Having a cold and receiving on the tongue

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chevalier

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Not talking about the Precious Blood, only the Host. My knowledge about medical matters is close to nil. If I have a cold (sneezing, running nose, large lymph nodes) from a combination of cold air at night and immune problems caused by exhaustion (rather than a couple of suspect symptoms from unknown source), is it something I risk passing on to other people who receive the Host on the tongue from the hands of the same priest?

If yes, how long do I wait out after getting back to normal to be safe?
 
I know its desireable to recieve communion but its not a requirement. Considering your “cold” condition I think that I’d stay home and get well before possibly contaminating others.

God Bless
 
corsair said:
I know its desireable to recieve communion but its not a requirement. Considering your “cold” condition I think that I’d stay home and get well before possibly contaminating others.

God Bless
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Absolutely stay home! I wouldn’t want you near me or my family, that’s for certain.
 
If you have a cold and go to church ( I really don’t see a problem with that) just refrain from the hand shake and go ahead and receive on the tongue. The priest isn’t going to touch your tongue, so no sharing of bugs should happen. Maybe try to hold your breath while receiving?
But the idea of skipping mass for a cold seems extreme to me. 🤷
 
IrishRush said:
If you have a cold and go to church ( I really don’t see a problem with that) just refrain from the hand shake and go ahead and receive on the tongue. The priest isn’t going to touch your tongue, so no sharing of bugs should happen. Maybe try to hold your breath while receiving?
But the idea of skipping mass for a cold seems extreme to me. 🤷
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Many viruses are shared via ‘droplets’ (think cough, sneeze etc.) so will you share your cold by receiving on the tongue? Probably not. But it’s the ‘probably’ part that concerns me personally 😉

It’s not extreme to skip Mass for a cold when you consider the elderly or asthmatics or people with heart issues (like my daughter) that are sitting around you, who get VERY sick when they get a cold…not just sick for a few days or a week and then get better. When my daughter gets sick it’s usually a full two weeks of round the clock breathing treatments every 2-4 hours and praying that we don’t end up in the hospital.

So, with the utmost charity, I would urge you to stay home…I can’t believe that God would have a problem with you thinking of others before yourself 😉
 
Oh, please stay home! My son had a slightly compromised immune system when he was young due to his disability. And when he got colds, they were so much more aggressive due to his tiny nasal passages, ear canals, etc. Then the colds always turned bacterial with sinus, ear and lung infecftions that required much longer and higher dose antibiotics. All because somebody just couldn’t stay home like like the doctors tell you to.

If you have a cold and still have symptoms, you are infectious. If you have even a slightly elevated temperature, you are even more infectious. You don’t have to touch someone or cough on them or sneeze on them. Unless you can hold your breath for over an hour, please just stay home.

If you so much as wipe your nose during Mass and then touch the collection basket or the missalette, you’ve just passed on your virus which can survive for hours.

It is easy for folks who have an easy time of a cold to say, “its just a cold, not the end of the world.” For those of us with asthma, COPD or a disability that makes a cold much more dangerous, its not the truth at all. Our lungs seize up, our throats can swell to the point we suffocate or it turns into a more deadly bacterial infection.
 
How about going to a less heavily attended Mass, sitting well away from others, taking one of those bottles of hand sanitizer with you, and making a spiritual communion? It would be an act of charity toward your neighbors!
 
The risk is slim, but I would receive from someone who knows how to distribute unlike the EMHC I had today who stuck a few fingers in my mouth! :eek:
 
Priests are typically really good at placing it on your tongue without touching it. When it comes to EMHC, many of them are inexperienced and there’s more a risk of that. Just make sure to go out of your way to go to a priest (I do this whether I’m sick or not).
 
Have you considered going up with immaculately clean hands and receiving on the hand for a Sunday or two? This obviates the concern about fingers touching your tongue in this time period. You would only generate clean hand to clean hand contact.

Though, as another poster pointed out, you could learn over the years which person is best at placing hosts on your tongue and choose their line. In my parish that would be an EMHC. Some people are clearly better at dealing with my jaw than others.

Still, if you are contagious and actively sneezing during mass, I might consider staying away. I know, it is a foreign concept to some of us, raised to go to work and school and church and such unless nearly physically incapable of moving or on death’s door, but it might be a good one.
 
When I have a nasty cold, I prefer to be charitable and stay home as the Mass times I go to tend to have many senior citizens and also families with young children Once I feel well enough to go to Mass to not bother others with a lot of coughing etc, I pass on the cup and only receive the host.
 
First of all, if you are that sick, please stay home. I have asthma, so a “little cold” can turn very very serious for me. A “little cold” can last months and hundreds of dollars in expensive drugs. Secondly, if you go anyways, why not receive in the hand and then put it in your own mouth?
 
"IrishRush:
The priest isn’t going to touch your tongue, so no sharing of bugs should happen.
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Actually, when you exhale, you aerosolize the cold germs that are in your mouth. So, yeah, there will be sharing of germs, even if the priest doesn’t touch your tongue.
GangGreen said:
Priests are typically really good at placing it on your tongue without touching it. When it comes to EMHC, many of them are inexperienced and there’s more a risk of that.
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LOL…! Actually, the variability in the equation tends to come from the recipient – especially those who suddenly move during reception or who chomp down as soon as they feel the host touch their tongues…! 😉

In any case, whether it’s a priest who’s distributing or not, the reception of the Eucharist on the tongue by a person with a contagious cold leads to the transmission of germs. If the OP is unwilling to receive in the hand, then perhaps the most charitable suggestion is “make a spiritual Communion”… 🤷
 
I would not stay home at sunday for a cold.
Of course we have to be charible, but that does not mean we should abstain from Mass.
 
odile53 said:
How about going to a less heavily attended Mass, sitting well away from others, taking one of those bottles of hand sanitizer with you, and making a spiritual communion? It would be an act of charity toward your neighbors!
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This is what I would do if I was recovering. We do not have to receive each time we attend Mass. If you can attend and sit in a place where there are not people all around you, then perhas attending is not a problem. I would also consider bringing sanitizing hand wipes and cleaning up a bit at the end of Mass (back of pew, if you touched the kneeler with your hand).

If you have any bit of a fever, are lightheaded, or are sneezing and coughing frequently, please stay home.
 
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