What to do if the Host falls to the floor?

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operaboz said:
well im only 16 and i believe (and mother theresa agrees with me) that the greatest sin of our times is the reception of the most holy host in the hand.
who gives me the right to hold my father, he is my father and i his son.
when i receive the holy sacrament i kneel and receive it on my tongue (there is no alter rails in our church)
I pray for all who receive the most holy host in their hand please become humble.and receive it on the tongue.
GOD BLESS.
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Keep it up young Man, you truly have the spirit working within you!
 
operaboz said:
well im only 16 and i believe (and mother theresa agrees with me) that the greatest sin of our times is the recption of the most holy host in the hand.
who gives me the right to hold my father, he is my father and i his son.
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First off, the person of the Trinity that we receive in the Eucharist is Jesus the Son, not God the Father. Second of all, to answer your question, the Holy Mother Church gives us permission to receive the Eucharist in our hand, and I can provide quotes from the former Cardinal Ratzinger approving of the practice.

Although I respect Mother Theresa very much, I’ll put the former Cardinal Ratzinger ahead of her as an authority on the subject.
when i recieve the holy sacrament i kneel and recieve it on my tounge (there is no alter rails in our church)
I pray for all who recieve the most holy host in their hand please become humble.and recieve it on the tounge.
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I find this very offensive. Please don’t pray for my humility. I receive in the hand, which is a licit option provided by the Church, and I do so very reverently. It’s not for you to question my reverence or humility.
 
operaboz said:
well im only 16 and i believe (and mother theresa agrees with me) that the greatest sin of our times is the recption of the most holy host in the hand.
who gives me the right to hold my father, he is my father and i his son.
when i recieve the holy sacrament i kneel and recieve it on my tounge (there is no alter rails in our church)
I pray for all who recieve the most holy host in their hand please become humble.and recieve it on the tounge.
GOD BLESS.
Click to expand...
I agree with you and support you. Keep recieving our Lord with reverence, humility and love.

By the way, since Jesus said something that went “The Father is in Me and I in Him” I think it might be safe to say the Trinity is present in the Sacred Host. However, I can’t say definitively that that is the case since we offer the Sacred Host to God the Father as Jesus was sacrificed on the Cross. However, I will leave that with the Theologians so as not to show or cause error. After all, I’m not infallable.
 
CathMass said:
I agree with you and support you. Keep recieving our Lord with reverence, humility and love.

By the way, since Jesus said something that went “The Father is in Me and I in Him” I think it might be safe to say the Trinity is present in the Sacred Host. However, I can’t say definitively that that is the case since we offer the Sacred Host to God the Father as Jesus was sacrificed on the Cross. However, I will leave that with the Theologians so as not to show or cause error. After all, I’m not infallable.
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Theologically speaking ( heard from theologians) you cannot receive Jesus without receiving God whose essence is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s one of those Trinitarian mysteries that we will never fully comprehend in this lifetime.

While I do not agree with this young man that following Church teachings is a sin, I do admire his reverency for the Eucharist. The Church has deemed it perfectly acceptable to receive our Lord either on the tongue or in the hand. Neither is more reverant. In fact if you read in the book of James Chapter 3,I believe, he speaks of how defiling the tongue can be. This has been up for debate but just remember that at the Last Supper Jesus passed the consecrated bread to His apostles. He did not administer is to them on the tongue. And in Acts Chapter 2 towards the end it describes how the Eucharist was celebrated in homes as a meal. I don’t think that at that time a presider distributed to the families on the tongue. I obviously respect that we hold the Eucharist as the Real Presence of Christ which is exactly what it is but we are to remember that all parts of our body are unworthy to touch Christ. Jesus knows that and that’s precisely why we receive Him. Keep up the good work and your extreme devotion to the Eucharist. God Bless You.🙂 ( I assumed your gender, please forgive me if I was wrong)
 
RioDR said:
Does anyone know what the proper protocol is if you accidentally drop your Host when receiving communion?

This happened to me years ago. I usually take communion by hand rather than mouth. I was carrying my infant when I went up for communion. As the Eucharistic Minister (not a Priest) placed the Host in my hand, something happened so that our hands were no longer aligned and the Host slipped off my fingers and on to the floor.

I didn’t know what to do, and apparently neither did the Eucharistic Minister. I looked down and fortunately it did not roll away like a coin, but it was by my feet. I looked up at the Eucharistic Minister, and we both just looked at each other, he didn’t say any words of instruction to me. So I picked it up, place it in my mouth and went about my way.

So what do you do? And what if it did roll and someone, Lord forbid, inadvertently steps on it? It was one of my most embarrasing moments. Hope no one ever has to experience this, but please give advice so that we know what to do if it does.
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Years ago, our parish priest dropped the host as he was about to give me communion. He picked it up off the ground, gave it to me, and I put it in my mouth.

No worries.
 
