Preventable loss of the Blessed Sacrament

[Father_Fred]

BASIC FACTS:

1. Clearly recognizable Fragments of the Blessed Sacrament fall in the distribution of Holy Communion.
2. Each such Fragment is the entire living person of Jesus Christ,
   true God and true man.
3. Communion patens held closely under the chin of the communicant-on-the-tongue (CT) catch these falling Fragments.
4. The “paten hand” of a communicant-in-the-hand (CH) catches these falling Fragments.
5. Where no communion patens are used nothing catches these falling Fragments for CTs.
6. No document from Rome or from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops instructs CHs to check their “paten hand” for Fragments of the Blessed Sacrament and to consume any found.
7. Neither does any US bishop I know of so instruct and enforce his instructions. Please name one or more who does.
8. Where these enforced instructions are not in place, not one CH in ten checks his “paten hand” for Fragments of the Blessed Sacrament and consumes any found.
9. Loss of the Blessed Sacrament is preventable when the ordinary means for preventing it are not used.
10. The ordinary means for preventing this loss are the use of communion patens for CTs and enforced instruction for CHs. See Facts 3 and 4.

From these facts, except Fact 2, it follows that preventable loss of the Blessed Sacrament in the Latin rite is pandemic in the US.

From Fact 2 it follows that the Church Militant’s top priority must be to stop this loss by using the ordinary means to stop it, and, given Jesus’ great revelation to St. Margaret Alacoque on June 16, 1675, to make due reparation for it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

 

[Eilish_Maura]

Just how are you measuring the ‘prevalence’ of this “problem” to require a wholesale change in practice?

 

[LilyM]

Sorry, on what do you base your assertion that patens are the ordinary means for preventing fragment loss? And more importantly, how do you know that they are effective in doing so?

How do you know, for example, that fragments do not fall equally frequently from the mouths of those who communicate on the tongue, or indeed from the hand of the priest as he distributes?

Have you any idea how far small light objects can travel? Ever dropped a small screw or something and found it halfway across the room from where you dropped it?

I’ve known plenty of cases of whole hosts, if not fragments, falling from the mouths of communicants or the hands of priests onto the floor. With and without use of patens.

Catechesis I wholeheartedly agree with, on the other hand. We must be taught to be vigilant for visible fragments of the Host on our hands. Having said that, as an almost daily communicant the cases where I have discovered such fragments are extremely few and far between.

 

[Father_Fred]

Sorry, on what do you base your assertion that patens are the ordinary means for preventing fragment loss?

“Means” in this context is an instrument you use to accomplish something. A “means” can be “ordinary” or “extraordinary.”

A means is “ordinary” if it was designed to accomplish what you want to accomplish and if, used properly, it works. For example, if you want to drive a nail the “ordinary means” for doing that is a hammer.

No doubt you can also use a flat iron, a tire wrench, or a baseball bat, and if they work they are “means” for driving the nail. But because they are not designed for that purpose they would be “extraordinary means.”

Apply this to communion patens. These are slightly concave disks, gold plated, highly polished, some seven inches in diameter, and usually fitted with a handle. They are designed not only to catch the Blessed Sacrament, whether falling as an entire Host or as fragments of the Host, but also to display small fragments clearly and make them easily manageable. The handle helps precise placement of the paten by an acolyte.

The proper use of a communion paten consists in holding it closely under the chin of a CT. Because it was not designed to be held under the hands of a CH, this use of a communion paten is “extraordinary.” Further, I have no clear evidence that it “works,” i.e., has ever caught the falling Sacrament.

After forty+ years of using communion patens I can assure you that, when properly used, they accomplish what they are designed to accomplish. I have no reason to doubt that the same is true for the nine or ten centuries patens have been mandated throughout the Latin rite before 1977.

These facts are the basis for my assertion that communion patens are the ordinary means for preventing loss of the Blessed Sacrament distributed on the tongue.

I think this may have answered some of the other points you make, LilyM. Please let me know what else in your reply needs to be addressed, if anything.

 

[kage_ar]

In our Parish and surrounding Parishes, the hosts are commercially produced discs. They are very solid - not crumbly. DS was an altar server for years, holding the paten under both chins AND hands - he never had fragments on the paten. He did catch the occasional Host. Those were intact, they did not have any visible fragments even when dropped.

