Hungry Priest?

  • Thread starter Thread starter brotherjoe
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

brotherjoe

Guest
Christmas Day at Mass I saw the strangest sight. After receiving I looked up and as soon as the celebrant had finished distributing communion to the line he served, he took another host out of the (ciborium?) in his hand and ate it. A moment later he took a second one and put it in his mouth as well! I have never seen a priest do that and have been trying to figure out why he did. Is there a rule such as maybe all the pieces of the original large host used for consecration must be eaten rather than reserved after Mass?
 
brotherjoe said:
Christmas Day at Mass I saw the strangest sight. After receiving I looked up and as soon as the celebrant had finished distributing communion to the line he served, he took another host out of the (ciborium?) in his hand and ate it. A moment later he took a second one and put it in his mouth as well! I have never seen a priest do that and have been trying to figure out why he did. Is there a rule such as maybe all the pieces of the original large host used for consecration must be eaten rather than reserved after Mass?
Click to expand...
Maybe those hosts had been dropped or otherwise contaminated? I have never seen that but perhaps it was as you say, that the large pieces must be distributed or consumed.
 
brotherjoe said:
Christmas Day at Mass I saw the strangest sight. After receiving I looked up and as soon as the celebrant had finished distributing communion to the line he served, he took another host out of the (ciborium?) in his hand and ate it. A moment later he took a second one and put it in his mouth as well! I have never seen a priest do that and have been trying to figure out why he did. Is there a rule such as maybe all the pieces of the original large host used for consecration must be eaten rather than reserved after Mass?
Click to expand...
I have witnessed an event similar to this when I attended a Mass at a chapel for a Catholic Reception Center/Event Hall.
I figured that since Mass may be celebrated infrequently in the chapel, the body and blood of our Lord must be completely consumed at each celebration to prevent any possible instance of spoilage, being forgotten etc.
 
I saw our priest do that once when we had outdoor mass at day camp. I “think” the priest does that when it’s the last few hosts left after distribution and he doesn’t want to get them mixed in with unconsecrated hosts which will fill the ciborium later. for a different mass. They may also do that when (as in our case) there’s nowhere to put them after the mass since we were outdoors and not in an actual chapel/church.
 
my priest has done this at daily mass when there are few people and he has consecrated too many hosts. I think it is licit. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be.
 
I once saw an EMHC doing something similar at mass. As she returned to the front of the church toreturn the unused hosts, she was sort of “snacking” on them as she walked. I was truly shocked. :eek: It was as if she had a bowl of chips in her hand or something. That was the last time I saw her serving communion, by the way.
 
they would be broken hosts, called particles, or hosts stuck together, we do this regularly.
a good reason why i follow what sr regina gerturde taught us: say your prayers, keep your nose to the grind. fr really does know what he is doing.

with regards the comment about illicit,nreally? give me a break, we’re not consuming these as a snack. it is the Body of Christ! with the small/large particles,it is best to consume them.
 
frjimt said:
they would be broken hosts, called particles, or hosts stuck together, we do this regularly.
a good reason why i follow what sr regina gerturde taught us: say your prayers, keep your nose to the grind. fr really does know what he is doing.

with regards the comment about illicit,nreally? give me a break, we’re not consuming these as a snack. it is the Body of Christ! with the small/large particles,it is best to consume them.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that it’s perfectly normal and expected for the priest (or even deacon) to do this when purifying the sacred vessels. I’ve seen it often–they will consume the particles and fragments and crumbs. How else would you clean a ciborium, after all?

But I think the snacking comment was about an EMHC. My understanding is that an EMHC should never do this, but instead leave it to the priest or deacon. Correct?
 
It is normal for the priest to consume any broken hosts left at the bottom of the ciborium, or the supply of reserved hosts if they are in danger of becoming stale. If there are a lot of hosts, he may ask a deacon, an EMHC or an MC to consume some of them.

The practice at our church is that reserved hosts are kept in a large ciborium in the tabernacle and this is brought to the altar at the Agnus Dei. The reserved hosts are mostly distributed and any from the other ciboria are added to it before the ciborium is returned to the tabernacle. At the last Mass of the day, the priest consumes any of the previously reserved hosts before purifying the large ciborium. Any remaining hosts from that Mass are then taken to the tabernacle as the new reserved Sacrament. In that way, communion hosts are never more than a day old and there is no build-up of crumbs in the ciborium.
 
frjimt said:
they would be broken hosts, called particles, or hosts stuck together, we do this regularly.
**a good reason why i follow what sr regina gerturde taught us: say your prayers, keep your nose to the grind. fr really does know what he is doing.**with regards the comment about illicit,nreally? give me a break, we’re not consuming these as a snack. it is the Body of Christ! with the small/large particles,it is best to consume them.
Click to expand...
Excellent point. I try very hard to keep my head down and my eyes to myself after I have received (and before too if we aren’t sitting near the front!). There are too many chances for me to be distracted from my own prayers, start to see things that probably have a perfectly good explanation and begin to feel superior in my holiness. 😊 Better to keep head down and say my prayers, than fall into sin.
 
IrishRush said:
I once saw an EMHC doing something similar at mass. As she returned to the front of the church toreturn the unused hosts, she was sort of “snacking” on them as she walked. I was truly shocked. :eek: It was as if she had a bowl of chips in her hand or something. That was the last time I saw her serving communion, by the way.
Click to expand...
I would be far more charitable in my assessment. It’s entirely possible the priest opened the tabernacle to find 500 consecrated Hosts and asked the EMHCs to help. While the function of consuming the remaining Eucharist is generally reserved to the priest, he can ask for assistance if the quantity is so great that it becomes and impossible task… particularly germain when discussing the Blood of Christ. In fact, I remember one mass where next to NOBODY received the Blood of Christ, and that in turn left 6 nearly full chalices for the priest to consume. One of my friends was an EMHC and was the last to return to the altar where the priest grabbed his arm before he could walk away and whispered “help me, please.”

