Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion rookie

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Canon Law and reality are now disconnected and can be changed

Should parishes stop using EMHC’s ?

If they do in most parishes, you will no longer be able to receive from the cup.

Jim
 
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But I’m done with this.

The horse hasn’t been resurrected and remains dead. 😃
 
Yes, in many parishes if the Cup is to be offered it requires an EMHC. But the thinking that EMHCs are now the norm has led to situations such as my being expected to schedule them to distribute Communion at an Ordination Mass and the newly ordained priest’s first Mass when there were to be a minimum of 6 concelebrants at each Mass. The Bishop eventually put a stop to it.

It’s also led to the situation I witnessed frequently in my parish in the late 1990s and up until about 10 years ago, of priests sitting while EMHCs distributed Communion. Now that we are down to a single priest and no deacon that situation no longer arises.

It has also led to a deacon not being allowed to do some things proper to his ministry because, “The readers always do this and if we change things while he’s here we’ll just have to change them again when he goes.”
 
Knight said:
ok, I fixed the title of this post. What should I expect as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion?
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Don’t worry about getting that title wrong. Its an obligatory error to make. We’ve all done it at some point. Its long and heavy mouthful to say. I just call it EMCH.
 
Maybe, but any liturgist would be just fine with it.
 
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Again, maybe.

Most liturgists I know don’t really care about Canon Law, they care about what their Bishop and/or Pastor directs them to do. And they are the ones who make and interpret the rules.

Not me and not you.
 
Exactly. And that decision was that each Bishop’s conference could make norms for their area and that each Bishop and/or Pastor has the right to decide if/how EMHC are used in their diocese/parish.
 
There may be need for a clinic on how to present the host to a communicant as some are getting a bit fancy about it. I’ve seen one EM raise each one high above his head each time. Another traces the cross in the air. Try doing that thirty times in 15 minutes.
 
Reverent_Howler said:
There may be need for a clinic on how to present the host to a communicant as some are getting a bit fancy about it. I’ve seen one EM raise each one high above his head each time. Another traces the cross in the air. Try doing that thirty times in 15 minutes.
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Wow. Yes, some EMHCs need to be trained better. But the vast majority appear to distribute Holy Communion correctly within the norms established by the Church. Of course they’ll be some outliers.
 
Yes. Big church, we’d be there all day. Just, I prefer the right side of the church, and Father is usually doing the body of Christ on the left side, so I don’t get to receive from him, except on the one weekday when I usually attend Mass and it’s in the chapel. But it’s something I got used to.
 
Does the cloth used for the vigorous rub have antimicrobial properties? Some worry about what goes beyond the rim of the Common Cup.
 
No, it doesn’t. The expectation is that using the cloth manually removes any bacteria/virus/saliva that might be present.
 
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