Half-Moon Host?

[romanchant]

Does anyone know a ***Church document ***that talks about the shape of the host that the priest raises up during the Eucharistic Prayer? Our priest, because he didn’t need many hosts for the Mass, asked the sacristan to break it in half before Mass so that it would not yield as many smaller hosts. Some people commented that a half-moon host raised up looked odd but no one knows if this is wrong in any way!

Thanks for your help and God bless,

Romanchant

 

[tm30]

Not sure, but I think the whole point of the “half-moon” host is that Jesus is broken as the sacrifice at the “Lamb of God”, then presented to the Father in heaven, body and blood separated. I could be wrong, but it wouldn’t make sense to have the host already broken at the consecration. Can he break it again at the “Lamb of God”? Does that ruin the clear symbology of the “unblemished” Host which becomes broken for us? I think it does.

 

[martinporres]

I can’t point to a Church Document (I’ll defer to another) but it’s my understanding the breaking of the bread after consecration happens at a certain time – that’s the only time when its breaking is defined.

It follows that if the bread had already been broken – or made smaller – prior to consecration (and I mean, prior to the liturgy of the Eucharist), then I don’t see how it would affect it.

Interested to see other’s responses on this, thanks for bringing it up.

 

[dylanschrader]

Liturgicae Instaurationes says (#5):

At the same time the bread, whether the small host for communion of the faithful or the larger hosts to be broken into parts, is always to be made in the traditional shape, in keeping with the norm of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal.

 

[ltbpoe43]

See it all the time - the host is usually pressed down the middle so that is easily folded in half (makes the half moon) and lessens the chance a piece of the body of Christ will be lost.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Does anyone know a ***Church document ***that talks about the shape of the host that the priest raises up during the Eucharistic Prayer? Our priest, because he didn’t need many hosts for the Mass, asked the sacristan to break it in half before Mass so that it would not yield as many smaller hosts. Some people commented that a half-moon host raised up looked odd but no one knows if this is wrong in any way!

Thanks for your help and God bless,

Romanchant

The main Host should remain unbroken until the correct time for it to be Broken at the Fraction.

 

[otjm]

We have three sizes of hosts at mass - the small size that everyone recieves; a large one that is about 6" across, which is the main host that the priest raises during and after the Consecration, and one that is about 1 1/2" across, which is the one he consumes.

It may be that your parish doens’t have the medium size one; I would not get in a tizzy about the half large host. It was not done for malicious or pernicious reasons. It is the recommendation of the Church that at Mass, only enough hosts are consecrated to be able to distribute Communion; when he used only half a large one, that was most likely what he was trying to comply with.