As a layperson administering communion, you fulfill a particular function within the symbolism and meaning of the liturgy. You are not just “helping Father.” To be honest, we can do it without you if necessary. In fact, you are called “extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion” because the “ordinary ministers” are properly the priests and deacons. Your ministry is an extension of the ministry of the ordained men, and the details of the liturgy bear this out. So, for example, you receive the ciborium and chalice from the hands of the priest and deacon. You do not come up to the altar and take them yourself.
Extraordinary ministers were introduced as numbers at mass in large churches and the reception of the precious blood became more commonplace. It was increasingly difficult with fewer priests to administer to everyone, especially if they were receiving the precious blood as well as the Body of Christ. But I think there is more to it than the practical need for assistance. This has come about in the church for practical reasons, but your ministry also incorporates other truths and reveals them through the action of the liturgy. First of all, along with the altar servers you help to establish an atmosphere of reverence at Mass.
But there is even more than practical help and simply setting a good example for others. As extraordinary ministers you are sharing in the fullness of Christ’s priestly ministry. In his first epistle St Peter teaches, “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (I Pt 2:9) By virtue of our baptism each one of us are adopted as God’s children, brothers and sisters of Christ. In the same epistle St Peter teaches that we are sharers in Christ’s divine nature.
I would encourage you to watch videos from other sources. These are not approved by the Church and clearly have problematic content.I was recently watching a Church Militant video
What he believes isn’t relevant. What the Church teaches is relevant. And clearly, the laity can and do receive under both species.and Michael Voris seems to believe that we laity are not supposed to receive the cup.
If the consecrated host is God, he’s facing God.These practises were: the priest facing the laity when raising the Eucharist (thus, with his back turned to God)
Voris can get over it. Jesus didn’t say “everyone should eat my flesh, but don’t let the plebs drink my blood.”laity receiving the cup
Because we’re physical beings and receiving the cup allows us to participate more fully in the physical nature of the sacrament. Because Jesus said “eat my flesh and drink my blood,” not “eat my flesh and since the blood is mixed in there with it that’s actually it, you’re done at that point.”If we receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ through what appears to be bread then why receive the cup?
OFFICE FOR THE LITURGICAL CELEBRATIONS OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF Doctrinal Formation and Communion Under Both KindsYou know, that raises a question for me that I may need to ask in a separate thread:
If we receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ through what appears to be bread then why receive the cup?
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/details/ns_lit_doc_20110601_comunione_en.htmlThe purpose, then, of receiving Holy Communion under both kinds, is not that the faithful receive more grace than when they receive it under one kind alone, but that the faithful are enabled to appreciate vividly the value of the sign. Sadly, this distinction has not always been made clear and some people, when not offered Holy Communion under both kinds, have expressed a sense of bewilderment, even thwarted entitlement, or a feeling that Holy Communion under one kind alone was, to some extent, deficient.
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Every care should be taken to avoid the ministering of the chalice where circumstances suggest ambiguity of reception or a setting where the safety of the contents of the chalice might not be assured. “Redemptionis Sacramentum” states that where it is difficult to assess the quantity of wine needed for a particular celebration, owing to the large size of the congregation expected that the chalice is not to be ministered.