Question for Melkite Catholics

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Yahoi

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Hi dear melkite brothers,

I visit a melkite parish every Sunday and there is something really disturbing me.
I know that eastern catholics use leavened bread for the Eucharist and this usually causes some tiny crumbs of the Holy Eucharist.

How do you deal with it? Do you use some kind of liturgical piece of cloth in order to prevent the Eucharistic crumbs from falling on the floor while the Priest is distributing the Eucharist?
I have watched many videos of melkite divine liturgies on youtube, including some from the Patriarchs, and they do not use something in order to prevent the Holy Body of Christ falling on the floor. Just sometimes I see some videos of Priests or Bishops using something. How is your experience at your parish?

How do you deal with it? I am having some serious problems with it because I always see that the feeling that the Eucharist is falling on the floor and sometimes people steps on the Eucharist. People just pick up the crumbs after the distribution of the Eucharist is over. Is it normal?

Thank you.
 
The priest has a diskos with the consecrated bread on it. It catches particles so they don’t fall on the floor.

Rest easy, Servant of God,
Deacon Christopher
 
At the only Melkite liturgies I’ve attended, altar servers (including me) held a large clothn bear waist level to catch the crumbs, which is carefully bunched afterwards (whereas in Ruthenian usage, we hold a cloth just under the chin to catch the host itself [dropped in the mouth by spoon, not intimated])
 
The Melkites, unlike other Byzantines, don’t use the spoon, right?
 
If memory serves, the suddenly shifted a few centuries, and no-one really knows why.
 
Somebody knows, it’s probably like the old “we cut the end of the ham off,” story.

I think the large purificators are still called purificators. And you probably meant “intinction,” the priest intincts the Gifts into the communicant’s mouth.

I have sinned without number,
Deacon Christopher
 
Diaconia said:
Somebody knows, it’s probably like the old “we cut the end of the ham off,” story.
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Whoever that be, though, I don’t think he’s a Melkite :roll_eyes:😜🤣

In all seriousness, it seems to have simply happened, without leaving a record as to why.
 
A comment was made earlier that the Melkites don’t use a spoon? I have not been to a Melkite Divine Liturgy. Since they do not use a spoon, do they serve the bread and wine separately or by dipping the host in wine and placing on the tongue?
 
ziapueblo said:
40.png
JW55:
Since they do not use a spoon, do they serve the bread and wine separately or by dipping the host in wine and placing on the tongue?
Click to expand...
Yes they do.

ZP
Click to expand...
It was an either/or question. 😜

Melkites do not distribute each species separately. They use intinction, though they do not use a Latin-style host, as Dochawk said.
 
dochawk said:
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ziapueblo:
Yes they do.
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No they don’t 🙂

Melkites use intinction with strips from the loaf (not latin style hosts). AFAIK, they are unique among byzantines in this.

hawk
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I don’t know if this is the norm in the Romanian Catholic Church, but the one time I attended a Romanian Catholic Divine Liturgy, communion was distributed in the same manner as with the Melkites.
 
I believe the Romanians use a latin-type host, rather than leavened bread, don’t they?

But my recollection is that they, too, instinct.
 
dochawk said:
I believe the Romanians use a latin-type host, rather than leavened bread, don’t they?

But my recollection is that they, too, instinct.
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They used leavened bread, cut into strips. Communion was distributed in the same manner as the Melkites; without a spoon and by intinction.

But this was just one small mission. I have no idea if this is an anomaly, or widespread, or a universal practice.
 
You’ve got me. I’ve never heard of such from the Romanians.

We had a Romanian Catholic mission here a few years ago, but it wasn
t able to sustain itself 😦
 
Melkite are unique among Byzantine Churches in then sense that they were originality a Syriac Church before being Byzantine for some unknown reason, so some practices that are uncommon among Byzantine Churches might come from its Syriac origin.
 
I thought that’s what I said 😂

Time change must have got me lol!

ZP
 
I’ve never been to a Romanian Catholic parish, but I knew their bishop, John Michael Botean… a very holy man. If unleavened bread was once used in the Romanian Catholic Church in the U.S., it probably isn’t any more. He’s been quietly de-latinizing his Church for the last couple of decades.

There’s a strong chance that he encourages the use of Melkite-style communion. As a student at C.U.A. he was a parishioner of Holy Transfiguration Melkite Greek Catholic Church in McLean, VA and was heavily influenced by the pastor and atmosphere of that parish.
 
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