Host in album

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Bookcat said:
Sure it would. It cannot be otherwise. The Eucharist is Jesus Christ. I understand what you are seeking to say here…that the point is to protect the Eucharist from sacrilege. But it would still be receiving Jesus in Holy Communion…and I do not see that one ought to do such outside perhaps what I noted above.
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You already have had a priest to tell you that it is OK in this situation. Your not understanding it does not make it the wrong thing to do.
 
zab said:
You already have had a priest to tell you that it is OK in this situation. Your not understanding it does not make it the wrong thing to do.
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Huh? I have not had a priest tell me any such thing…(though perhaps somewhere in life such a conversation may have occurred…I do not recollect such…)

Anyhow …again I still think that one ought to contact the local pastor etc. As I said I can see the point if there was some immediate threat of sacrilege etc…but if I found say a host in the pew …or someone showed me a host he had brought back as a “momento”…I would adore Christ and contact the local Parish Priest…(cell phones are great :))

In any case–whatever the discipline of the Church would say to do…do.
 
zab said:
🙂
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Oh you mean that someone on this forum who states they are a Priest said it ok? (and it was not directed to me…:))

Though I see that I responded to him in disagreement though.
 
This is a serious matter. In a parish I used to belong to, they were having trouble with mistreatment of the host. They found them used as book-markers in missals in the pews, given to babies, and lying out on the lawn of the church. I even saw a deacon chase down someone who had just received a host from him but did not consume it right away. A few homilies a year would reduce a lot of this.
 
I urge you to immediately - if you are yourself in a state of grace - consume it (ideally, if the person was not looking). If they get angry, you can explain that this is a monstrous sacrilege, even if they didn’t realize it.

I don’t mean to set myself up as an “officer” at mass or anything, but I do keep my eye out somewhat, and once or twice I have told the priest about somebody who walked away with the host (another reason to ban communion in the hand, if you ask me - not that these things are completely prevented by communion on the tongue, as the story of at least one Eucharistic miracle makes clear. Speaking of which, you could give them a book on Eucharistic miracles. Perhaps they would start returning to Church).
 
Bookcat said:
Sure it would. It cannot be otherwise. The Eucharist is Jesus Christ. I understand what you are seeking to say here…that the point is to protect the Eucharist from sacrilege. But it would still be receiving Jesus in Holy Communion…and I do not see that one ought to do such oneself…outside perhaps what I noted above.
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I’m sorry, but this makes no sense.
  1. The person is hardly likely to let a strange priest into their home to take their souvenir
  2. There is no honorable place to store the Eucharist in the meantime while you wait for a priest to show up.
  3. You probably don’t have a cyborium on you to honorably transport the host with you to the parish, so that’s out of the picture.
The answer is, as our priest friend has stated, to consume the host. If you are not sure of your state of grace, I would suggest summoning up an act of perfect contrition and handling “business” so that the abused host need not remain in an unworthy position one moment longer than it has to.
 
promethius said:
I’m sorry, but this makes no sense.
  1. The person is hardly likely to let a strange priest into their home to take their souvenir
  2. There is no honorable place to store the Eucharist in the meantime while you wait for a priest to show up.
  3. You probably don’t have a cyborium on you to honorably transport the host with you to the parish, so that’s out of the picture.
The answer is, as our priest friend has stated, to consume the host. If you are not sure of your state of grace, I would suggest summoning up an act of perfect contrition and handling “business” so that the abused host need not remain in an unworthy position one moment longer than it has to.
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Amen, brother! Great answer.

This is really serious, though. Please try to get there and consume that host ASAP.
 
promethius said:
I’m sorry, but this makes no sense.
  1. The person is hardly likely to let a strange priest into their home to take their souvenir
  2. There is no honorable place to store the Eucharist in the meantime while you wait for a priest to show up.
  3. You probably don’t have a cyborium on you to honorably transport the host with you to the parish, so that’s out of the picture.
The answer is, as our priest friend has stated, to consume the host. If you are not sure of your state of grace, I would suggest summoning up an act of perfect contrition and handling “business” so that the abused host need not remain in an unworthy position one moment longer than it has to.
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👍
 
Bookcat said:
Huh? I have not had a priest tell me any such thing…(though perhaps somewhere in life such a conversation may have occurred…I do not recollect such…)Yes you have, NewEnglandPriest is a priest and he has stated to ALL of us what the prudent thing to do is, consume the Host. It may be consecrated, it may not. Treat it as if consecrated and consume it. If it appears corrupt, molded or such, take it with a clean napkin, cloth, or if available a pyx to your parish and allow the priest to take care of it.

