How many hosts are usually kept in the Tabernacle at your parish?

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The person who takes care of the altar vessels and cloths, sets up the altar for Mass, takes care of the priests’ vestments, etc.
 
There’s a parish where I attend daily Mass. The ciborium is always completely full. The priest consecrates one host for himself and everyone else receives the reserved hosts. The funny thing is that I have never seen him add additional hosts yet the number in ciborium never goes down. I commented to a friend that it’s like the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
 
This is what my college does. They consecrate extra on sundays in order to have hosts for daily mass for the coming week. I love daily mass 😀
 
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GospelOfMatthew said:
This is what my college does. They consecrate extra on sundays in order to have hosts for daily mass for the coming week. I love daily mass 😀
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Do you know why they do that rather than concecrating hosts at daily Mass? What is the usual attendance during the week?
 
Daily mass is anywhere from 6-20, since it’s not very consistent in that it could be 6 one day and 17 the next, it’s easier for them to have hosts in the Tabernacle
 
We repose two types of hosts. “Regular” hosts, and very thin, smaller hosts for home and hospital visits.

I would guess we have at least 250 each in “inventory.”
 
We have the hosts to be consecrated on the credence table in a separate bowl so the deacon or priest can put the number needed onto the paten. It just takes a few seconds and counting 20 is fairly easy.
 
We generally have two ciboria filled half full. The students bring up one half-filled ciboria each day for Mass regardless of whether we actually need one, but the other Masses generally balance that out.

Liturgically speaking, there should ideally only be enough consecrated hosts reserved for the sick in the community and perhaps one more if the tabernacle is used for adoration. Since we are the “bread” being offered, it should be offered, transfigured, and received during the Mass.

The “problem” of excess was solved in the early Church by distributing excess bread to the poor. That wouldn’t work well with modern communion wafers, however. Ultimately, while there are liturgical ideals, each parish is different and has different pastoral needs that will be reflected in the number of consecrated hosts reserved in the tabernacle.
 
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