One other thing, when I was in RCIA, we were instructed that if we choose to recieve in the hand, to use a “paten hand” and to make certain no visible fragments were in the hand. In a decade of reception in the hand, I have never had a fragment on my hand.

Perhaps your Parish is using a very crumbly type of Host?

 

[Phemie]

In our Parish and surrounding Parishes, the hosts are commercially produced discs. They are very solid - not crumbly. DS was an altar server for years, holding the paten under both chins AND hands - he never had fragments on the paten. He did catch the occasional Host. Those were intact, they did not have any visible fragments even when dropped.

One other thing, when I was in RCIA, we were instructed that if we choose to recieve in the hand, to use a “paten hand” and to make certain no visible fragments were in the hand. In a decade of reception in the hand, I have never had a fragment on my hand.

Perhaps your Parish is using a very crumbly type of Host?

I usually have fragments if the priest gives me part of the large host that was broken into 18-24 pieces. I make sure to consume them. But another parishioner told me how upset she was when she saw an EMHC rub her hands together (as you do when getting rid of dirt on hands) right after she’d just received Communion in the hand.

 

[scylla]

This does make sense.

I can see how no honest Catholic can object even if they are using hosts that do not crumble, as one particle falling is too many. This magnified over multiple parishes would constitute grave indifference to the Blessed Sacrament if protested against. We should use all means to ensure that not one particle falls to the ground and make reparation when in our indifference or carelessness we allow this to happen.

Patens should be used in all cases. We should pray to our Lord to forgive us for the constant insult to our Lord as this continues throughout the world.

God Bless
Scylla

People don’t want to admit this as many like to be EMHC’s and to “participate”. It feels to exclusive to go through the extra steps to make things more reverent and it makes people uncomfortable.

 

[kage_ar]

Patens should be used in all cases. We should pray to our Lord to forgive us for the constant insult to our Lord as this continues throughout the world.

God Bless
Scylla

People don’t want to admit this as many like to be EMHC’s and to “participate”. It feels to exclusive to go through the extra steps to make things more reverent and it makes people uncomfortable.

We use Patens, we also have EMHCs. There is a server stationed beside the EMHC, the server holds the Paten the same for the communicants who approach the EMHC or Deacon as those who approach the Priest.

One more note, someone mentioned a host broken into 18 or 24 sections. We do not use those, I have seen them on TV.

 

[scylla]

We use Patens, we also have EMHCs. There is a server stationed beside the EMHC, the server holds the Paten the same for the communicants who approach the EMHC or Deacon as those who approach the Priest.

One more note, someone mentioned a host broken into 18 or 24 sections. We do not use those, I have seen them on TV.

Very nice, others who have the need for EMHC’s should take the example you post. I have never seen this in a parish with EMHC’s and that is quite remarkable that your parish does this. Just one parish not using Patens and not taking extreme caution with the Blessed Sacrament is one too many.

Thank you for the comment,
Scylla

 

[Father_Fred]

Just how are you measuring the ‘prevalence’ of this “problem” to require a wholesale change in practice?

Looks like my first reply to your post got lost in cyberspace, Eilish Maura. Let me try again.

Your question is a key one. My post #1 lists 10 BASIC FACTS which I think justify my conclusion that a wholesale change in the practice of distributing Holy is required.

My argument comes down to this: because a wholesale loss of the Blessed Sacrament is taking place throughout the US Latin rite, a wholesale change in practice is needed to stop the loss.

As to the fact of wholesale loss, we are agreed, I’m sure, that at least nine out of ten communicants in the US receive in the hand.

Of this number fewer than one in ten check their “paten hand” for fragments of the Blessed Sacrament. Right?

So what is happening to the Fragments that fall into their hands?

Some folks say, “Well, they’re lost, but that’s OK because relatively very few Fragments fall. Besides, you’ve received the whole Host or Large Piece and so have accomplished the purpose of going to Communion. Why bother with the small Fragments?” Are you one of these folks, Eilish Maura?

And why don’t CHs check their “paten hand”? Because they’re not told to and made to. See Facts 6 and 7 in my post #1:

"6. No document from Rome or from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops instructs CHs to check their “paten hand” for Fragments of the Blessed Sacrament and to consume any found.

“7. Neither does any US bishop I know of so instruct and enforce his instructions. Please name one or more who does.”

