The host fell

[joester]

This happened to me yesterday, but I do not receive on the tongue.

I was one of the first in the communion line, and held my hands in the usual prescribed way, but the host appeared to stick to the priest’s hand. I know he uses a hand sanitizer prior to administering the host, and I suspect there was a spot on his hand that the host stuck to for a moment. Since our church has no patens (not in use anyways), it fell to the floor.
Being a Eucharist Minister myself, I quickly picked it up and consumed it. The Priest, who was serving two lines, wasn’t aware of the mishap until I bent down to pick it up.

Nothing was said, and communion went on.

My only problem was that the priest didn’t know he had fumbled it, and had no idea it had fallen to the floor, thankfully to a dry floor. I do wonder now in retrospect what I should have done in the same situation except where the host falls to a wet floor? I understand the need to purify the remains, but procedurally, how would a moistened host be disposed of in a church with no sacrarium? As an EMHC I would not have been comfortable consuming such a host and I don’t imagine the priest would either.

Joe

 

[Tamsulosin]

Perhaps pick it up as you did,put it in a clean tissue and carry it after the Mass to a church that has a Sacrarium,explaining what had happened, or ask the priest what to do to dispose of it respectfully.
But then you may have had to go back to the line a second time to receive your communion since the Host that was to be for you fell down to the wet floor and could not be consumed.

 

[MatthewBerkeley]

I experienced something at Mass a while ago that troubled me. The church had rails where people stood or knelt and after I had returned to my seat, I saw a woman with a number of shopping bags kneeling down, but when the EMHC came to her, she dropped the host. Both of them tried to find it in and around the kneeler, on the rail itself, on the floor, but it couldn’t be found, so the lady returned to her seat and started rooting through her shopping bags, thinking the Host had fallen into one of them. The priest was completely unaware of this and finished the Mass, even as the woman was still searching in her bags. Afterwards, she went back up to the railings to look again, and someone came to help her. Eventually she found it underneath the knee cushion on the step where everyone kneels. I didn’t know what to make of that - it was kind of disturbing because after all, it is the Body of Jesus we’re talking about. But I suppose it raises the question (worst case scenario), what happens if the Host falls and genuinely can’t be found?

 

[ProVobis]

Accidents happen.

It is no accident after you’ve developed sloppy procedures in distributing communion. Even distributing communion by a priest at the communion rail on the tongue with a paten underneath the communicant’s chin has resulted in a dropped host (although in my altar boy days I had never seen it); however there was still the paten and trained servers who could have caught it. Today, it’s a wonder communions don’t get dropped more often to the floor the way they do it. Not a good way to treat the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ Himself.

 

[rpp]

It is no accident after you’ve developed sloppy procedures in distributing communion. Even distributing communion by a priest at the communion rail on the tongue with a paten underneath the communicant’s chin has resulted in a dropped host (although in my altar boy days I had never seen it); however there was still the paten and trained servers who could have caught it. Today, it’s a wonder communions don’t get dropped more often to the floor the way they do it. Not a good way to treat the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ Himself.

Thank you so much for removing the context of my comment and intentionally twisting it into something I clearly did not intend. That demonstrates great charity on your part. You are to be commended for this victory over truth.

 

[peary1]

After I had recived my communion today I saw what happened when a lady was receiving
her communion in the tongue.The host fell I think from the priests hand and landed on the marble shelf where her elbows rested, as she was kneeling at the altar. He quickly picked
the fallen consecrated host and put her in her tongue.
Was this ok?Was it contaminated since everybody before the lady had been touching
the shelf.?What would have been a better alternative ,if any?
There must be a protocol to follow in cases like these.

When receiving on the tongue, the altar server is to place a paton under the area so that when a Host falls, it falls onto the paton and not the floor. The priest should know this stuff. What’s his problem?**

 

[rpp]

Thank you so much for removing the context of my comment and intentionally twisting it into something I clearly did not intend. That demonstrates great charity on your part. You are to be commended for this victory over truth.

Whoops!

I completely misread what you wrote. I sincerely apologize.

 

[ProVobis]

Thank you so much for removing the context of my comment and intentionally twisting it into something I clearly did not intend. That demonstrates great charity on your part. You are to be commended for this victory over truth.

I did not mean to offend you and perhaps I should have said that. You seem sincere and I have nothing personal against you. My theme has always been that the church is taking more and more of a cavalier approach to the sacraments and until hosts actually fall and confessionals removed, then all of a sudden the world comes to a shock. Must it take an “accident” to realize that driving while texting is wrong? Certainly our senses should warn us beforehand.

 

[rpp]

I did not mean to offend you and perhaps I should have said that. You seem sincere and I have nothing personal against you. My theme has always been that the church is taking more and more of a cavalier approach to the sacraments and until hosts actually fall and confessionals removed, then all of a sudden the world comes to a shock. Must it take an “accident” to realize that driving while texting is wrong? Certainly our senses should warn us beforehand.

As I said in the above post, I completely misread your post. You have my sincere apology.

I do agree that some in the Church have grown more and more careless with Holy Communion. That is a trend that believe is slowly beginning to reverse, but only through improved education and the enforcement of liturgical norms.

 

[Tamsulosin]

A terrible experience would be if all of a sudden you have an urge to sneeze or cough
while you are still holding the Host inside your mouth and not completeley consumed it.
One thing is to pick up a Host still in one piece from the floor, but what do you do if you cannot suppress a sneeze, for example?
I do not wish that experience to anybody, but it can happen.

