Gluten Free Host at Mass

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I’m looking for an answer regarding gluten free hosts at Mass. Why are we allowing this?
I have severe Celiac disease (can’t have any cross contamination at all) I become very ill if I ingest even a crumb. I go to daily Mass everyday and receive the Most Holy Eucharist which IS Jesus and I don’t have one single reaction. I truly believe it’s the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus! I get GI scopes every year and she doesn’t find any other damage than what was originally there when I was eating gluten prior to my diagnosis in 2007.
If we as Catholics TRULY believe that the wheat host becomes our Lord then why would Jesus hurt our bodies if we have a disease that can’t have the wheat before it turns into Jesus?!?! Please explain! Thank you!!
 
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None said:
I’m looking for an answer regarding gluten free hosts at Mass. Why are we allowing this?
I have severe Celiac disease (can’t have any cross contamination at all) I become very ill if I ingest even a crumb. I go to daily Mass everyday and receive the Most Holy Eucharist which IS Jesus and I don’t have one single reaction. I truly believe it’s the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus! I get GI scopes every year and she doesn’t find any other damage than what was originally there when I was eating gluten prior to my diagnosis in 2007.
If we as Catholics TRULY believe that the wheat host becomes our Lord then why would Jesus hurt our bodies if we have a disease that can’t have the wheat before it turns into Jesus?!?! Please explain! Thank you!!
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If this is what’s happening with you, then praise the Lord, thank him, and let the Church be the authority on such matters.

The Host still contains all the properties of wheat bread, which means it will still affect celiacs. If it’s not affecting you, then it’s God’s special favour to you. God does not spare every celiac from the effects of wheat bread, and the Church knows this. That’s why low-gluten (not gluten-free, which is invalid) and the Precious Blood are generally available.

Study up on “substance” versus “accidents.” And you be thankful for the singular favour you have received, pray for those who do suffer, and think twice before criticizing the authority of Christ’s Church.
 
None said:
If we as Catholics TRULY believe that the wheat host becomes our Lord then why would Jesus hurt our bodies if we have a disease that can’t have the wheat before it turns into Jesus?!?! Please explain! Thank you!!
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Because the accidents are not what changes during transubstantiation. The chemical composition of bread which gives it its taste, smell, etc. all remain, and since the gluten is a component of bread, it and all its chemical properties remain. A host can have a small amount of gluten in it and still be used validly, but a gluten-free host would be invalid matter, as it would then no longer be bread. Does that make sense?
 
Honestly, I don’t think that is the OP’s intent or porthos11’s reaction. Please allow them to explain.

Bottom line: such are the miracles among us. With faith, great things occur. The only problem is our lack of faith, our incredulity.

Personally, in 11 years, I have had three systemic cancers - all three simultaneously in 2015. There is record of at least 7,000 prayers offered here at CAF.

The chance of my being alive, rounded off from 1%, is zero. How to explain that? Not to anything I have done, but to the faith of those who pray.
 
None said:
I get GI scopes every year and she doesn’t find any other damage than what was originally there when I was eating gluten prior to my diagnosis in 2007.
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After this long you shouldn’t have ANY damage showing. Not any.

The fact that you do, tells you that you are still consuming gluten.

Which you are.

Truly believing that Host is Christ has nothing to do with the host having gluten. Nor, as you can see based on your damage, that gluten effecting you.
 
None said:
I’m looking for an answer regarding gluten free hosts at Mass. Why are we allowing this?
I have severe Celiac disease (can’t have any cross contamination at all) I become very ill if I ingest even a crumb. I go to daily Mass everyday and receive the Most Holy Eucharist which IS Jesus and I don’t have one single reaction. I truly believe it’s the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus! I get GI scopes every year and she doesn’t find any other damage than what was originally there when I was eating gluten prior to my diagnosis in 2007.
If we as Catholics TRULY believe that the wheat host becomes our Lord then why would Jesus hurt our bodies if we have a disease that can’t have the wheat before it turns into Jesus?!?! Please explain! Thank you!!
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Why are you begrudging low gluten hosts to those whose tolerance is less than yours? How does the availability of low gluten hosts affect you, given your personal decision? As suggested above, you need to read up on “substance” and “accidents,” and not make this issue a supposed test of faith.
 
