Yesterday I received the Eucharist, crossed myself and began quickly walking back towards my pew. When I got there, it seemed like the material of the host had multiplied in my mouth. If I had to put a number on it, I’d say it was like I had received three hosts instead of one. Now, this could have been a trick of my perception, but that’s what it felt like.
I think that it did happen, but I’m not certain. Does it sound plausible or do you think such a thing would be incompatible with any dogma?
There’s nothing wrong with it. They sometimes stick together. At one of my parishes, they hosts are quite light, and they sometimes stick to each other.
On some occasions where the tabernacle is quite a distance from the sanctuary, the priest will occasionally just consume the last 4 or 5 hosts instead of walking the distance to the tabernacle and back.
On the flip side, sometimes if there is not quite enough hosts for communion, sometimes the priest will break the ones he has in half so that he won’t need to go to the tabernacle just to get 2 or 3 more hosts.
The whole body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ is present in every particle of the host, no matter how small. That is why the church asks for the usage of communion patens. It doesn’t say “they might be used” or “they may be used,” but it asks that they be used in every case.
Redemptonis Sacramentum no. 93:
The Communion-plate for the Communion of the faithful should be retained, so as to avoid the danger of the sacred host or some fragment of it falling. [Cf. Missale Romanum, Institutio Generalis, n. 118.]
GIRM no. 118:* Likewise these should be prepared: …] the Communion-plate for the Communion of the faithful* …]