 

[nannyma]

At our parish (and I think this is more generally true), the minister, whether Ordinary or a EMHC, generally consumes the host quietly if the Blessed Sacrament is dropped or, if it would take too much juggling to do that, holds it in the cup of his hand until he can. If the communicant indicated somehow that he or she was willing to receive it, particularly if it had already been in his or her mouth, that would be OK. The main thing is that the Blessed Sacrament be consumed. After all, if there is any of the Precious Blood left, someone has to consume what remains, even though everyone in the parish has received from that cup.

If it is not possible to consume the Blessed Sacrament after such an accident, the fragment or spill would have to be relieved of the appearance of normal bread or wine by the addition of water, which would then be treated like the moisture remaining in the sacred vessels after the purification or a stain from where the Precious Blood was transferred to a purificator. Once the accidents are lost, Once it is diluted or dried to the point that it loses its identity, the identity of the material as the Blessed Sacrament is also lost. The remains are sopped up with purificators, if that is possible. (I always think of purificators as the unbloody equivalent of St. Veronica’s veil.)

In that case, the residue that is no longer the Blessed Sacrament is cleaned as the altar linens are: usually the first rinse is given the reverence that is given holy water when it is disposed of, and everything after that is done separately from other objects. For instance,

If the cleaning cannot be done immediately, in my experience the area to be cleaned is covered in purificators, so it won’t be walked on or used normally until the area is purified.

It is an excellent idea, by the way, to make sure that altar servers know about this, and know where the extra purifcators are kept.

That was an interesting explanation,well said. However the first rinse we call “to purify the vessels” and the water used in this process is poured down a special sink called the
sacrarium ( not sure of the name) this sink empties directly into the ground, while the sink connected to it is a regular sink. We continue to then “cleanse the vessels” using the regular sink. The same procedure is carried out when the purificators are washed. Those that tend to this job are told to first rinse the purificators in plain water ( purify) then to dispose of that water directly into the ground then they can wash as usual.
God Bless

 

[paperwight]

That was an interesting explanation,well said. However the first rinse we call “to purify the vessels” and the water used in this process is poured down a special sink called the
sacrarium ( not sure of the name) this sink empties directly into the ground, while the sink connected to it is a regular sink. We continue to then “cleanse the vessels” using the regular sink. The same procedure is carried out when the purificators are washed. Those that tend to this job are told to first rinse the purificators in plain water ( purify) then to dispose of that water directly into the ground then they can wash as usual.
God Bless

Not always. At our church, (where the Archbishop celebrates from time to time as it happens, and also in his cathedral, so presumably is O.K. with it), the first rinse is drunk by whoever purifies the vessels. I have seen this done in other churches, too, and to me, it is more reverent.

A purificator will be rinsed in the sacristy if there is an obvious stain of Precious Blood on it, but not all of them. We use 60 a week!

 

[Tamsulosin]

What exactly is a purificator? You did not say

 

[paperwight]

What exactly is a purificator? You did not say

It’s a small rectangle of white linen or cotton that’s used (in this instance) to wipe the rim of a chalice between each person.

It’s for hygiene, but it also removes any traces of lipstick, done properly. Just inside the rim should be wiped as well as the outside, so a firm pinching motion works best. The chalice should be rotated a quarter turn between each communicant as well.

In our parish we put out clean ones for every Mass i.e. 5 so we are grateful for the laundry team who take them home.

 

[peary1]

That was an interesting explanation,well said. However the first rinse we call “to purify the vessels” and the water used in this process is poured down a special sink called the
sacrarium ( not sure of the name) this sink empties directly into the ground, while the sink connected to it is a regular sink. We continue to then “cleanse the vessels” using the regular sink. The same procedure is carried out when the purificators are washed. Those that tend to this job are told to first rinse the purificators in plain water ( purify) then to dispose of that water directly into the ground then they can wash as usual.
God Bless

That’s all good to know and everything, but what does this have to do with dropping the Host on the floor?

 

[mamahen71]

I was serving as EMHC at our church and while waiting to go up to the altar (we stand beside the first pew) - Father dropped 4 hosts. They went flying over the altar rolling to the front. I quickly went up and picked up all 4 and handed them to him, and they were placed back in the ciborium.

He instructed us to pick up and consume any hosts that fall, or if we are not comfortable with that, to pick them up & cup them in our hand and when we are back at the altar to give them to him. We have not had altar servers holding patens since the '60’s.

 

[paperwight]

We had a visiting priest to concelebrate a Requiem, and I noticed that. for the very few who received OTT, he held the bowl under their chins

Which is all very well, but the thought did strike me - just suppose the Host did fall off a person’s tongue and on top of all the others in the bowl. Surely it would be difficult for him to recognise the right one to give it back, which would mean that someone else might be given it? At the very least, any saliva on it would contaminate the others it landed on.

Eughhh.

 

[peary1]

I was serving as EMHC at our church and while waiting to go up to the altar (we stand beside the first pew) - Father dropped 4 hosts. They went flying over the altar rolling to the front. I quickly went up and picked up all 4 and handed them to him, and they were placed back in the ciborium.

He instructed us to pick up and consume any hosts that fall, or if we are not comfortable with that, to pick them up & cup them in our hand and when we are back at the altar to give them to him. We have not had altar servers holding patens since the '60’s.

Maybe it should be suggested to the good father that the paten should be brought back in use since he’s been so wreckless and careless with the Hosts.

I certainly wouldn’t put up with such nonsense, even if I have to contact the bishop about it.

Also, no one in the congregation has any right to pick up the Host at any time. That’s the priest’s or deacon’s JOB, not the laity.