None said:
I’m looking for an answer regarding gluten free hosts at Mass. Why are we allowing this?
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The Church does not allow “gluten free” hosts. The Church allows low gluten hosts that are truly bread. The Church also allows communion under the species of wine, in a separate cup.
None said:
If we as Catholics TRULY believe that the wheat host becomes our Lord then why would Jesus hurt our bodies if we have a disease that can’t have the wheat before it turns into Jesus?!?! Please explain!
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The Church does not teach that the properties of the accidents cease. The substance changes. The accidents remain. Therefore those who do have serious illnesses related to gluten can be impacted.

What happens to YOU is not the same experience as what happens to OTHERS. It has nothing to do with our level of belief in the true presence.
 
Please don’t take my original post as attacking the Catholic Church! I love my Church! I just had a question…
 
None said:
Please don’t take my original post as attacking the Catholic Church! I love my Church! I just had a question…
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I didn’t. I was simply explaining that the Church doesn’t teach the properties of the accidents cease.
 
In the United States the expression “gluten-free” can legally appear on food products that have a very low gluten content, no more than 20 parts per million (ppm).

In August 2013, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a new definition for “gluten-free” for the purpose of food labeling.

For a food to be labeled as gluten-free, the FDA states that it must contain no more than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten.

The choice of 20 ppm rather than zero ppm is because current technology cannot reliably measure gluten presence below 20ppm.

 
This is an interesting theme, thanks for raising it.

First of all as some have said after the consecration at Mass when bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ the accidents remain.

Also bread, made from wheat, has to contain gluten. Is it a case of no gluten no bread.

Here in Ireland people can receive communion from ‘gluten free’ hosts, but are these free of gluten or with only small amounts of gluten?

I see in the WWW:
“Hosts that are completely gluten -free are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist .”

I also see:
The Coeliac Society has a listing on its website for three different suppliers of “low gluten hosts” that are acceptable to both the codex standard of gluten free and the Catholic Church description of “low gluten”.

Thus it seems that what are generally called ‘gluten-free’ hosts do have some gluten and hence are made of bread. Thus they are suitable for coeliacs and for Holy Communion.
 
None said:
If we as Catholics TRULY believe that the wheat host becomes our Lord then why would Jesus hurt our bodies if we have a disease that can’t have the wheat before it turns into Jesus?!?! Please explain! Thank you!!
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Because our Faith teaches the reality of Transubstantiation. We believe in the real presence, not a literal presence. The accidents of bread and wine remain. It would deny Transubstantiation to say those accidents ceased to exist and ceased to have the real properties of bread and wine.

Real bread, real wine as well as the vessels that contain and the hands that distribute can also transfer bacteria, mold, virus, spores, etc. Wine does not have enough alcohol to kill viruses.
 
None said:
I’m looking for an answer regarding gluten free hosts at Mass. Why are we allowing this?
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We don’t. Low gluten hosts are available, but gluten free hosts would be invalid matter.

(If I’ve been informed correctly, then it seems that some of the “low gluten” hosts out there have sufficiently little gluten that they meet the FDA’s standards for “gluten free” labeling. So… they’re not gluten-free, but they’re “gluten free”.)
None said:
If we as Catholics TRULY believe that the wheat host becomes our Lord then why would Jesus hurt our bodies if we have a disease that can’t have the wheat before it turns into Jesus?!?! Please explain!
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The physical qualities of the Eucharistic species remain. So, if you’re sensitive to gluten, you’ll react to a host. If you drank enough Precious Blood, you’ll get drunk.

