Receiving the Eucharist too many times?

[mkamoski1]

All -

Please help with this general question of interest, about receiving the Eucharist too many times?

I understand the general rule to be (basically)-- one may receive the Eucharist 2 times in a given day provided one attends a full Mass with each, except (perhaps) under special conditions where permission is given, such as for a Priest saying Mass >2 times in a day.

However, what exactly does “day” refer to here.

It is a 24-hour period of running-time?

Is it Calendar time in a particular time zone?

It is some kind of Liturgical time, where weekday-Mass counts for weekday but Saturday Vigil Mass counts for Sunday?

Something else?

Regarding, this please help clarify the ruling on the following cases and add other facts too…

This is Case 1…

Saturday 07:00am

Saturday 09:00am

Saturday 05:00pm <<< Actually counts as “going on Sunday”???

…and is it “too many”?

This is Case 2…

Saturday 05:00pm <<< Actually counts as “going on Sunday”???

Sunday 07:00am

Sunday 09:00am

…and is that “too many”?

This is Case 3…

Moving through time zones by plane, for example, imagine an example where one moves “back in time”…

…and is that “too many”?

What do you say? Do you have any links to official Church teaching on the matter?

Please advise.

Thank you.

Slave to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I am yours…

• Mark Kamoski

 

[kimmielittle]

I don’t see how a person who faithfully receives the Eucharist - can do so too many times

 

[Corki]

It’s a regular day midnight to midnight. And only the second requires a Mass.

Case 1 - 3 times - one too many
Case 2 - 2 times, just fine as long as the second was at Mass
Case 3 - I’ve never been to Mass on a plane and can’t even guess. Ask the priest saying the Mass and follow his advice.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

A day is from midnight to midnight:

Can. 202 §1. In law, a day is understood as a period consisting of 24 continuous hours and begins at midnight unless other provision is expressly made; a week is a period of 7 days; a month is a period of 30 days, and a year is a period of 365 days unless a month and a year are said to be taken as they are in the calendar.

You can receive communion twice in a day as long as the second time is at Mass:

Can. 917 A person who has already received the Most Holy Eucharist can receive it a second time on the same day only within the eucharistic celebration in which the person participates, without prejudice to the prescript of ⇒ can. 921, §2.

I would take that as meaning that once on Saturday morning and once on Saturday evening is OK as long as the second time is at Mass. Twice during the day plus again in the evening is one too many. The fact that you can meet your obligation to attend Mass on Saturday evening doesn’t make it a different 24-hour day.

If you’re attending a third Mass you don’t need to receive communion at all of them. You don’t want the Eucharist to become something you take for granted.

 

[Spencerian]

Hi.

Canon Law 917 details the rules on receiving. EWTN notes an explanation here.

While your enthusiasm in attending Mass is exemplary, be mindful that we attain the positive effects from the Body and Blood by receiving once a day, not through quantity.

Per the explanation, for example, you could attend a daily Mass and then an afternoon wedding during the weekday, receiving both times that day. On Saturday or on a holy day of obligation, you could attend those same two Masses and attend the vigil Mass that evening. However, as you already received twice that day (regardless that its the vigil Mass that fulfills the Sunday obligation), it appears that it’s illicit to receive again since it would be the third time on that day.

The multiple receiving is excused if the person serves as an extraordinary minister to aid an officiant throughout a day, or if one is an officiant.

Quality of the time spent with the Blessed Eucharist per day is preferable to quantity. God bless.

 

[JamestheOlder]

Twice within one day would seem to be the limit, according to Canon Law:
vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P39.HTM
Start with Canon #914 and read through.

A “day” in the Church refers to the Masses celebrated for that specific day, so, in your example, you could legitimately receive four times on a Saturday:
0800 Mass for that Saturday;
1000 Funeral Mass
1400 Nuptial Mass;
1800 Vigil Mass for that Weekend.

But, for an actual weekday celebration, or a Sunday celebration, twice would be the limit, at Masses where you participate (you cannot come in the door at the “Our Father” and receive Communion legitimately).

 

[SonCatcher]

I don’t see how a person who faithfully receives the Eucharist - can do so too many times

Current ecclesial law limits reception to two times per day regardless of reason and the second time can only be within context of the Mass (first time can be a Communion service). Previously, I think one could receive more but only under a somewhat convoluted scheme (each Mass had to be for a different purpose. E.g. daily Mass, funeral and wedding all in the same day). I don’t know the reason there is a limit at all, however.

 

[MarkThompson]

All -

Please help with this general question of interest, about receiving the Eucharist too many times?

