Remaining Hosts on Good Friday

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Must all the Sacred Hosts be consumed on Good Friday? I have no particular reason for thinking this is so, except for keeping in harmony with the new fire and the new holy water at the Vigil.
 
Spirithound said:
Must all the Sacred Hosts be consumed on Good Friday? I have no particular reason for thinking this is so, except for keeping in harmony with the new fire and the new holy water at the Vigil.
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No, you would still reserve some Hosts to be able to give Communion to someone who was dying as Viaticum is the only form under which Communion may be given on Holy Saturday.
 
Spirithound said:
Must all the Sacred Hosts be consumed on Good Friday? I have no particular reason for thinking this is so, except for keeping in harmony with the new fire and the new holy water at the Vigil.
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No, they are saved in “the other place of reservation”. In my parish, that “other place” is the sacristy.
 
One tries to have all newly consecrated hosts for the Vigil mass, The ones remaining from Good Friday are then used at later masses.
 
No theones left over can be placed in the Tabenacle I think that was what our priest and servers did with them.
 
While we’re kind of on the subject…were all of the “old hosts” used prior to Holy Thursday? Holy Thursday appeared to be all newly consecrated. Just curious.
 
thequeen said:
No theones left over can be placed in the Tabenacle I think that was what our priest and servers did with them.
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The document on how to celebrate Lent and Easter tells us that after Communion on Good Friday the remaining Hosts are taken ‘out of the church’. Ours are locked up in the sacristy.
 
acadian said:
While we’re kind of on the subject…were all of the “old hosts” used prior to Holy Thursday? Holy Thursday appeared to be all newly consecrated. Just curious.
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If they are not consumed, and I know ours weren’t, they should not be used for Holy Thursday or Good Friday. Paschale Solemnitatis, Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts says
  1. The tabernacle should be completely empty before the celebration. (53) Hosts for the Communion of the faithful should be consecrated during that celebration. (54) A sufficient amount of bread should be consecrated to provide also for Communion on the following day.
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We have different altar bread for Holy Thursday and Good Friday, still unleavened, but not the cracker-ish stuff, so what remains of the Body of Christ with those particular accidents, is consumed at the altar after Good Friday communion, and a few “regular” hosts are saved for viaticum, since that kind travels much better. At first I thought they were consuming it all but then I asked.
 
EvelynEVF said:
We have different altar bread for Holy Thursday and Good Friday, still unleavened, but not the cracker-ish stuff, so what remains of the Body of Christ with those particular accidents, is consumed at the altar after Good Friday communion, and a few “regular” hosts are saved for viaticum, since that kind travels much better. At first I thought they were consuming it all but then I asked.
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Yours must be a parish where someone bakes altar bread for Holy Thursday. I did that in a few of the parishes to which I belonged but not for the last 10 years or so. I’m surprised they reserve that consecrated bread since it has to be in plastic containers to keep it fresh.
 
A small number of Hosts need to be kept to bring *viaticum *to those near death later on Good Friday night and all of Holy Saturday.

That’s why they are kept elsewhere in the Church - just not in the tabernacle.

A glorious Easter Vigil awaits you all tonight; please go to Mass if you can!

God bless,
 
We have two Holy Thursday masses and three Good Friday Liturgies, with 800 - 1000 at each [English, Vietnamese and Hispanic]. It is not possible to closely estimate the number of hosts needed; so we always have a considerable number left.
 
According the the chruch laws, no hosts are to be in the church on friday until the easter vigil (except for holy communion of course). The hosts should always be accompanied by a light source if possible (likely, usually a candle or oil lamp). Since leftovers from Thursday is kept in a special place (with the light ON), the leftovers from Friday should also be kept in the same place (or equally special?).
 
Phemie said:
Yours must be a parish where someone bakes altar bread for Holy Thursday. I did that in a few of the parishes to which I belonged but not for the last 10 years or so. I’m surprised they reserve that consecrated bread since it has to be in plastic containers to keep it fresh.
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Our ciboria have very snug lids, so maybe that helps. It kept just fine overnight. It was interesting bread–it was like bread snakes spiralled into circles and then baked. It was fractioned by unspiralling it. So maybe the less broken surface area helped keep it? It was less crumbly than other homemade altar bread, too.
 
At our Good Friday service after communion the priest, deacon and acolyte consumed all the leftover hosts. I know they ate several.
 
Buut that would mean that there weren’t any saved for taking to the housebound, so perhaps some had been put on one side and were already being saved somewhere.
 
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