It’s not magic, nor are the physical properties changed.

Could there be miracles? Sure.
 
I take the low gluten host regularly as I am also a Celiac patient. At my father’s funeral, the priest forgot the low gluten host and, not willing to forego communion for that occassion I took communion and quickly swallowed two benedryl and a swing of Pepto bismol in the car immediately after Mass. It took the edge off the reaction so I could get through the day, but I still ended up violently ill.

I believe the low gluten host is the only gluten exposure I normally have…I am crazy careful about it I remain mildly reactive, particularly with constant dermatitis heptaforrna, which is miserable, and sometimes debilitating brain fog.

I am considering not going to communion any more because the brain fog has caused me to lose a Job before, I cannot survive on disability and I am currently unemployed.

I do have a friend who is a priest in another diocese and once prepared a separate cup for me which did not include any of the body of Christ and was not cross contaminated by other parishioners (I drank from it first). I may be in a situation where I can only accept communion a couple times a year when I visit him.

I wish the Vatican would recognize gluten can be deadly for us, and not insist on including a little gluten in even so-called gluten free hosts. Might as well be “just a little” rat poisoning. Bread is still bread without wheat. They would not insist an alcoholic take “a little” wine. It’s like, “we will accommodate celiac patients by taking out what makes them violently ill and can kill them, but we have to put a little back in for good measure because bread isn’t bread without wheat”. The material host is not what matters. What matters is the presence of Jesus in the host, which occurs through the blessing.
 
Kindnessmatters said:
material host is not what matters.
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Oh, yes it does.

There validity of a Sacrament depends on both form and matter.

Baptism is invalid if attempted with coca cola.

Marriage is invalid if attempted by two members of the same sex.

Holy Orders is invalid if attempted upon on a woman.

We cannot use grape juice during the Mass to consecrate the Blood of Christ because it is invalid matter. It is not wine. We cannot use gluten free bread during the Mass to consecrate the Body of Christ because it is invalid matter. It is not bread.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...faith_doc_20030724_pane-senza-glutine_en.html

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...70615_lettera-su-pane-vino-eucaristia_en.html
 
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Kindnessmatters said:
The material host is not what matters.
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But it does.
Kindnessmatters said:
What matters is the presence of Jesus in the host, which occurs through the blessing.
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Transubstantiation (change of substance) changes the wheat bread into the body, blood, soul & divinity of Jesus. These are words of consecration - not a blessing. This is Jesus speaking the words at Mass “This is my Body” etc.

Jesus chose to use unleavened wheat bread. For something to be wheat bread, which Jesus used - it must contain some gluten. If it doesn’t then it isn’t wheat bread and no Transubstantiation takes place.

This is how God willed matters to be. Not the Church. The Church is doing as God commanded - Do this in memory of me.

Why Does the Holy Communion Wafer Need Gluten?

2017 Circular letter to Bishops on the bread and wine for the Eucharist

I too have a low gluten host for Holy Communion.
 
So given the option…no communion at all vs. communion with host containing no gluten, best not to recieve for the rest of my life? Or I’d that a bit of an extreme position? I am talking about communion for people with celiac disease who are poisoned by gluten.

What is the source on the bread having to contain wheat? I know it is the church interpretation but don’t know where it comes from.
 
Kindnessmatters said:
So given the option…no communion at all vs. communion with host containing no gluten, best not to recieve for the rest of my life? Or I’d that a bit of an extreme position? I am talking about communion for people with celiac disease who are poisoned by gluten.

What is the source on the bread having to contain wheat? I know it is the church interpretation but don’t know where it comes from.
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Why does it have to be limited to that?

Make yourself known to your priest as a celiac patient and arrange with him ahead of time for a separate chalice for you to receive the Precious Blood.

Is it inconvenient? For you and for him? Yes, maybe. But you have a need, and there is a solution. It takes just a little effort and communication.
 
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