One Species -- Body, Blood, or Both?

[MusicMan]

We had a visiting priest at Mass this Sunday. While this always causes a fair share of gaffs, the biggest one that occurred wasn’t his fault – the corkscrew broke in the bottle of wine. The Sacristan ran about the parish trying to find an alternate source of wine (she did), but it was just enough for the priest’s Communion. No problems yet.

We’ve grown accustomed to both Species, and the visiting priest felt the need to tell the congregation that Communion would be “Distributed under just the one Species, the Body of Jesus The Christ.”

First off, even though we’re used to both, an announcement is unnecessary. We’re Catholics, and this parish knows how to roll with these kinds of punches, but isn’t this misleading the congregation? Although just the Host is being offered, the Host contains the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord, right? Or am I off-base here and in need of my own refresher?

 

[Bruised_Reed]

Potentially misleading. You know church teaching and yet you are now wondering what the deal is.

Sometimes awkward moments lead to gaffes like that. The person feels a need to explain and out comes something off the wall.

 

[tee_eff_em]

We’ve grown accustomed to both Species, and the visiting priest felt the need to tell the congregation that Communion would be “Distributed under just the one Species, the Body of Jesus The Christ.”

It sounds like he is among those who have grown so over-scrupulous as to *never *refer to “bread”, even when it is appropriate to do so.

:twocents:
tee

 

[MusicMan]

The Mass contained a lot of little gaffs, most caused by us having a visiting priest who essentially gave our pastor 12 hours notice that he would be available to take this Mass for him. The Sacristan was ill-prepared for a visitor, and the priest didn’t follow the rubrics precisely.

When he left the altar and stood in the front of the Sanctuary to lead the Lord’s Prayer (at least he stayed in the Sanctuary and didn’t try to hold the server’s hands), all of the ex-Protestants got really excited. You could hear them gasp with interest.

The best part was the confusion over the wine. The Sacristan busted the corkscrew in the bottle we were supposed to use. She searched the rectory for a screwtop wine. Found something that looked like wine, took off the top, poured it, and told the servers we’d just have to settle for the grape juice she found.

Both of the servers were public school students of mine. After Mass, when one of them lamented all the gaffs and told me about the grape juice, I told her that if it was grape juice, then the Mass was invalid, she went ballistic. It was a nifty sight.

Finally, our pastor came in, heard about the “grape juice” and gave the “grape juice” a good slug. It was wine. Really wine.

 

[JimG]

At your parish they use corkscrews at the altar or credence table?? Couldn’t the altar wine be prepared ahead of time?

 

[MusicMan]

At your parish they use corkscrews at the altar or credence table?? Couldn’t the altar wine be prepared ahead of time?

No, it was being prepared prior to Mass in the Sacristy. The problem was that this was the LAST thing the Sacristan did, and thus went into a panic mode when the corkscrew broke with only minutes to go before Mass began.

Being something of an amatuer wine enthusiast, I’m half tempted to buy the parish a really nice “bottle opener” instead of the standard corkscrew, so that this never happens again.

 

[JimG]

Or you could just use some of that box wine!

 

[John_Lilburne]

…the visiting priest felt the need to tell the congregation that Communion would be “Distributed under just the one Species, the Body of Jesus The Christ.”

… but isn’t this misleading the congregation? Although just the Host is being offered, the Host contains the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord, right? Or am I off-base here and in need of my own refresher?

No, I do not think this is misleading the congregation.

We giving Communion in the form of bread, we say “The Body of Christ”. In the form of wine “The Blood of Christ”. Both, by intinction, “The Body and Blood of Christ”.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has:
“1390 Since Christ is sacramentally present under each of the species, communion under the species of bread alone makes it possible to receive all the fruit of Eucharistic grace. For pastoral reasons this manner of receiving communion has been legitimately established as the most common form in the Latin rite. But “the sign of communion is more complete when given under both kinds, since in that form the sign of the Eucharistic meal appears more clearly.”[footnote 225: GIRM 240.] This is the usual form of receiving communion in the Eastern rites.”

The footnote refers to the 1975 GIRM. But similar things are in the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal:
“281. Holy Communion has a fuller form as a sign when it is distributed under both kinds. For in this form the sign of the eucharistic banquet is more clearly evident and clear expression is given to the divine will by which the new and eternal Covenant is ratified in the Blood of the Lord, as also the relationship between the Eucharistic banquet and the eschatological banquet in the Father’s Kingdom. [footnote 105: Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction Eucharisticum mysterium, On the worship of the Eucharist, 25 May 1967, no. 32: AAS 59 (1967), p. 558.]”

 

[MusicMan]

Or you could just use some of that box wine!

Um, EW!

While my own personal tastes are not that extravagent or snobbish, boxed wine is a line I will not cross, nor will I ever allow a parish I belong to to use it. I would rather donate the wine for Communion myself than see us use boxed wine. Jesus certainly didn’t use boxed wine at the Last Supper. I suspect he probably used something that was fairly high quality and expensive.

 

[JimG]

OK, no boxed wine. But if it gets too expensive, you could always have communion under one species only.

 

[MusicMan]

I can find a nice Riesling for under $8. You figure one bottle a weekend, and that’s pretty cheap church support.

 

[JimG]

I can find a nice Riesling for under $8. You figure one bottle a weekend, and that’s pretty cheap church support.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

My own parish does not routinely have communion under both species, I think probably because of the potential logistics involved. There are about 2800 registered families plus many unregistered. Counting all family members means that there about 10,000 people going to Mass on a weekend. If a large percentage received under both species, the logistics would just get the best of us. But many parishes do routinely have communion under both kinds.