So, while IF what you say is true about her manner, then she probably did go about it in a poor way… but that does not rule out the possibility that she was doing as asked and needed (and it does not rule out the possibility that your attitude slanted your perception and you merely haven’t noticed the same EMHC again)
 
promethius said:
So, while IF what you say is true about her manner, then she probably did go about it in a poor way… but that does not rule out the possibility that she was doing as asked and needed (and it does not rule out the possibility that your attitude slanted your perception and you merely haven’t noticed the same EMHC again)
Click to expand...
I know that the accidents can be very drying to the mouth (I have helped,after Good Friday service, consume the extra) maybe that is why it looked like she was "snacking’ (though really what is meant by that comment? The way we word things can sound judging) Sometimes the priest has a reason he can’t consume that much.
Another possibility is the priest consuming a host that was dropped and picked up.
 
brotherjoe said:
Christmas Day at Mass I saw the strangest sight. After receiving I looked up and as soon as the celebrant had finished distributing communion to the line he served, he took another host out of the (ciborium?) in his hand and ate it. A moment later he took a second one and put it in his mouth as well! I have never seen a priest do that and have been trying to figure out why he did. Is there a rule such as maybe all the pieces of the original large host used for consecration must be eaten rather than reserved after Mass?
Click to expand...
Possible explanations:
  1. The hosts had been dropped or had something wrong with them (i.e. stuck together).
  2. There wasn’t room in the tabernacle for another ciborium.
 
promethius said:
I would be far more charitable in my assessment. It’s entirely possible the priest opened the tabernacle to find 500 consecrated Hosts and asked the EMHCs to help. While the function of consuming the remaining Eucharist is generally reserved to the priest, he can ask for assistance if the quantity is so great that it becomes and impossible task… particularly germain when discussing the Blood of Christ. In fact, I remember one mass where next to NOBODY received the Blood of Christ, and that in turn left 6 nearly full chalices for the priest to consume. One of my friends was an EMHC and was the last to return to the altar where the priest grabbed his arm before he could walk away and whispered “help me, please.”

So, while IF what you say is true about her manner, then she probably did go about it in a poor way… but that does not rule out the possibility that she was doing as asked and needed (and it does not rule out the possibility that your attitude slanted your perception and you merely haven’t noticed the same EMHC again)
Click to expand...
What I meant by the snacking was that she was walking back up toward the altar, and would reach into the bowl, take a host and put it in her mouth as she was walking, then do it again before finishing the one she was chewing. I saw her consume quite a few as she walked, did not see any other EMHC’s doing this while they walked or when they returned to the side table near the altar. I’m sure it’s possible that your explanation is on target, and I would like to be charitable in my assumptions, but I know what I saw and there was nothing approaching reverence to the way this woman was eating these hosts. And she has not served at a mass I’ve attended since, though it’s possible that she serves at a different time than I attend. I really was shocked though - I never saw anything like that before, nor have I since.
 
Ok…so with more info on the incident I can understand how it must have looked. The minister should have taken the hosts to the tabernacle and combined them with those in another ciborium, or put any that were contaminated into the sacrarium… or at the very least walked to the credence table to consume so that it wasn’t so obvious. That would have been the reverent thing to do without causing scandal. Let it go for now,in my opinion, but if you see it again, talk to your pastor.
 
We are instructed to consume leftovers before we leave our designated spot, so that there is far less chance of dropping or spilling.

I remember how shocked I was to see a priest do this once. IIRC, he opened the tabernacle after Mass when most people were gone, and started chowing down. He was very reverent, but he was clearly consuming dozens and dozens of hosts. Turns out that a bunch of consecrated hosts had been transferred from another parish (consolidation or something) and had somehow been overlooked and had become terribly stale. As soon as the priest figured it out, he consumed them himself. I doubt he needed lunch that day, and probably not dinner either.
 
Anna_Claire said:
Ok…so with more info on the incident I can understand how it must have looked. The minister should have taken the hosts to the tabernacle and combined them with those in another ciborium, **or put any that were contaminated into the sacrarium… **or at the very least walked to the credence table to consume so that it wasn’t so obvious. That would have been the reverent thing to do without causing scandal. Let it go for now,in my opinion, but if you see it again, talk to your pastor.
Click to expand...
Never, never, unless they are first dissolved in water until no sign of the Host remains.

I understand how the OP must have felt, though, recalling my own horror at seeing an EMHC walk into the sacristy with a chalice still containing Precious Blood and tossing it back as though he was doing shooters. No reverence and certainly no real understanding of Whom he was consuming.
 
GwenL said:
My understanding is that it’s perfectly normal and expected for the priest (or even deacon) to do this when purifying the sacred vessels.
Click to expand...
“even”?

I’m not sure about the west, but the Byzantine norm is for the Deacon to consume the remaining Eucharist. If no deacon is present, the priest is to consume after the liturgy (he should be out with the remaining servers at that point for the Ambon prayer).

With no Deacon, and if the priest’s health does not permit, consumption will be delegated to a server by necessity.

And with regard to stale Hosts . . . We have presanctified liturgies Wednesday and Friday during Lent, and use leavened bread. The Host is kept and added to unconsecrated wine for distributions. It would be stale to start with, but some priests go as far as drying It further with a hair dryer or heat lamp! Consuming this can take effort . . .
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top