable with?

I can’t speak for what the Church teaches on the subject but I try to let it dissolve. I never chew it, though I can’t say it doesn’t touch my teeth.
One point to make here is that the Host we recieve today is different than the ones we received years ago. I think today’s are a little bigger, ans a little thicker. I know they don’t dissolve as readily as the old ones.

James

 

[Phemie]

When you recieve the Eucharist, should you let it dissolve in your mouth or chew it? A few years ago, my dad told me that as he was growing up and attending Latin Mass, they would recieve kneeling and on the tounge and you were supposed to let it dissolve in your mouth, because even touching your teeth would be disrespectful. But I have noticed that the priest and EMHC’s, and everyone around me, do chew the Eucharist. While I understand why the priest and EMHC’s would, I am not sure what is appropriate for me. does this matter or are you just supposed to do whatever you feel comfortable with?

We were taught the same way as your dad but really, Jesus said “Take and eat” and today that’s what I do.

I had to really think about this but at some point in the 1980s I was in a parish where we used freshly baked bread for Communion - unleavened. I noticed some people who had a lot of problem with this because they wouldn’t chew. I asked the priest about this and he was dumbfounded that we’d been taught this “don’t touch the Host with your teeth” lesson – obviously it wasn’t a Church-wide teaching.

But if you’re not comfortable doing that by all means let the Host soften a bit and then swallow.

 

[Cristiano]

I am going to give my take on it and it is not based on any Church teaching except the “take and eat it”

My father ~80 y/o now was taught since a kid (in Italy) that you are not to touch the host with your teeth.

In a different thread a poster said that you should not dissolve it in the mouth because it would not be eating it.

My take is that we eat different foods in different manners, some we chew and then swallow, some we chew to extract the nutrients and then we spit the fiber (liquorice roots or chewing gum), some we swallow without even touching it with the teeth (e.g. jelllo), some we dissolve it in the mouth and swallow until it is consumed (hard candy). In all these scenarios we are eating and if we were to ingest food in any of these manners just before communion we would be braking the mandatory fast.

I think that whatever is reverent is also appropriate. I rather break the Host with my tongue and swallow it in this way it will take a little bit longer to destroy the accident of bread and I have a little bit more time to share His divinity while I am praying.

 

[puzzleannie]

we discuss this question rather frequently here and if you do a search you can find all kinds of opinions, but there is no official teaching either way, other than you must consume the Host immediately. Jesus said: my Body is real food, and my Blood is real drink. So eat and drink. The verb he used in telling us that unless we eat his Body we shall not have eternal life is the one that means to gnaw or chew, as flesh meat.

Years ago hosts were lighter and thinner and dissolved easily. Today’s hosts are often whole wheat and much thicker and bigger and very hard to swallow w/o chewing so have no fear.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

In the days before Vatican II, the nuns use to tell us that your teeth were not to touch the host and that you are to let the host melt in your mouth. Children caught chewing, would be punished.

Today, I follow Jesus words, to take and eat. I chew.

Jim

 

[John_Lilburne]

I chew and encourage chewing.

During the Communion Procession there should normally be a Communion Song. From the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) approved for the USA, which can be accessed from romanrite.com/girm.html :
“86. While the priest is receiving the Sacrament, the Communion chant is begun. Its purpose is to express the communicants’ union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices, to show joy of heart, and to highlight more clearly the “communitarian” nature of the procession to receive Communion. The singing is continued for as long as the Sacrament is being administered to the faithful. [footnote 74: Cf. Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, Instruction Inaestimabile donum, 3 April 1980, no. 17: AAS 72 (1980), p. 338.] If, however, there is to be a hymn after Communion, the Communion chant should be ended in a timely manner.”

If you are waiting for a consecrated host to dissolve you are not going to be part of this “unity of their voices” that the liturgical book is encouraging.

 

[Steeltemplar]

When I was in RCIA only a few years ago, I was taught to swallow the host intact (I suppose this is similar or the same to having it dissolve). I still do this and it strikes me as being the most respectful.

As far as eating, to eat does not necessarily mean chewing. There is no basis to claim that Christ actually instructed to chew.

I don’t know what the Church’s instruction on the matter is.

 

[Steeltemplar]

I chew and encourage chewing.

During the Communion Procession there should normally be a Communion Song. From the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) approved for the USA, which can be accessed from romanrite.com/girm.html :
“86. While the priest is receiving the Sacrament, the Communion chant is begun. Its purpose is to express the communicants’ union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices, to show joy of heart, and to highlight more clearly the “communitarian” nature of the procession to receive Communion. The singing is continued for as long as the Sacrament is being administered to the faithful. [footnote 74: Cf. Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, Instruction Inaestimabile donum, 3 April 1980, no. 17: AAS 72 (1980), p. 338.] If, however, there is to be a hymn after Communion, the Communion chant should be ended in a timely manner.”

If you are waiting for a consecrated host to dissolve you are not going to be part of this “unity of their voices” that the liturgical book is encouraging.

So are you saying that one should not kneel and pray after receiving the Eucharist? That also is not singing. I doubt that is this instruction is meant to convey that everyone needs to sing after receiving the Eucharist.

 

[Windmill]

The Church exists no only as a guard against hyper-liberalism, but also as a guard against hyper-piety. Today’s devotion becomes tomorrow’s standard, and then becomes the future’s rule. If there is no one to say, “This is what is expected, anything beyond that is merely your preference,” then we can easily slip into one-up-manship whereby people are looked down upon because they aren’t doing what everyone else is doing.

I’ve never read anything that tells you what the Church expects in this situation. I would ask those who say otherwise to give testimony other than, “Sister Gilda said…”.

