Intinction

  • Thread starter Thread starter DeniseWhittaker
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DeniseWhittaker

Guest
Is Intinction an accepted primary way to distribute Holy Communion?
Our parish priest has introduced this method even though we have ample Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist.
Jesus said “Eat My Body and Drink My Blood”
Should’t we be given a choice or does the priest have the right to deceide how to distribute?
Also are we as EME allowed to distribute in this manner?
 
DeniseWhittaker said:
Is Intinction an accepted primary way to distribute Holy Communion?
Our parish priest has introduced this method even though we have ample Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist.
Jesus said “Eat My Body and Drink My Blood”
Should’t we be given a choice or does the priest have the right to deceide how to distribute?
Also are we as EME allowed to distribute in this manner?
Click to expand...
First of all, the term that the Church uses is Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion. The bishop, priest and deacon are the Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. Only the bishop and priest are called Eucharistic Ministers because they are the sole ministers who can confect the Eucharist.

As an EMHC, you are not allowed to distribute via intinction. This mode is reserved only to the priest/bishop. Here is what Redemptionis Sacramentum states:
[103.] The norms of the Roman Missal admit the principle that in cases where Communion is administered under both kinds, “the Blood of the Lord may be received either by drinking from the chalice directly, or by intinction, or by means of a tube or a spoon”.191 As regards the administering of Communion to lay members of Christ’s faithful, the Bishops may exclude Communion with the tube or the spoon where this is not the local custom, though the option of administering Communion by intinction always remains. If this modality is employed, however, hosts should be used which are neither too thin nor too small, and the communicant should receive the Sacrament from the Priest only on the tongue.192
Click to expand...
Here is the reference, once again, from the GIRM:
  1. **If Communion from the chalice is carried out by intinction, each communicant, holding a communion-plate under the chin, approaches the priest, who holds a vessel with the sacred particles, a minister standing at his side and holding the chalice. The priest takes a host, dips it partly into the chalice and, showing it, says, Corpus et Sanguis Christi (The Body and Blood of Christ). The communicant responds, Amen, receives the Sacrament in the mouth from the priest, and then withdraws. **
Click to expand...
From the Norms for Distribution of Holy Communion in the United States, we find that:
49. Holy Communion may be distributed by intinction in the following manner: “the communicant, while holding the paten under the chin, approaches the priest who holds the vessel with the hosts and at whose side stands the minister holding the chalice. The priest takes the host, intincts the particle into the chalice and, showing it, says: ‘The Body and Blood of Christ.’ The communicant responds, ‘Amen,’ and receives the Sacrament on the tongue from the priest. Afterwards, the communicant returns to his or her place.” (53)
Click to expand...
I called the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments regarding the question of just who can intinct. The Holy See has confirmed that only bishops and priests should be doing the intincting. In fact, when I spoke to an official with the Congregation, he quoted the citations that I have posted.

Your first question has already been answered in the other thread that you began. Intinction is acceptable, and, in many cases, preferred when there are instances of too many communicants or health reasons.
 
DeniseWhittaker said:
Is Intinction an accepted primary way to distribute Holy Communion?
Our parish priest has introduced this method even though we have ample Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist.
Jesus said “Eat My Body and Drink My Blood”
Should’t we be given a choice or does the priest have the right to deceide how to distribute?
Also are we as EME allowed to distribute in this manner?
Click to expand...
It’s up to the priest celebrating that particular Mass. Intinction is always his option.

The fact that there migh happen to be a number of potential Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion isn’t relevant. Until he chooses to appoint them, they’re not yet EMHCs.
 
FrDavid96 said:
It’s up to the priest celebrating that particular Mass. Intinction is always his option.

The fact that there migh happen to be a number of potential Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion isn’t relevant. Until he chooses to appoint them, they’re not yet EMHCs.
Click to expand...
I too took the question to be whether the priest can make the decision on whether to use intinction (only by the priest of course) rather than having EMHC’s offering the chalice, which of course he can.

In the couple places I have seen intinction as the distribution method the option was made open to receive only the host or only the chalice for those who needed to do so for medical reasons such as celiac.
 
DeniseWhittaker said:
Jesus said “Eat My Body and Drink My Blood”
Click to expand...
FYI, this command is fulfilled even if only one species is offered.

Each species if the complete Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. They are not seperate things. The host is not ‘just’ the Body, and the contents of the chalice are not ‘just’ the Blood.

They are united.

So whenever we recieve one species, we recieve it all, and therefore we eat and drink at the same time.

Our throats do not percieve that we are drinking in the same way that our eyes do not percieve that it is Christ, but we do both eat and drink.
 
My question now is are EMHC allowed to distribute Holy Communion by Intinction?
The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments quotes that Intinction is only distributed by the Bishop and Priests.
Is this a decision made by the Priest? or can the Bishop or Priest overrule this statement?
 
DeniseWhittaker said:
My question now is are EMHC allowed to distribute Holy Communion by Intinction?
The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments quotes that Intinction is only distributed by the Bishop and Priests.
Is this a decision made by the Priest? or can the Bishop or Priest overrule this statement?
Click to expand...
No, EMHC’s cannot intinct a host. Even a deacon cannot do so, only an ordained priest.
 
DeniseWhittaker said:
My question now is are EMHC allowed to distribute Holy Communion by Intinction?
The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments quotes that Intinction is only distributed by the Bishop and Priests.
Is this a decision made by the Priest? or can the Bishop or Priest overrule this statement?
Click to expand...
Neither. The only one who can overrule the CDWDS in a matter of liturgical law is the Pope himself.
 
DeniseWhittaker said:
My question now is are EMHC allowed to distribute Holy Communion by Intinction?
The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments quotes that Intinction is only distributed by the Bishop and Priests.
Is this a decision made by the Priest? or can the Bishop or Priest overrule this statement?
Click to expand...
Again, this question has already been answered in the sections of the relevant authoritative liturgical documents that I quoted.

As Brendan stated, the CDWDS is the final word. It acts in and with the authority of the Holy Father. Thus, it is not within the competency of a bishop, let alone a priest, to set aside what the Congregation has already stated. Furthermore, this instruction is found both in the GIRM and in the Norms for Distributing Holy Communion in the United States, documents which I cited in my initial response to you.

Intinction is fostered as a means of eliminating the use of EMHCs. Now, an EMHC can hold the chalice for the priest while he intincts the Sacred Host, but, the EMHC cannot do the intinction.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top