I have seen this now at my church three times - it seriously looks like NO ONE knows what to do!! The EM came up to me (she’s a very nice older woman who is always thrilled with our kids, etc) and said she had one in her pocket, she wasn’t sure what to do with it :eek:

I couldn’t be sure if she could consume it or not, so I advised her to bring it to Father, and he would know the correct procedures; I reminded her that even in her pocket, it’s still Jesus, so it needs to be specially handled – hopefully she did check with someone before leaving…

who would you “suggest” the remedial “what to do if” training to?? This seems to be more than chance, I don’t think they’re teaching what to do, kwim? Considering how common/real the potential is, you’d think it would be the first thing taught
 
As far as I know, there was a time when if anything was spilled or dropped, the carpet would be taken out and burned after communion and if the host was dropped it would be consumed by the priest. I haven’t seen this happen so far in my short time as being exposed to the Church though, so I’m assuming it’s no longer the usual method… although I don’t know what else you would do if you spilled the blood of Christ on the carpet 😦
 
I’ve never dropped while receiving, but I’ve had people that I was serving as an EMHC who suddenly took their hands away or dropped the Eucharist after they had it. I always picked it up and consumed it after the line was finished.

If someone was carrying a baby or whatever and only had one hand free, then I ignored that single hand and headed straight for their mouth with the Eucharist. We were trained that it is two hands or the tongue. I was not going to contribute to people casually tossing Jesus toward their mouth like a chiclet while juggling other things.
 
I am so terrified of this happening, that is one reason why I switched to the tongue. I often am at the same Mass as my brother and will take one of my nieces up with me for communion. I was really uncomfortable using only one hand- I agree that if you can’t use both you should receive in the mouth. No worries now!

I want to hear the story of the poster who dropped their daughter! Hope she was okay! 🙂
 
I agree with whoever said either use two hands or your tongue. And the EMHC (or priest) should not hand it to someone with one hand out who is just going to take it like a tic-tac. I use my hands. I was taught that way.
 
RioDR said:
Does anyone know what the proper protocol is if you accidentally drop your Host when receiving communion?
This happened to me years ago. I usually take communion by hand rather than mouth. I was carrying my infant when I went up for communion. As the Eucharistic Minister (not a Priest) placed the Host in my hand, something happened so that our hands were no longer aligned and the Host slipped off my fingers and on to the floor.
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I actually was in line and noticed this happen to our Bishop. He was distributing communion and one Host fell to the ground. The recipient went to bend down to pick it up and our bishop quickly stopped this person and bent down and scooped up the precious body and ate it himself. I was amazed by his actions and was happy to see this action.

Another time my son was receiving and somehow the Host dropped to the floor, my son politely told Father that the Host fell, Father asked him where did it go and my son told him “under your dress”. Father quickly bent down found the Host and ate it immediately.

Just a personal thought on this: I think this would never happen if we went back to receiving on the tongue and using patens.
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Lil_M said:
I am so terrified of this happening, that is one reason why I switched to the tongue. I often am at the same Mass as my brother and will take one of my nieces up with me for communion. I was really uncomfortable using only one hand- I agree that if you can’t use both you should receive in the mouth. No worries now!

I want to hear the story of the poster who dropped their daughter! Hope she was okay! 🙂
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Well she bounced and its been 26 years so I guess she is OK. Some of her boyfriends are a little strange but we’ll leave that for another thread…
 
Fidelia said:
I agree with whoever said either use two hands or your tongue. And the EMHC (or priest) should not hand it to someone with one hand out who is just going to take it like a tic-tac. I use my hands. I was taught that way.
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Baseball glove works best…
 
estesbob said:
If you receive the host in a baseball glove its nearly impossible to drop
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I’d like to see you try to get it from the glove to your mouth though… and anyway, would you really want to treat Jesus like a baseball?? :eek: I’m guessing you weren’t 100% serious in saying that though 😉
 
NewGuyInChurch said:
I’d like to see you try to get it from the glove to your mouth though… and anyway, would you really want to treat Jesus like a baseball?? :eek: I’m guessing you weren’t 100% serious in saying that though 😉
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Me kid??? never!😃
 
RioDR said:
…I looked up at the Eucharistic Minister, and we both just looked at each other, he didn’t say any words of instruction to me. So I picked it up, place it in my mouth and went about my way…
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The only improvement I can add to your excellent response is to do it quickly!
 
I was taught back in the Dark Ages before Vatican II in my first Communion instructions and as an altar boy, that we should not profane the Body of Our Lord with our hands. Only a priest (or bishop) back then were supposed to pick it up. I know I’ve seen my priest stop everything to retrieve the host as well as I’ve seen him stop people trying to leave without consuming the host. I’ve seen our late bishop do this as well.

Now, given the practice of EMHCs, I don’t know precisely what the official position is. Father’s and the bishop’s reactions not so long ago would indicate to me that certain rubrics are still in place.

Maybe Father Serpa would be willing to resolve this for us?
 
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