Protecting the Blessed Sacrament

  • Thread starter Thread starter sacristan1
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

sacristan1

Guest
Our Church has had some recent vandalism and I would like to know this… in the event the situation presented itself, that a vandalism were attempted involving the Blessed Sacrament, my thought would be to protect it with my life. Others say I am wrong…please give me your thoughts.
 
sacristan1 said:
Our Church has had some recent vandalism and I would like to know this… in the event the situation presented itself, that a vandalism were attempted involving the Blessed Sacrament, my thought would be to protect it with my life. Others say I am wrong…please give me your thoughts.
Click to expand...
There are many saints who died protecting the Blessed Sacrament. I think it’s a wonderful thing that you want to be willing to do the same. 🙂
 
sacristan1 said:
Our Church has had some recent vandalism and I would like to know this… in the event the situation presented itself, that a vandalism were attempted involving the Blessed Sacrament, my thought would be to protect it with my life. Others say I am wrong…please give me your thoughts.
Click to expand...
well, for anyone in major orders, deacon and up,
we are suppost to protect the sacrament with our lives.
course these days I don’t know, I would still do it in a heart beat.
but that was the way I was trained. I don’t know the rules for lay people.
it would be noble for a lay person to protect the lord if needed anytime.
 
One Sunday a man came into church who did not know proper etiquette. He stood in the middle of the aisle when it was time for the priest to process in, needing to be guided by the ushers into a pew. Following the gospel, Father stepped forward and stood in front of the altar as the man suddenly rushed forward. The man was escorted out of the church by the ushers.
 
sacristan1 said:
Our Church has had some recent vandalism and I would like to know this… in the event the situation presented itself, that a vandalism were attempted involving the Blessed Sacrament, my thought would be to protect it with my life. Others say I am wrong…please give me your thoughts.
Click to expand...
I’m with you.👍
 
This is one reason why if I were building a church from scratch, as much as I admire Eucharistic Doves, I would reseve the Holy Mysteries in an aumbry built into the wall–probably over the Proskomedia table in a Byzantine Church.
 
That is why some Churches, especially those that have Perpetual Adoration, place the Blessed Sacrament in a seperate room of the Church so that they can lock the Church but keep the Blessed Sacrament open.
 
sacristan1 said:
Our Church has had some recent vandalism and I would like to know this… in the event the situation presented itself, that a vandalism were attempted involving the Blessed Sacrament, my thought would be to protect it with my life. Others say I am wrong…please give me your thoughts.
Click to expand...
I think the Lord can take care of himself.

Protect it to the point of losing my life? No. Most anything short of that, probably. I guess that I figure that I’m a better service to the Lord still alive, but I wouldn’t critisize anyone for taking the other side.
 
My adoration time is late - 10:00 pm - 11:00 pm. I oftgen cover early mornings.

I have actually considered this scenario.

Give my life for the Eucharist? In a heartbeat. Jesus died on His Cross for my sins.

It was not the nails that kept Him on the Cross, but His Love for me.

Give up my life for my Redeemer who died for my sins?

John 15:13-14 “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

Jesus is my friend.

Eddie Mac
 
Eddie_Mac said:
My adoration time is late - 10:00 pm - 11:00 pm. I oftgen cover early mornings.

I have actually considered this scenario.

Give my life for the Eucharist? In a heartbeat. Jesus died on His Cross for my sins.

It was not the nails that kept Him on the Cross, but His Love for me.

Give up my life for my Redeemer who died for my sins?

John 15:13-14 “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

Jesus is my friend.
Amen.God Bless you my friend,He died for us and we should do the same if someone attempts at desecrating our Lord.

Eddie Mac
Click to expand...
 
Why Fulton Sheen spent an hour in Eucharistic Adoration daily:
After the N. Koreans imprisoned him, they desecrated the tabernacle and strew hosts all over the floor. A young girl, about 12 years old, each day would come in and using her tongue consume one host off the floor. As she consumed the last host, there was a noise. The soldiers came into the church and shot her dead.
Fulton Sheen, from that moment on resolved to spend an hour in adoration every day.

I only heard the story once during a rerun of his show so I may be a little off in terms of details The important point is the young girl giving up her life for the Eucharist. She is one of the Saints whose name we will never know.
 
Once, while evangelising, a man told me what to do with Jesus using a very bad word. I was horrified and set about him, verbally. Then I heard my Lord say, gently, “thank you for protecting me, Ian, but I can look after myself.” I realised then I wasn’t protecting Jesus, but my own conceptions and beliefs.
Another time, a communicant dropped the host at mass. I asked the Lord “is that host desecrated, Lord?” His answer, “you can’t desecrate me, Ian” - I realised that, rather than the host being desecrated, the ground was blessed!!!
Yet another time I asked, “Lord, are You really in the bread and wine?” He said: “Ian, you know how much I love people. If they believe I am present in the bread and wine, I RUSH to come down and enter in.” He didn’t say anything about those who don’t believe, but I use that incident when I speak to non-Catholics, adding, “I guess a lot of folk are missing out!”