So the wholesale change in practice would consist in Competent Authority mandating and enforcing the use of the ordinary means for preserving the Blessed Sacrament in the distribution of Holy Communion. See my post #4 in reply to LilyM.

 

[bpbasilphx]

One time I attended Divine Liturgy in a Chaldean Church where communion in the hand seemed to be the norm.

I made sure the Precious Body was put in my RIGHT hand, and I didn’t budge from the spot until I had consumed it–and also checked my palm.

I have gathered since that the full custom in the Liturgy of Ss Addai and Mari (the Liturgy of the Chaldeans and Assyrians) call for the communicants to purify their hands in the smoke of the censer first.

 

[Frbrendan]

BASIC FACTS:

1. Clearly recognizable Fragments of the Blessed Sacrament fall in the distribution of Holy Communion.

Fr. Fred, I find all of the comments in your first post to be accurate, except for #1 above. In ALL my years receiving the Eucharist, either western or eastern rites, there is only ONE time that a “clearly recognizable Fragment” of the Body has fallen on or near me. It fell on my cassock sleeve, and I immediately placed that portion of my cassock in my mouth and cleaned it off. Once I got home, I poured water through the part of the sleeve into a basin, and then drank the water. There was NO part of the Fragment remaining–But this has taken me 50 plus years of going to Communion as often as possible, including time as a Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister and deacon and priest–for this to happen to me.

I understand your concern, but with reasonable care, this simply is not going to happen.

 

[Frbrendan]

Have you any idea how far small light objects can travel? Ever dropped a small screw or something and found it halfway across the room from where you dropped it?

My dad owned a jewelry store, and after working there for many years, I know that can happen. It can even happen with diamonds. If it is a small enough diamond, you simply reach over and pick up another one, and then find the original when you sweep up at the end of the day.

 

[Eilish_Maura]

Looks like my first reply to your post got lost in cyberspace, Eilish Maura. Let me try again.

Your question is a key one. My post #1 lists 10 BASIC FACTS which I think justify my conclusion that a wholesale change in the practice of distributing Holy is required.

My argument comes down to this: because a wholesale loss of the Blessed Sacrament is taking place throughout the US Latin rite, a wholesale change in practice is needed to stop the loss.

As to the fact of wholesale loss, we are agreed, I’m sure, that at least nine out of ten communicants in the US receive in the hand.

Of this number fewer than one in ten check their “paten hand” for fragments of the Blessed Sacrament. Right?

So what is happening to the Fragments that fall into their hands?

Some folks say, “Well, they’re lost, but that’s OK because relatively very few Fragments fall. Besides, you’ve received the whole Host or Large Piece and so have accomplished the purpose of going to Communion. Why bother with the small Fragments?” Are you one of these folks, Eilish Maura?

And why don’t CHs check their “paten hand”? Because they’re not told to and made to. See Facts 6 and 7 in my post #1:

"6. No document from Rome or from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops instructs CHs to check their “paten hand” for Fragments of the Blessed Sacrament and to consume any found.

“7. Neither does any US bishop I know of so instruct and enforce his instructions. Please name one or more who does.”

So the wholesale change in practice would consist in Competent Authority mandating and enforcing the use of the ordinary means for preserving the Blessed Sacrament in the distribution of Holy Communion. See my post #4 in reply to LilyM.

Personal jabs aside – how are you measuring this?

What parish(es) have you been in where flecks and bits and pieces and all manner of dust cover the church after communion is finished?

How many concecrated hosts are rolling around the floor during the distribution?

Better and ongoing training is always a good thing but this portrayal of ‘wholesale loss’ is questionable at best.

 

[Digitonomy]

From Fact 2 it follows that the Church Militant’s top priority must be to stop this loss by using the ordinary means to stop it

I’m not sure I agree with this. There are a number of other priorities which rank high, and may exceed the importance of this one. For instance, stopping abortion, spreading the Gospel to those ignorant of it, etc.

 

[Chuck_H]

BASIC FACTS:

From Fact 2 it follows that the Church Militant’s top priority must be to stop this loss by using the ordinary means to stop it, and, given Jesus’ great revelation to St. Margaret Alacoque on June 16, 1675, to make due reparation for it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I think it goes without saying that everyone, priest, ministers and communicants should treat both species with due reverence and care. Careless handling or misuse of the species of the Eucharist is an affront directed toward God and His Son and the unpenitent will pay for it.