I’m not trying to be confrontational, I’m just trying to clear up any confusion on what is expected of communicants.

 

[Joannm]

So are you saying that one should not kneel and pray after receiving the Eucharist? That also is not singing. I doubt that is this instruction is meant to convey that everyone needs to sing after receiving the Eucharist.

Actually it does mean that. The time for quiet meditation is after all have received communion during the period of silence after communion. If your priest is not doing that…he should.

 

[Arnobius]

I chew and encourage chewing.

During the Communion Procession there should normally be a Communion Song. From the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) approved for the USA, which can be accessed from romanrite.com/girm.html :
“86. While the priest is receiving the Sacrament, the Communion chant is begun. Its purpose is to express the communicants’ union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices, to show joy of heart, and to highlight more clearly the “communitarian” nature of the procession to receive Communion. The singing is continued for as long as the Sacrament is being administered to the faithful. [footnote 74: Cf. Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, Instruction Inaestimabile donum, 3 April 1980, no. 17: AAS 72 (1980), p. 338.] If, however, there is to be a hymn after Communion, the Communion chant should be ended in a timely manner.”

If you are waiting for a consecrated host to dissolve you are not going to be part of this “unity of their voices” that the liturgical book is encouraging.

Put in context, the GIRM states:
86. While the priest is receiving the Sacrament, the Communion chant is begun. Its purpose is to express the communicants’ union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices, to show joy of heart, and to highlight more clearly the “communitarian” nature of the procession to receive Communion. The singing is continued for as long as the Sacrament is being administered to the faithful.74 If, however, there is to be a hymn after Communion, the Communion chant should be ended in a timely manner.

Care should be taken that singers, too, can receive Communion with ease.

1. In the dioceses of the United States of America there are four options for the Communion chant: (1) the antiphon from the Roman Missal or the Psalm from the Roman Gradual as set to music there or in another musical setting; (2) the seasonal antiphon and Psalm of the Simple Gradual; (3) a song from another collection of psalms and antiphons, approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop, including psalms arranged in responsorial or metrical forms; (4) a suitable liturgical song chosen in accordance with no. 86 above. **This is sung either by the choir alone or by the choir or cantor with the people.

If there is no singing, however, the Communion antiphon found in the Missal may be recited either by the faithful, or by some of them, or by a lector. Otherwise the priest himself says it after he has received Communion and before he distributes Communion to the faithful.**

1. When the distribution of Communion is finished, as circumstances suggest, the priest and faithful spend some time praying privately. If desired, a psalm or other canticle of praise or a hymn may also be sung by the entire congregation.

So it appears that singing does not overrule the individual’s reception of the Eucharist. He or she is not required to be singing during this time

 

[Steeltemplar]

Thank you, Arnobius. I thought this was the case. I’ve been to a number of parishes in my time and have never heard of this idea of having to sing after receiving the Eucharist. Further, every serious Catholic I have personally known kneels down and prays after receiving - just as I do. It seems quite appropriate to my mind.

 

[baltobetsy]

Jesus is present under the species of bread as long as (that’s really ONLY as long as) the accidents of bread remain. That means only as long as it appears to our senses as bread. Once a host has dissolved, it no longer appears as bread, does it? So if you let the host dissolve completely in your mouth before you swallow, you do not actually eat Jesus, as He commanded, do you? You merely hold Him in your mouth for awhile. But He told us, “Take and EAT,” not “Take and HOLD.” Unless we have also received under the form of wine, it could be argued that if we let the host dissolve completely, we have not received Him at all.

So, what’s the solution, if we still need to obey Sister who threatened us with dire consequences if the host touched our teeth? Most of the hosts I receive have a little cross imprinted on them. If you press the host against the roof of your mouth with your tongue, it will break along one of the lines. Maneuver the pieces one on top of the other and break them again. Then you have a tidy stack of 1/4 pieces of the host, which is easily swallowed without bumping into any teeth. Best of all, the host retains its accidents, and Jesus is still present when you swallow.

Betsy

 

[SMHW]

If one receives under both species then it is difficult to have to wait for the host to dissolve before it is one’s turn to receive from the cup, especially if one receives one of those thick, chewy hosts. Even when chewing I have a hard time swallowing before receiving from the cup.

 

[Phemie]

When I was in RCIA only a few years ago, I was taught to swallow the host intact (I suppose this is similar or the same to having it dissolve). I still do this and it strikes me as being the most respectful.

As far as eating, to eat does not necessarily mean chewing. There is no basis to claim that Christ actually instructed to chew.

I don’t know what the Church’s instruction on the matter is.

He gave them bread and told them to eat – what are the odds he meant swallow it whole?

 

[Phemie]

Thank you, Arnobius. I thought this was the case. I’ve been to a number of parishes in my time and have never heard of this idea of having to sing after receiving the Eucharist. Further, every serious Catholic I have personally known kneels down and prays after receiving - just as I do. It seems quite appropriate to my mind.

I consider myself a ‘serious Catholic’ but if I’m at my parish I still stand and sing when I come back to my pew after receiving Communion. If I’m anywhere else I take my cue from the people around me.

 

[LilyM]

I think we’re overthinking this whole chew v swallow whole v dissolve thing way too much.

I sincerely doubt that Jesus is going to refuse or be unable to commune with you simply because you dissolved the host in your mouth rather than swallowing.

 

[Steeltemplar]

I consider myself a ‘serious Catholic’ but if I’m at my parish I still stand and sing when I come back to my pew after receiving Communion. If I’m anywhere else I take my cue from the people around me.

Well, I did not mean that serious Catholics wouldn’t sing. My point is that it is perfectly orthodox to kneel and pray if you wish.