What happens to a consecrated host when

[anna]

What happens to a Consecrated Host when it falls out of the mouth of the recipient??? This morning when I was at Mass the priest gave Communion to an elderly woman who was in a wheelchair, as he turned he noticed the Host was on her lap. Now I was attending Mass at a Convent chapel where the Sisters were nice enough to let myself and a few others attend. As Father was still giving out Communion he asked one of the woman who came in the same time I did, to please pick up the Host and put it on the altar [ I pray she was a Eucharistic Minister ]. After Mass Father picked up the Host put it on his handkerchief and left the chapel saying " I will now take care of this Host " . What does he do with the Host. It’s the first time I ever saw such a thing happen… God bless::

 

[Spyridon]

Dissolved in water then poured into the sacrarium.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

I thought that was when the consecrated blood was spilled. It was absorbed and the handkerchief washed until all vestiges of the Holy Blood were in the water.

 

[Spyridon]

The sacrarium can be used for that as well.

It’s a drain that goes directly into the ground.

 

[TheLittleLady]

The Precious Blood is to also cleaned with water (towels sopping up the spill) and those towels are rinsed in the sacrarium.

 

[semper_catholicus]

Generally when something like that happens, the priest does one of two things:

1: If the host was only on the ground for a short time (Like, if it falls out of the ciborium while he distributes communion), then he picks it up and consumes it immediately.

2: If the host has been found on the ground after an extended amount of time (Like if a parishioner mentions that they found a host on the ground at the back of the church), then he takes the host, puts it in a cup of water, places it in the tabernacle, and lets it dissolve completely,

Once it dissolves completely, he takes the water and pours it down the sacrarium (that sink in the sacristi which goes directly into the ground), or, if he doesn’t have a sacrarium, he pours it into some suitable place on the ground.

 

[dochawk]

In the absence of a sacrarium, I believe that it can also be returned to the ground.

When I serve at the Melkite liturgy, I end up bringing the non-consecrated crumbs from the bread (cut immediately before liturgy) out to dispose of in that manner (our church doesn’t have one; it’s an expanded conversion of a three car garage . . .)

hawk

 

[Hereiam]

As Father was still giving out Communion he asked one of the woman who came in the same time I did, to please pick up the Host and put it on the altar [ I pray she was a Eucharistic Minister ]

This was nothing to worry about…there is no need for the person recovering thr host to be a Eucharistic Minister…and even if some feels it must be, once the priest asked a bystander to recover it, they became a EM.