What's it like to be a eucharistic minister?

[japhy]

Which is easier, cutting and pasting long posts from vatican documents, or simply asking the OP, "Did you mean Eucharistic Minister (as in Priest of Bishop) or EMCH (Lay minister)?

benedictgal, you didn’t answer his question.

I know this is a sore issue for you; I can tell that from the amount of “ink” being spilled over it here. But I think one of Newbie2’s points is that we should not assume that someone asking about “eucharistic ministers” is purposefully using the wrong term, that we should give them the benefit of the doubt, ask them to clarify (his example was good), and gently correct them… and move on.

 

[Newbie2]

Some people are more militant about this than myself.

That’s more diplomatic than Pharisee-ic, I guess.

What if the issue were about transubstantiation vs. transignification vs. transmutation vs. consubstantiation, etc.? It may not be objectively sinful to use the wrong term out of a simple misunderstanding… but to obstinately continue using a wrong (read: inaccurate) term – in essence, shunning the language of the Church in the matter – for matters of convenience or personal preference seems prideful to me.

Definitely, I agree. From what I’ve seen most of the incorrect usage is a matter of misunderstanding, which methinks is better corrected with a simple response rather than whipping out the vatican documents. To me that is overkill and suggests a legalistic rather than a pastoral approach to correcting the terminology. To others it’s entirely appropriate, I guess.