How is Communion administered in Eastern Catholic Churches?

[Aramis]

And what about communion of the sick? How do they get the Eucharist in the Eastern Tradition?

The reserved presanctified gifts are used. They may be given dry, or re-wet by immersion in wine. There might also be other ways, but I know both of these have been used.

 

[Diak]

There are actually sick-kits with minature chalices and smaller spoons that are used for the sick. As has been mentioned the Presanctified Gifts are taken from a previous Divine Liturgy. If one is unable to swallow any solid food, the wine is given from the chalice containing the holy particle.

 

[bpbasilphx]

When did the practice of mingling the species together in a Chalice begin?

The conmixture, as it is called, is in all the classical liturgies of East and West in some form.

I can therefore only deduce that this is of Apostolic origin.

 

[SyroMalankara]

Speaking for the Malankara Catholics, James is correct stating that we receive a host dipped in wine by the priest.

Our original tradition was to use leavened bread (like the Malankara Orthodox and the Jacobites) but for one reason or another we opted to use unleavened hosts, perhaps through influence from the Latins and Syro-Malabars in Kerala. I think we have been following the new rule ever since Archbishop Mar Ivanios reunion in the 1930s.

Actually this is not actually what occurs. The Hosts in India are leavened, they are pressed flat with the appropriate 12 crosses - the same is being practiced in Chicago and beginning to be used throughout the USA and Canada

 

[slave]

In the Malankara Rite, Holy Communion is given by intinction of a small levened Host slightly touched into the priest’s chalice. Holy Communion is only given by a priest.
In the Syro-Malabar it could be any way. Intincted by a priest
to the other extreme of in the hand given by a nun.

In the Malankara / Malabar Rites it is reminded before giving the Holy Communion that " The Holy Communion is for the Holy ones".

**Who ever feels unholy is not supposed to receive the Holy Communion. Spiritual or Physical …!

I - a humble lay man - had the privilege and Fortune of taking the BODY of my Lord (host) with my own poor hand and dipping it in HIS BLOOD (wine) and eating …! { It was many many years ago - but I truly wish the recurrence of the same now-a-days, at least rarely in specially selected congregation}
**

 

[SyroMalankara]

I - a humble lay man - had the privilege and Fortune of taking the BODY of my Lord (host) with my own poor hand and dipping it in HIS BLOOD (wine) and eating …! { It was many many years ago - but I truly wish the recurrence of the same now-a-days, at least rarely in specially selected congregation}

This is FORBIDDEN. You are not allowed to do this in any Catholic or Orthodox Church. Especially in the Malabar Qurbana and Malankara Qurbono where you are supposed to receive on the tongue.

Even in the Latin Church, the particular act you mention is SPECIFICALLY forbidden!

 

[Ghosty]

This is FORBIDDEN. You are not allowed to do this in any Catholic or Orthodox Church. Especially in the Malabar Qurbana and Malankara Qurbono where you are supposed to receive on the tongue.

Even in the Latin Church, the particular act you mention is SPECIFICALLY forbidden!

I’m pretty sure that this is done in the Chaldean/Assyrian tradition, at least in some cases. I seem to recall this being done at our local Assyrian Catholic parish.

Peace and God bless!

 

[Theoferrum]

This is FORBIDDEN. You are not allowed to do this in any Catholic or Orthodox Church. Especially in the Malabar Qurbana and Malankara Qurbono where you are supposed to receive on the tongue.

Even in the Latin Church, the particular act you mention is SPECIFICALLY forbidden!

Actually, the in the Maronite Church the Priest takes a host and dips it into the wine and then places it on the tongue of the receipitant.

Most Eastern Catholic Churches (and many of the Orthodox) are, literally, spoon fed the host from the Chalice which is very symbolic, to myself, of the Pelican in its Piety.

 

[Theoferrum]

The conmixture, as it is called, is in all the classical liturgies of East and West in some form.

I can therefore only deduce that this is of Apostolic origin.

The Priest who confirmed me in the Byzantine Catholic Church said the same thing. In fact, there is only one church on planet that does not practice conmixture and I want to say it is the Armenian Church. All the rest do and they take it as proof, as you say, that it is apostolic in origins.

 

[Theoferrum]

I know that Byzantine Catholic Communion is administered by intinction (leavened bread which is in the chalice with the Precious Blood and given by the priest with a spoon). I was told that the Maronite Church uses unleavened bread (hosts, like Latin Church) which are given by intinction by the priest and received on the tongue like in the Latin Church. I know there are many other Eastern Catholic Churches. How do the other Eastern Catholic Churches administer Communion? I know that there are different Eastern Catholic Churches in my neighbourhood. I would like to go to Divine Liturgy at these and would like to know how Communion is given so I will know what to do.

The Maronites use intinction as you say, but without the spoon. The Priest takes the (Latin) Host and dips it in the chalice then will place it on your tongue. He does not hold up the Host and say, “The body of Christ” but instead says, “The Servant of the Lord (name) receives the precious body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ” and he will ask you for your name just before he recites that formula. Same thing with the Byzantine Catholic but they use a spoon.

 

[Theoferrum]

Laura, you know if you wanna travel east, you can visit me and our parish!

I can tellyou that in the Byzantine tradition, when you receive the body, blood, soul and divinity or our Lord, you open your mouth wide and tilt your head back. The priest will take both species from the spoon and place them on your tongue. However, you do not say ;Amen: because that is said by the people during the Eucharistic part of the Divine Liturgy. Then you are permitted to make the sign of the cross after receiving. Also, when you receive, do not close your mouth while the spoon is still in your mouth.

