Serious Question: Does The 5 Second Rule Apply To The Eucharist?

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In religion class we debated this, I personally would like to see what everyone else thinks.
 
Are you talking about food dropped on the floor? The so-called “five second rule” is false. Contamination can happen immediately.
 
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The debate was if you could pick it up and recieve it after dropping it, not about the contamination. Sorry for the confusion
 
Not you. The priest. This happened once in a parish my friend goes to. The Eucharist fell out of someone’s mouth but the priest did not allow them to pick it up. He made everyone stand aside then picked it up himself with a cloth and consumed it.
 
Mileage may vary. If it is my own host that I dropped, I would pick it up and consume it.

When I am an EMHC, I would pick it up and hold it under my ciborium until after Communion and then would either consume it or have the priest consume it or properly dispose of it.
 
Please forgive my ignorance, but I wasn’t aware people could pick up their own hosts. I’ve always been taught that under no circumstances are we to touch the Eucharist. Perhaps this is something specific to the Roman Rite?
 
The priest and the EMHC know what to do when this happens. If it should happen to you, look to them for help.
 
Why wouldn’t I be able to pick it up, if I was the one who dropped it while I was receiving?

And, as an EMHC, I touch the Eucharist all of the time, nothing wrong with that either.

We are not allowed to “self- commune” meaning I could not take the host out a ciborium and consume it myself, it must be given to me by a priest/deacon or other EMHC, but that would not apply in case of an accidental dropping.
 
Salibi said:
Please forgive my ignorance, but I wasn’t aware people could pick up their own hosts. I’ve always been taught that under no circumstances are we to touch the Eucharist. Perhaps this is something specific to the Roman Rite?
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In the Latin rite, anyway, communicants have the option of receiving in the hand, so there’s no issue with picking up a dropped host and consuming it. Happened to me once. The host slipped and I immediately snatched it up and consumed it.
 
Salibi said:
I’ve always been taught that under no circumstances are we to touch the Eucharist.
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Receiving in hand requires touching the Eucharist. I was taught the same as you, because at the time the only permissable way to receive was on the tongue. Times have changed in the RC church.
 
As others have said, there’s no five second rule. Bacteria are very sticky. They won’t creep across the floor to jump onto it. They’re either there or not.
 
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There is that old Fulton Sheen story about the young girl who saw the Communists had thrown consecrated hosts all over the floor, so she snuck back into the church every day and consumed a host off the floor with her tongue since you couldn’t touch them then, and she could only consume 1 per day because that was all you were allowed then. As she consumed the last host she was caught and shot.

I don’t think she was worried about contaminated hosts.
 
You ought to consume the Host unless it has dropped into something that makes it unfit for consumption. Your priest knows exactly what to do should the host miss the communion paten and fall to the floor.
 
That’s pretty often to drop a body…

Edited to add. Iv’e dropped a baby once. twice actually.
 
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LawyersGunsAndMoney said:
“Very often” seems strong. I’ve been going to NO my whole life and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen it. Granted, one of those times was me. 😑
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I’ve been attending the Ordinary Form for at least 30 years, and I’ve never seen a Host dropped.
 
I’ve seen the host dropped several times…the most common place is at a school Mass with little kids who receive in their hands and then bobble it as they try to scoop it into their mouth. I’ve seen priests drop the host a couple of times. Once was directly in front of me when the man next to me wanted to receive it in his mouth but did some odd stooping knee bend so as to make it easier for the priest to reach his mouth. The host was knocked out of the priest’s fingers and landed on the floor and I didn’t know what to do so I stood cringing and waiting for the priest as he slowly and painfully bent down to pick it up.
 
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