Leavened Bread for Eucharist?

  • Thread starter Thread starter AFarmer
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I belonged to a parish for a number of years in another state which used a dark brown sweet bread for communion and crumbs went everywhere. It’s a little disconcerting to think that I was not receiving the real thing all those years. 😦
 
Can someone speak to the validity and/or legality of families mixing ingredients for the “hosts” in a special preparation for first holy communion?
Nothing “extra” is supposed to be added other than the required ingredients. Any extra addition would, minimally, make the substance illicit. The question of validity comes down to whether what is used changes the essential nature of the bread to something other than wheat bread. Would a little bit of honey or sugar as sweetener necessarily invalidate the substance, therefore? Probably not. Would using something other than wheat flour? Yes. Would using a heavy degree of shortening such that it is now a cookie and not bread? Yeah. Would putting in something really odd (date nuts, for example) invalidate? Yep. But a lot of the recipes which are typically promoted for use in homemade Eucharist bread in the Latin Church are iffy. (You can google up the recipes easily). It is probably not the case that they are invalid Eucharists, but the mere messing with the bread at all calls that into question. Which is why it ought not be done.
 
Hence the use of intinction in the rites that use leavened bread.
I have gone to Byzantine Rite Divine Liturgy twice. It was very reverant, and I liked the way the Eucharist was given by the priest. A friend of mine who is Byzantine Rite explained how the Eucharist is given and what I should do. Is the Eucharist given the same way in all of the Eastern Catholic Churches? The Divine Liturgy I attended was Byzantine Catholic. I would like to go to Maronite and Melkite Rite Divine Liturgies because there are parishes of those Rites close by, but I want to know about the Eucharist in those Rites.
 
I don’t know across the board what the practices are in the Eastern Churches. In the Melkite tradition, we have either intinction or Communion is administered using a spoon. (the spoon method works best in communicating very small children)
 
I don’t know across the board what the practices are in the Eastern Churches. In the Melkite tradition, we have either intinction or Communion is administered using a spoon. (the spoon method works best in communicating very small children)
The use of the spoon is also intinction.
 
I have a recipe for “unleven” bread that calls for wheat flour, water and butter.

Would this be acceptable in the Roman church?
 
The use of the spoon is also intinction.
I phrased it badly. It’s just that a Western Catholic going to an Eastern Church for the first time, may be a little “thrown off” when confronted with a spoon, instead of the outward appearance of a cube of bread dipped in wine.
 
I phrased it badly. It’s just that a Western Catholic going to an Eastern Church for the first time, may be a little “thrown off” when confronted with a spoon, instead of the outward appearance of a cube of bread dipped in wine.
Do all the Eastern Rites give the Eucharist this way? So far, from my experience and what another poster said, this is how the Byzantine and Melkite Rites give the Eucharist. I am interested in going to a Maronite Rite Divine Liturgy. Does the Maronite Rite also give the Eucharist this way?
 
Do all the Eastern Rites give the Eucharist this way? So far, from my experience and what another poster said, this is how the Byzantine and Melkite Rites give the Eucharist. I am interested in going to a Maronite Rite Divine Liturgy. Does the Maronite Rite also give the Eucharist this way?
Both times I’ve received communion in the Maronite rite it was a typical “latin” host which the priest held in his hand and dipped into the Precious Blood and then placed on my tongue. No spoon was involved.
 
Both times I’ve received communion in the Maronite rite it was a typical “latin” host which the priest held in his hand and dipped into the Precious Blood and then placed on my tongue. No spoon was involved.
Do you know if the Maronite Divine Liturgy always uses unleavened hosts that are intincted? Or do they sometimes use leavened bread that is soaking in the wine like some of the other Eastern Rites use? Which other Eastern Churches use cubes of leavened bread soaking in the wine and administered with a spoon? I want to make sure I do the proper protocol to receive at the Maronite Church. Do I open my mouth and stick my tongue out, or open my mouth and lean my head back without sticking my tongue out?
 
Here, for the OP’s benefit, is a quote from the english translation of the Code of Canon Law
Can. 924 §1. The most holy eucharistic sacrifice must be offered with bread and with wine in which a little water must be mixed.

§2. The bread must be only wheat and recently made so that there is no danger of spoiling.

§3. The wine must be natural from the fruit of the vine and not spoiled.

