Protecting the Precious Body of Christ

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Quaere_Verum

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We’ve all read about the Saints who have died protecting the most Precious Body of Christ. Most of us don’t have to face such extreme sacrifices for the Eucharist. However, occasionally we are witness to an abuse or the Host falling to the ground. How have you handled such situations? Have you protected the most Precious Body of Christ?

Tell us your story.
 
I’ll start.

1.Once I saw a Dad handing a piece of the Eucharist to his infant. In doing so a piece of the Host fell by our pew. Our daughter immediately told me. I reached for the Body of Christ and consumed Him. We’d discussed this at times but the witnessing of this was more powerful than my words had been.
  1. A couple of weeks ago my husband rose from the kneeler and started heading toward the priest during communion. I thought maybe somebody was having physical difficulties. However, he wove between the people straight toward the feet of the priest where the Host had fallen. He handed it to the priest. I was so proud of him. What a wonderful witness he was to our children.
 
The story I want to tell is that of our parish Pastor.

A few years ago the church was burglarized and the Tabernacle was taken. The pastor received a phone call that the Tabernacle had been found out on the highway.

When he arrived, he found that evidently it had been tossed from a car and the species had been strewn over the roadside. He went on his hands and knees and gathered every morsel from the road and consummed them. He was told that he shouldn’t do it because it was too unsanitary, and he replied that it was the Body of his Lord, and he wouldn’t think of doing anything else.

He is a very precious soul and is very much loved at our parish. I am new there but you can see Christ in this man, he is a beautiful example to everyone.
 
I didn’t witness this myself, but I heard the following story about one of our former pastors.

Apparently, a young man had just received communion, and was walking back to his pew, when he vomited on the floor. The pastor got down on his hands and knees, plucked the host from the vomit, and consumed it.

I don’t know if I could do that. If the occassion ever arises, I would pray for the strength.
 
As a EMHC we were trained to go after someone who does not consume at the altar. Non-Catholic college kids in my town do it once or twice a year. Some do it for reasons of the occult. A few times we have gone after them as they walked down the side isle. I nearly did it a week ago but the student saw me glaring at him so he consumed.

Crazy I tell ya …just crazy
 
I am privileged to occasionally serve as EMHC, so I feel that protecting the Body and Blood is part of serving. I have consumed from the ground when a parishioner drops the host and chased down a couple of people who have not consumed.

Once I was waiting some distance behind the altar for our priest to communicate before approaching when I saw something white on the floor. Something inside said it was Our Lord in a broken host. I kept thinking that the person in front of me or the priest or deacon would see, but no one did. The priest actually stepped on it once because I couldn’t interupt the mass. Finally I got close enough to see for certain it was Our Lord when the priest turned to get a ciborium to hand me. I just did a quick bend down, scooped and consumed. I felt like it was a special privilege granted to me on that Sunday.
 
decn2b said:
As a EMHC we were trained to go after someone who does not consume at the altar. Non-Catholic college kids in my town do it once or twice a year. Some do it for reasons of the occult. A few times we have gone after them as they walked down the side isle. I nearly did it a week ago but the student saw me glaring at him so he consumed.

Crazy I tell ya …just crazy
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W/o an disrespect to the authority of the Church to determine otherwise, that is one more reason why communion in the mouth should be required. For, indeed, how are you to make a person who doesn’t consume the Host of our Lord give it back to you?
 
decn2b said:
As a EMHC we were trained to go after someone who does not consume at the altar. Non-Catholic college kids in my town do it once or twice a year. Some do it for reasons of the occult. A few times we have gone after them as they walked down the side isle. I nearly did it a week ago but the student saw me glaring at him so he consumed.

Crazy I tell ya …just crazy
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If we were required to receive only on the tongue this would be much more difficult to accomplish…
 
A priest friend of mine once visited the local nursing home. He gave Communion to an elderly woman there as he had done many times before. This time the woman took the host from her mouth wet with saliva and handed it back to the priest. He told me how he consumed it out of revernce for the Eucharist. Later he found out this woman had hepititis–he never contracted the disease!
 
This thread is not about recieving on the tongue. Could all those who wish to de-rail it into an argument please go post on the many, many threads already dedicated to the subject? Please.
 
It happened about 3 or 4 months ago.

I had just received. I sit in the front pew, so I was kneeling there. A boy, about 12, came to receive but did not consume. He hid It in his hand. I reached out and stopped him. He looked at me like he didn’t know what was wrong. I made motion to put It in his mouth. He acted like he forgot, but how could you forget that you have Jesus in your hand???

I have to say that my heart was pounding. I didn’t want to think what he wanted to do with our Lord. The boy’s mother is very devout, but I didn’t know how she would react to me stopping her son. I didn’t calm down until well after Mass. Even now when I think about it, it upsets me.
 
I think it was on EWTN that I heard this some time ago. In Poland during the war, the Nazi’s destroyed a catholic church, taking the Tabernacle and smashing it onto the floor. A young polish girl had witnessed this atrocity while watching through a broken window. She returned to the church every day for, I think it was 50 days, and got down onto her knees and with her tongue picked up one host each day and consumed It. On the last day, as she was consuming the last Host, she was shot and killed by a German soldier. I believe she sits with the Lord this day in all His glory. Amen.
 
Actually, in our diocese a priest a number of years ago died running into a burning church in order to rescue the Blessed Sacrament. This was in living memory and I’ve heard some people make mildly disparaging remarks about it.
 
A few years ago the church was burglarized and the Tabernacle was taken. The pastor received a phone call that the Tabernacle had been found out on the highway.
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Not to de-rail but this is why you mount the tabernacle onto the altar…
 
Here’s some details:

"The eucharistic chapel [of the renovated Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester] has been constructed on the west side of the cathedral and will house the tabernacle, which has a unique historical significance. The tabernacle originally stood in Rochester’s St. Philip Neri Church, which caught fire on Feb. 20, 1967. Then-pastor Father George Weinmann entered the burning building in an attempt to save the Blessed Sacrament, followed by School Sister of Notre Dame Lilian Marie McLaughlin, who attempted to save him. Both perished, and they have been considered martyrs by many in the diocese. "
 
maryj said:
I think it was on EWTN that I heard this some time ago. In Poland during the war, the Nazi’s destroyed a catholic church, taking the Tabernacle and smashing it onto the floor. A young polish girl had witnessed this atrocity while watching through a broken window. She returned to the church every day for, I think it was 50 days, and got down onto her knees and with her tongue picked up one host each day and consumed It. On the last day, as she was consuming the last Host, she was shot and killed by a German soldier. I believe she sits with the Lord this day in all His glory. Amen.
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I remember one of my teachers telling me this story when I was in Catholic School(So over forty years ago)
 
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