And, as my Priest told me one time, “Don’t stick out your tongue” !

 

[Theoferrum]

That’s what I remember from Byzantine Divine Liturgy when I was in college. We always had Mass on Fridays. One time, we had Divine Liturgy in the chapel. A friend of mine in college told me how to receive Communion. I know what to do in Byzantine and Maronite Churches, but I am unsure about other Eastern Catholic Churches, for instance, Melkite.

You could try what I did and that is do a Google Video search for Melkite Mass or Divine Liturgy as they call it and some of them show the whole mass.

 

[Theoferrum]

So both ways are ancient. Another example of how the difference between East and West is not a matter of right and wrong, simply different.

Exactly - like how they cross themselves.

The Catholics cross themselves from left shoulder to right and the Orthodox (and Eastern Catholics) cross themselves from right shoulder to left.

 

[SyroMalankara]

I am not aware of ANY Catholic or Orthodox Church which allows “self-intinction” - I know Anglicans and other protestants do this regularly, but it is forbidden in the Latin Church (the question was asked to the CDF and the response was an absolute NEGATIVE) and I am unaware of ANY Eastern Church which allows the layperson to SELF-Intinct.

Of course, most, including my Church allows the PRIEST to intinct and place the Holy Body and Blood in the layperson’s mouth. BIG DIFFERENCE!

In the Malankara Tradition, the priest says “the propitiatory live coal of the Body and Blood of Christ are given to the true believer for the forgiveness of sins and life eternal” as the Body and Blood are placed on the tongue of the recipient.

While Latin Catholic cross Left to RIGHT, Byzantine Catholics cross from right to LEFT. Oriental Catholics and their Orthodox counterparts cross from Left to RIGHT, while the Assyrian Church of the East cross from right to LEFT - so we come full circle.

 

[slave]

This is FORBIDDEN. You are not allowed to do this in any Catholic or Orthodox Church. Especially in the Malabar Qurbana and Malankara Qurbono where you are supposed to receive on the tongue.

Even in the Latin Church, the particular act you mention is SPECIFICALLY forbidden!

Thanks. Now I understand. May be I was allowed because I was an inmate in a Religious Congregation then. Studying and preparing to become a Religious Person. But later I was called to lead a family life (which I am doing now) by the MASTER…!

 

[Aramis]

Thanks. Now I understand. May be I was allowed because I was an inmate in a Religious Congregation then. Studying and preparing to become a Religious Person. But later I was called to lead a family life (which I am doing now) by the MASTER…!

Uh, even in religious communities it’s a no-no. Only deacons and priests are permitted to perform intinction (dipping or immersing the precious body in the precious blood), and many of the churches do not permit even deacons to do so; further, it is not done for oneself, but for others. When individual intinction is used (the Body is dipped a piece at a time, separately for each communicant), every liturgy I’ve seen has either had the clerics recieve the Body and Blood separately, or had the celebrant do so and all others communed by the celebrant before distributing.

The pseudo-exception is for the Deacon’s Typica with Communion. The body is already intincted, dried, and reposed, and is immersed in wine by the deacon at the start of the service (in some theologumenia, resulting in “Contact Consecration” of the wine).

That said, I’ve seen it done by Anglicans/Episcopalians, and a couple other protestant sects… But it’s absolutely not permitted in the normative praxis of the Catholic Churches. And I’ve never heard of it in the Orthodox, either.

 

[aspirant]

The [Latin] Catholics cross themselves from left shoulder to right and the Orthodox (and Eastern Catholics) cross themselves from right shoulder to left.

According to Fr. Gabriel Bunge, the patristic literature suggests that the earliest sign of the cross was made on the forehead and got bigger later. The left-to-right motion now used among Latins came even later.

 

[Theoferrum]

According to Fr. Gabriel Bunge, the patristic literature suggests that the earliest sign of the cross was made on the forehead and got bigger later. The left-to-right motion now used among Latins came even later.

I am aware of this, but the fact remains that both sides cross themselves exactly opposite of each other. In fact, an Orthodox Priest just told me this weekend that the differnece was on the words of the blessing being translated into another language so that the word ‘Spirit’ was stated at the time the hand touches the right shoulder.

Point being, the ‘change’ was not a result of wanting to be different from the Catholics by the Orthodox or vice versa but a result of the blessing itself and thus, inadvertantly, they manifest the Schism between the two, which, though unfortunate as to their relationship to each other, would assuredly have occured anyway because it was the Will of the Spirit.

It is very similar to the Civil War that split Israel into Two Nations (Ephraim and Judah) and that often occured in the early church (Barnabus and Paul) which had the effect of actually increasing the amount of Missionaries sent out and the amount of territory covered by them.

 

[Brendan]

Actually, the in the Maronite Church the Priest takes a host and dips it into the wine and then places it on the tongue of the receipitant.

And that is how it was done in the Chaldean liturgies I have been to.

 

[aspirant]

an Orthodox Priest just told me this weekend that the differnece was on the words of the blessing being translated into another language so that the word ‘Spirit’ was stated at the time the hand touches the right shoulder.

I’ve heard this claim before. I’ve also heard the one about some following the motion and some mirroring the motion. There are also texts that provide spiritual explanations for each (e.g. “right-to-left represents driving out evil” and “left-to-right means conversion from bad to good”).

Point being, the ‘change’ was not a result of wanting to be different from the Catholics by the Orthodox or vice versa

I agree!