This was debated heavily in this thread several months ago (you can skip page 1). I thought both sides had good points, and it seems clear that, if there is a “correct” answer at all, there is no obviously correct answer.

The issue is that one canon sets the limit to receiving twice “in the same day,” and the canon concerning computation of time specifies that a day runs from midnight to midnight, unless otherwise provided. Is there any such provision? Well, the liturgical norms for the calendar provide that “the observance of Sunday and solemnities begins with the evening of the preceding day.” Is that express enough? Or does calling it “the preceding day” in fact acknowledge that it is not Sunday? But then again, even if so, does prescribing that Saturday evening be “observed as Sunday” mean that it should be treated as Sunday for such purposes the Communion rule?

As I say, no clear answer has ever been given.

 

[kimmielittle]

Current ecclesial law limits reception to two times per day regardless of reason and the second time can only be within context of the Mass (first time can be a Communion service). Previously, I think one could receive more but only under a somewhat convoluted scheme (each Mass had to be for a different purpose. E.g. daily Mass, funeral and wedding all in the same day). I don’t know the reason there is a limit at all, however.

Thank you

 

[nanacat]

Hi.

Canon Law 917 details the rules on receiving. EWTN notes an explanation here.

While your enthusiasm in attending Mass is exemplary, be mindful that we attain the positive effects from the Body and Blood by receiving once a day, not through quantity.

Per the explanation, for example, you could attend a daily Mass and then an afternoon wedding during the weekday, receiving both times that day. On Saturday or on a holy day of obligation, you could attend those same two Masses and attend the vigil Mass that evening. However, as you already received twice that day (regardless that its the vigil Mass that fulfills the Sunday obligation), it appears that it’s illicit to receive again since it would be the third time on that day.

The multiple receiving is excused if the person serves as an extraordinary minister to aid an officiant throughout a day, or if one is an officiant.

Quality of the time spent with the Blessed Eucharist per day is preferable to quantity. God bless.

Yes, thank you. I wasn’t sure if we could even receive*** twice***: I went to Mass this morning, and then as I was waiting for Confession, a friend of mine told me there was going to be a funeral for our altar server’s mother-in-law; she couldn’t go because of a prior obligation, and suggested I go in her place. I had time, so I did. But when it came to receiving Holy Communion, I hesitated–it had only come up for me once before, and I wasn’t sure if the priest had given us a special dispensation for that one time. There was no one near me I could ask, so I decided not to receive. A sad feeling–the Celebration of the Mass just isn’t the same…

Because of your info, I’ll know better next time.

 

[Phemie]

Current ecclesial law limits reception to two times per day regardless of reason and the second time can only be within context of the Mass (first time can be a Communion service). Previously, I think one could receive more but only under a somewhat convoluted scheme (each Mass had to be for a different purpose. E.g. daily Mass, funeral and wedding all in the same day). I don’t know the reason there is a limit at all, however.

Until 1973 the only time you could receive twice in one day was at the Saturday evening Mass if you were fulfilling your Sunday obligation but had received at Saturday’s Mass; Christmas (Midnight Mass and one other Mass), Easter (Vigil and the day Mass) and Holy Thursday if one attended the Chrism Mass and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

The 1973 document, Immensae Caritatis – **Instruction on Facilitating Sacramental Eucharistic Communion in Particular Circumstances, **expanded the list of occasions when we could receive twice in one day: 1)At those Masses in which the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, Sacred Orders and Matrimony are administered; also at a Mass at which First Communion is received. [7]
2)At Masses at which a church or altar is consecrated; at Masses of religious profession or for the conferring of a “canonical mission.”
3)At the following Masses of the Dead: the funeral Mass, the Mass celebrated after notification of death, the Mass on the day of final burial and the Mass on the first anniversary.
4)At the principal Mass celebrated in the cathedral or in the parish on the feast of Corpus Christi and on the day of a parochial visitation; at the Mass celebrated by the major superior of a religious community on the occasion of a canonical visitation, of special meetings or chapters.
5)At the principal Mass of a Eucharistic or Marian Congress, whether international or national, regional or diocesan.
6)At the principal Mass of any congress, sacred pilgrimage or preaching mission for the people.
7)In the administration of Viaticum, in which Communion can also be given to the relatives and friends of the patient.
8)Also Local Ordinaries may, besides those cases mentioned above, grant permission for a single occasion to receive Holy Communion twice in the same day, as often as they shall judge it truly justified by reason of genuinely special circumstances, according to the norm of this instruction.
Those were all still “special occasions” and all but one were at Mass. When the new Code of Canon Law was promulgated in 1983, permission was granted to receive twice on any day as long as the second time was at Mass.