Anyhow …again I still think that one ought to contact the local pastor etc. As I said I can see the point if there was some immediate threat of sacrilege etc…but if I found say a host in the pew …or someone showed me a host he had brought back as a “momento”…I would adore Christsorry, but this is not adoration time, it is action time. Protect the Eucharist, then later in adoration, give thanks for the faith to know He is truly present in the Eucharist. and contact the local Parish Priest…(cell phones are great :))

In any case–whatever the discipline of the Church would say to do…do.
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This is a serious matter, and yes one must discern what is best to do. But as NEP has stated, and ZAB has elaborated, do the job required to protect the Eucharist and put everything in order afterwards. In other words, consume the host, then go see your pastor and tell exactly what you did, he will be more than happy to “help you set things right”.
 
Anna_Claire said:
I would be shocked as well. I would politely explain to them how faithful Catholics believe this to be extremely disrespectful to the Eucharistic species and to believing Catholics. Dont get angry…it will do no good. I would ask if i could place it into a cup of water, let it dissolve and put it into the soil. But…if they refuse after doing your best, remember that once the consecrated host is contamnited, its no longer food that can be eaten. It has spolied so it is no longer vali matter and is no longer the Blessed Sacrament.I have to ask Anna, what exactly do you mean here? The Eucharist is the Eucharist as long as the appearance of bread is there, even molded bread.
The couple did wrong but it sounds like they didn’t realize it.
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Yes the couple didn’t know they were performing a sacrilege, so their culpability is limited; but once you find it you must take action in the most charitable and loving way possible. But it must be done. That host is the Eucharist and must be treated as such. This is an opportunity to share our faith in the presence of Jesus among us.

PS. To all who have said to simply place it in water to dissolve, if you’ve never done this I have an FYI for you; this process of breaking down the accidents of bread takes a lot longer than one would think. I’ve done this many times, you are talking about a week or two; depends on the type of host. There is no proper or safe place to keep the Eucharist in a home, so it must be brought to the parish priest if it is not consumed. Call the local parish and the priest or deacon will come get the Eucharist.
 
Leon_Bloy said:
I urge you to immediately - if you are yourself in a state of grace - consume it (ideally, if the person was not looking). If they get angry, you can explain that this is a monstrous sacrilege, even if they didn’t realize it.

I don’t mean to set myself up as an “officer” at mass or anything, but I do keep my eye out somewhat, and once or twice I have told the priest about somebody who walked away with the host (another reason to ban communion in the hand, if you ask me - not that these things are completely prevented by communion on the tongue, as the story of at least one Eucharistic miracle makes clear. Speaking of which, you could give them a book on Eucharistic miracles. Perhaps they would start returning to Church).
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A book on Eucharistic miracles (and the opportunity to visit one) is a large part of why I became Catholic.

As for the OP, I’m in the “as long as you’re reasonably sure you’re in a state of grace, consume it immediately” camp.
 
So everyone is agreed that consuming the host is not considered “self communication” and is okay to do?
 
Bookcat said:
I would not take that approach…a person who has in fact committed a mortal sin ought not receive…one does not do a sacrilege to avoid undo a sacrilege (not speaking of those who are struggling with scruples…
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I’ll simply refer you to Canon Law on the exemption to this matter:

Can. 916 A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession** unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.**

Whether or not the situation we are faced with meets this exemption, I will leave up to everyone to decide on their own. IMHO, it meets it, especially since as Deacon Lapey has pointed out, the primary intention is proper disposal of a host and not reception of a sacrament. After all, we are not to receive communion more than twice in a day however if there is no tabernacle and the priest consecrated too many hosts then many hosts need to be consumed but that’s not considered multiple receptions of communion…
 
sedonaman said:
This is a serious matter. In a parish I used to belong to, they were having trouble with mistreatment of the host. They found them used as book-markers in missals in the pews, given to babies, and lying out on the lawn of the church. I even saw a deacon chase down someone who had just received a host from him but did not consume it right away. A few homilies a year would reduce a lot of this.
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Our priest also works at a Large RC parish. A while back, he was on the verge completely banning reception I the hand there because of this.

As far as the album problem, I’d compare the offensiveness to my hosts to things that they would recognize, such as the urine crucifix, t get the point across.

hawk
 
dochawk said:
Our priest also works at a Large RC parish. A while back, he was on the verge completely banning reception I the hand there because of this.

As far as the album problem, I’d compare the offensiveness to my hosts to things that they would recognize, such as the urine crucifix, t get the point across.

hawk
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Another priest told of an unnamed parish on the East Coast in which the volunteers for making the hosts added things like sugar, eggs, baking powder, etc., just like “something out of Betty Crocker.” This went on for ten years before someone put a stop to it. For ten years no one in the parish received a valid Communion.
 
a83192 - so what did you end up doing? A lot of hypothetical responses here, and I’m curious what you actually did.

Now here’s my hypothetical response: If it were me, I believe I would have consumed the Host on the spot (assuming it was still edible), and then informed a parish priest what happened. As an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion who visits a nursing home, I’ve consumed hosts on several occasions. Whenever I’ve told a priest about something out of the ordinary or even something wrong (like if I unknowingly gave Holy Communion to someone who isn’t Catholic), he usually just says, “thanks for telling me.”
 
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