Having said all that, the present health ban on communion wine (due to swine flu in England) grieves me. I wonder if the CHURCH believes in transsubstantiation: if it is the Blood of Jesus then there ain’t no swine flu, AIDS, typhus, whatever, can pollute the chalice and its precious contents! Or maybe the Church is afraid to put Catholics to the test of what they really believe…
 
I am part of the perpetual adoration team at my parish from 11:00-12:00am. My church isn’t in the best neighborhood, and I’ve wondered sometimes, hearing people pass by outside or mess with the coded lock, if I might have to rush and consume the host in the monstrance before someone tries to take it and the gold box it sits on.

I have no idea how to get the host out of the monstrance and, if it came down to it, yeah I would die defending the Blessed Sacrament.
“you can’t desecrate me, Ian”
Click to expand...
The Church disagrees with you, Ian, and as The Church speaks for Christ, I’d be questioning that voice.
Real sacrilege is the irreverent treatment of sacred things as distinguished from places and persons. This can happen first of all by the administration or reception of the sacraments (or in the case of the Holy Eucharist by celebration) in the state of mortal sin, as also by advertently doing any of those things invalidly. Indeed deliberate and notable irreverence towards the Holy Eucharist is reputed the worst of all sacrileges.
Click to expand...
From the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Sacrilege
Yet another time I asked, “Lord, are You really in the bread and wine?” He said: “Ian, you know how much I love people. If they believe I am present in the bread and wine, I RUSH to come down and enter in.”
Click to expand...
This also goes directly against Catholic teaching, which states that Christ is present regardless of beliefs of we who receive Him.

We must test all things against the teachings of The Church. She will not steer us wrong.
 
I agree with Rawb.
While Christ does not “need” protecting because he can do it on his own, he still uses us to protect him (after all, he had an angel appear to Joseph in a dream telling him to go to Egypt because of Herod). Just like Jesus doesn’t need doctors to heal people, he still uses them to heal.
 
Prophecy must be discerned. If it is not in line with Scripture and the Magisterium (Church teaching), then it is not of God. Satan can mimic God’s voice, and he will do so when we become close to God.
Only in the Spirit can we say, “Jesus is Lord.”
One of the priests at a local parish was from NY where it is a felony to descecrate the hosts. He talked of actually following persons who tried to take the host out of the church.
Immediately after receiving the host, it is to be consumed. If it is not, the minister of the cup is to immediately signal the ushers to prevent desecration.

This story comes from catechist training. The man had a child in intensive care and was contemplating pulling the plug and allowing his son to die. Before making the decision, he went to Mass. As the host dropped, he dove forward and caught it before it hit the ground. “Because you did this for me, your son will live.” The man rushed back to his son’s room to find his son had waken from the coma at the very moment the man caught the host.

My own Eucharist story is not so dramatic. I emphasize that what I saw could easily have been my imagination or simply the way the light just happened to hit the host at the moment of Consecration. I saw the head of Jesus in black in white in the host. When I told the deacon, he encouraged me to tell the priest who had celebrated Mass that day.

Simply dropping the host in and of itself is not desecration. Accidents do happen. As one priest said, with as many times Communion is received it is amazing how few hosts are actually dropped. The Church does have protocol in place when this does happen. Great care is taken of the dropped Host or spilled Precious Blood.
 
IanGE said:
Having said all that, the present health ban on communion wine (due to swine flu in England) grieves me. I wonder if the CHURCH believes in transsubstantiation: if it is the Blood of Jesus then there ain’t no swine flu, AIDS, typhus, whatever, can pollute the chalice and its precious contents! Or maybe the Church is afraid to put Catholics to the test of what they really believe…
Click to expand...
Perhaps the germs might be residing on TOP of the Precious Blood? At any rate, the Church affirms that reception of the Precious Blood is not required; the complete and full Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord is received in each Host.
 
Spirithound said:
Perhaps the germs might be residing on TOP of the Precious Blood? At any rate, the Church affirms that reception of the Precious Blood is not required; the complete and full Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord is received in each Host.
Click to expand...
A person may receive either the Precious Blood or the Host and still receive Christ. The example I read is of a person who is too ill to receive the Host being given only the Precious Blood. Although a person does receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord in the host, I still find it disconcerting when so many people refuse to receive His Precious Blood in the form of wine. The EMCH is trained to wipe and turn the cup between recipients.
 
Spirithound said:
Perhaps the germs might be residing on TOP of the Precious Blood? At any rate, the Church affirms that reception of the Precious Blood is not required; the complete and full Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord is received in each Host.
Click to expand...
Exactly. If you pour wine into a the Precious Blood, besides being a sacrilige, the wine that you just poured in is still wine mixed with the Precious Blood. So, any germs that make its way into the Precious Blood or onto the chalice are still just germs.
 
DebChris said:
A person may receive either the Precious Blood or the Host and still receive Christ. The example I read is of a person who is too ill to receive the Host being given only the Precious Blood. Although a person does receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord in the host, I still find it disconcerting when so many people refuse to receive His Precious Blood in the form of wine. The EMCH is trained to wipe and turn the cup between recipients.
Click to expand...
There’s no disconcerting about it. There is no difference between recieving the Host, the Blood, and the Host & Blood. No difference. My girlfriend recieves only the Host because she gets extremely sick from just a sip of wine. At my college there are a few atheletes who also don’t recieve the wine to keep with the college’s no alcohol policy (even though they have been told they can if it’s for religious reasons).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top