What to do during receiving communion in the hand?

[Lepanto]

With the hosts that are made today, crumbs are rarely a problem.

This is not true at all.

I have volunteered as a sacristan for years. My responsibilities include opening up the packages of hosts in our sacristy as they come in from the vendor. Many of the packages arrive with broken hosts and have many crumbs bouncing around. Mind you, these are mass-produced hosts made in modern factory bakeries, not by little nuns using 12th century technology. I routinely toss out numerous broken hosts and crumbs before Masses.

Mind you, these hosts are marketed as “Crumble Resistant,” not “Crumble Proof.” If you want “Crumble Proof,” you will need hosts made of iron, not bread.

I also see the ciboria after Mass. Their bottoms are FILLED with crumbs, but in this case the crumbs are the Eucharist, not just bread. I trust the priest to consume these.

But what about all the Eucharist crumbs that ended up on the floor? This is only one of the many reasons why I always receive on the tongue, as the Church has historically done universally.

 

[Lepanto]

It doesn’t matter what mechanical process is used to distribute the Eucharist. Eucharistic dust flies up when the priest breaks bread.And gets transported by the air currents in the church.

There are small pieces of the Eucharist in the air at church. Some of the dust on the pews is likely from the Eucharist.

Its in the trash bags at the church. It’s in garbage trucks on the way to the dump. Its in the laundry when the linens from Mass are washed, its in the water going down the drain to the sewerage treatment plant.

Its in the water evaporating into the air, its in the rain that falls on gardens, the Eucharist is in the blooms of flowers.

But we know God is everywhere so whats the big deal?

Peace

Because God is in a substantial way only in the Eucharist. Please read the catechism.

 

[paperwight]

I’m a volunteer sacristan, too, and have seen crumbs and fragments in the plastic bags in which the altar breads are delivered.

But it’s not really comparable to the situation during Mass, is it?

The one scenario, altar breads are propelled along a conveyer belt in their thousands, tumble down some kind of chute into the plastic bags, are sealed, then briskly packed into boxes and thence on to pallets and into a delivery van or sent through the post.

The other scenario, altar breads gently put into bowls. gently placed on to the credence table, gently carried to the altar, gently consecrated, then gently given to communicants.

I would suggest that crumbs from scenario one are inevitable, but from the second? No.

 

[Lepanto]

frankly i’m a little tired of this “better than thou” attitude of some people here who chose to receive on the tongue and looking down on those who choose to receive by the hand as if we who receive by the hand do not understand the Sacrament nor have as much reverence for The Lord as they do

This issue is not about the hand-receivers. It’s about reverence towards the Eucharist.