But this borders on Scrupulosity. If all have taken care and yet a particle of host or a drop of wine goes where it shouldn’t then it ends up still in the created universe where God is all.

The ultimate result of an unfortunate puff of wind or a clumsy finger is that God ends up in God. (ST Patrick’s prayer God above me, God below me, God to the right…)

A sloppily handled platen is just about as bad as a sloppily formed hand receiver. There is no real distinction in God’s creation between gold (mineral element) and dirt or carpet or tile. They all give him equal credit as Creator.

Chuck H
Houston

 

[BennyBoy89]

You make a good point, Chuck.

As for me, I plan on receiving Communion this Easter on the tongue, and most likely the same way for the rest of my life.

 

[Chuck_H]

You make a good point, Chuck.

As for me, I plan on receiving Communion this Easter on the tongue, and most likely the same way for the rest of my life.

Not to criticize your decision since no matter how you receive it is wonderful.

I myself have welcomed the hand method since it makes me think more of the last supper when Jesus entrusted his very flesh and blood to the hands of these fishermen and tax collectors. It gives me moment to literally hold God in my hands and realize He trusts me to do the right thing.

What kind of God is this that trusts His creation this far? This goes so far beyond the traditional. This is a special moment between me and the Creator and Son where they have entrusted me ( a sinner) with their honor and glory. What can I do but sigh with joy and eat and drink with a feeling beyond my ability to express.

Were this to ever be taken away from me as a choice I would be heart broken. Something would be taken from me that could never be replaced by dogma , doctrine or rite.

 

[BennyBoy89]

I see what you mean. I also believe that reception of the Sacrament should be left up to the individual choice; after all, the early Church received in the hand. I don’t judge others who like to receive in the hand.

 

[Father_Fred]

Better and ongoing training is always a good thing but this portrayal of ‘wholesale loss’ is questionable at best.

I agree entirely with “Better and ongoing training,” and here’s why.

What is “wholesale” about the loss is not the number of Fragments lost relative to the number of CHs (abbreviation explained at Post #1). If the loss is preventable, then given who Jesus Christ is, and given that each clearly recognizable Fragment is the living Lord Jesus Christ, one Fragment in a million is far too many.

“Wholesale” refers to the cause of any loss that occurs: the attitude that “preventable loss of a few fragments is no big deal.” My guess is that 95% of Latin rite Eucharistic ministers today have that attitude.

But why guess? A professionally designed and administered survey would help us a lot here. Why wasn’t one done in 1996 updating the findings of the 1994 New York/CBS poll showing a catastrophic loss of Catholic faith in the Real Bodily Presence of Jesus? How could such a step have been overlooked in preparation for the Special Assembly for America in 1997? Its theme was “Encounter with the Living Christ.” Was any such poll conducted in the Eucharistic Year in 2004-5? Will any be conducted now?

If “Oh well” is in fact the near-unanimous attitude of our bishops, priests, deacons, and EMs, where did they get it? Where else but from the Church authorities who set the rules for Communion in the hand in 1977 and haven’t changed them since?

Those experts, long practiced in the use of Communion patens, knew that clearly recognizable Fragments fall in the distribution of Holy Communion and would fall into the hands of CHs. They said nothing, and are saying nothing, about checking your “paten hand” for Fragments of the Blessed Sacrament and consuming any you find. They knew that this silence would result in loss of Jesus in the Eucharist. So why didn’t they caution CHs?

They forgot to? Who’s going to believe that? They deliberately omitted that instruction. Why? I think “restoring the ancient practice of Communion in the hand” was more important to them than safeguarding Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. And making a “check-your-hand” rule would create too many “practical” problems to make “the ancient practice” acceptable to the people. And now thirty years later I’ll bet most authorities think there are more “practical” problems against that caution than ever.

So yes, Eilish Maura, let’s have better training. And let Trainer #1, Pope Benedict XVI, immediately impose a moratorium on Communion in the hand until some way is figured out to make it less risky than Communion on the tongue properly done with a Communion paten. Meanwhile let him mandate Communion on the tongue throughout the Latin rite.

While we are waiting for that to happen, no pastor is excused from immediately issuing that moratorium and mandate in his own jurisdiction. Not at the expense of the Body and Blood Our Living Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, there are serious practical obstacles, but accepting the pain in overcoming them will make long-overdue, splendid reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.