Can. 925 Holy communion is to be given under the form of bread alone, or under both species according to the norm of the liturgical laws, or even under the form of wine alone in a case of necessity.

Can. 926 According to the ancient tradition of the Latin Church, the priest is to use unleavened bread in the eucharistic celebration whenever he offers it.
The terminology “only wheat” is potentially problematic; other sites translate it “only wheaten”; I could not find it in latin at the Vatican website. (mondosearch wasn’t working).
 
At the Last Supper, Jesus and His apostles were commemorating Passover and unleavened bread was used.
Later, Jesus took this same bread and instituted the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and immediately following the wine as His blood.
Inleavened bread was wheat flour alone.

Leavened adds yeast and shortening sometimes egg.

Holy Communion is not a meal…it is a Sacrament.
 
Do you know if the Maronite Divine Liturgy always uses unleavened hosts that are intincted? Or do they sometimes use leavened bread that is soaking in the wine like some of the other Eastern Rites use? Which other Eastern Churches use cubes of leavened bread soaking in the wine and administered with a spoon? I want to make sure I do the proper protocol to receive at the Maronite Church. Do I open my mouth and stick my tongue out, or open my mouth and lean my head back without sticking my tongue out?
No, I don’t know for certain. I’ve only attended a couple of times,
in Florida and Minnesota, and both times it was a “regular” host.
 
Do all the Eastern Rites give the Eucharist this way? So far, from my experience and what another poster said, this is how the Byzantine and Melkite Rites give the Eucharist. I am interested in going to a Maronite Rite Divine Liturgy. Does the Maronite Rite also give the Eucharist this way?
There is no Melkite rite, they are a part of the Byzantine Rite. The slavic Church in the Byzantine Rite use the spoon. The Melkties use the spoon for presanctified liturgy during Great Lent but most of the time they do inticition by hand. The bread is not cut into cubes, it is more of a rectangle.
 
At the Last Supper, Jesus and His apostles were commemorating Passover and unleavened bread was used.
Later, Jesus took this same bread and instituted the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and immediately following the wine as His blood.
Inleavened bread was wheat flour alone.

Leavened adds yeast and shortening sometimes egg.

Holy Communion is not a meal…it is a Sacrament.
There is some question as to this. Was it the Passover meal or not? The Gospel of John seems to have the Last Supper occurring before Passover.
 
When we lived in Louisville, KY, our new parish was quite the over the top, post Vatican II, in 1976. It was a round all glass church, and every Sunday we had no idea where the altar would be set up. The first Mass I attended was All Saints Day…“Malcolm X pray for us”. I asked the priest about this later and he said the liturgy committee had decided to invoke his name as he died for his cause. Hey, so did Hitler, but I wouldn’t think he would have any particular inside track to sainthood, or neccessarily be in a position to “pray for us”. Then there was the Gospel with liturgical dancer in veils interpreting the Gospel in Dance all over the altar. But the very worst to me was the leavened bread for Communion. Who wants to go using a toothpick to pry Jesus from in between your teeth. I doubt, at least hope this is longer the case at this Roman Catholic Church in Louisville but for the year and a half we lived there, I found it very difficult to practice my faith in my own parish. s
 
There is no Melkite rite, they are a part of the Byzantine Rite. The slavic Church in the Byzantine Rite use the spoon. The Melkties use the spoon for presanctified liturgy during Great Lent but most of the time they do inticition by hand. The bread is not cut into cubes, it is more of a rectangle.
Would it be best for me to just call the church before I go to the Divine Liturgy, tell them I am Latin Rite but wish to receive, and ask them the proper protocol?
 
Is the use of bleached flour allowed? Most communion hosts are suspiciously white – is this done natural oxidation or via added chemicals?

Also, what sort of process is used to ensure that yeast does not inadvertently contaminate the dough? Yeast is a pretty ubiquitous presence in the environment (as anyone who has ever battled thrush can attest to.)
 
Would it be best for me to just call the church before I go to the Divine Liturgy, tell them I am Latin Rite but wish to receive, and ask them the proper protocol?
Not a bad idea…I wish I would have done the same before I went to my first Divine Liturgy. I wasn’t expecting quite the whack on the toofs–maybe Father noticed my backwards Sign of the Cross and thought he’d teach that Latin boy a lesson 😛
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top