Unconsecrated Hosts

[lakotak]

I have a question.

We are using the lower hall at our church for services because the main Church has been undergoing renovations for the past 6 months. We had an incident this morning where a baby turned the host container over and all the unconsecrated hosts fell to the carpet. Father discovered there was a problem, this was just before we were to bring the gifts to the altar, and we picked them up and he took them away.

How should the hosts be disposed of when something like this happens?

Thanks

 

[ProVobis]

Probably the same way any other food would be handled after it’s been dropped to the floor. It is, after all, unconsecrated.

 

[lakotak]

Probably the same way any other food would be handled after it’s been dropped to the floor. It is, after all, unconsecrated.

That is what I thought, but there were so many ideas flying around as to how the should be disposed of, I thought I would ask in order to get the truth.

 

[catholictiger]

I have a question.

We are using the lower hall at our church for services because the main Church has been undergoing renovations for the past 6 months. We had an incident this morning where a baby turned the host container over and all the unconsecrated hosts fell to the carpet. Father discovered there was a problem, this was just before we were to bring the gifts to the altar, and we picked them up and he took them away.

How should the hosts be disposed of when something like this happens?

Thanks

they are unconsecrated so nothing special needs to be done

 

[Chatter163]

Theoretically, nothing needs to be done. However, the main concern is not giving scandal, in that someone–Catholic or not–sees hosts being thrown into the trash, they will quite possibly going to reach the wrong conclusion. The Church has always warned against disposing of them very carefully, to completely avoid this possibility.

 

[FrenzyJen]

I would totally eat them. 5 second rule. No need to waste some crackers with a little dust on them.

 

[malphono]

I wouldn’t throw them in the trash, but I wouldn’t eat them either. Who knows what was on that floor? One option is to burn them.

 

[Butaperson]

I am curious about how you would deal with consecrated hosts in this sort of situation. Maybe in this scenario you could look past the dust and consume anyways, but what about in a situation where you simply could not eat it? For instance, I don’t know, a mother took her baby up with her in the communion line and before she could consume the host, the baby spit up on it.
I mean you can’t eat something that has been vomited on, so what do you do?

 

[lakotak]

I am curious about how you would deal with consecrated hosts in this sort of situation. Maybe in this scenario you could look past the dust and consume anyways, but what about in a situation where you simply could not eat it? For instance, I don’t know, a mother took her baby up with her in the communion line and before she could consume the host, the baby spit up on it.
I mean you can’t eat something that has been vomited on, so what do you do?

I have heard that the Host is dissolved in water.and then when it is dissolved the water is poured into the earth. Maybe someone else can add to this

 

[lakotak]

I wouldn’t throw them in the trash, but I wouldn’t eat them either. Who knows what was on that floor? One option is to burn them.

Burning was mentioned. Father took them away so I don’t know what he did or will do at this point. I will probably ask him since I don’t believe I have been involved in a situation like this before.

 

[Oneofthewomen]

In EMHC training, we we taught that if a consecrated host is dropped or some such thing that may make it unusable, it should either be consumed, if able, or it should be dissolved in some water and, once dissolved, poured down the sacrarium (?, I can never remember how it’s actually spelled) which goes directly into the ground.

 

[lakotak]

In EMHC training, we we taught that if a consecrated host is dropped or some such thing that may make it unusable, it should either be consumed, if able, or it should be dissolved in some water and, once dissolved, poured down the sacrarium (?, I can never remember how it’s actually spelled) which goes directly into the ground.

This was what I thought, but couldn’t think of the bolded word.