When receiving the Eucharist no communion plates are being used?

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The plate is for the Hosts only, a plate would make distribution of the Chalice even more akward!
 
At our large parish we would not have enough servers to hold patens as we have eight people distributing the Precious Body.
 
A large parish who needs 8 EMHCs at a regular Mass surely can recruit more Altar Servers.
 
Horton said:
I’ve never been in a parish where a Communion-plate was used. Not even in Europe.
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I have a big Bible from 1970, published right after the new Mass and it has pictures regarding the new Mass and how it should be performed.

Two things it has that I rarely see:
  1. the processional Cross placed in front of the altar with the corpus facing the priest, so the priest can see it.
  2. the use of the the communion patens
Honestly, I’ve never seen #1, but I have seen the the communion patens used. ETWN uses them during Mass all the time and the parish next to mind uses them too. There are a few other parishes that use them too in my area, though my parish doesn’t.
 
dconklin said:
At our large parish we would not have enough servers to hold patens as we have eight people distributing the Precious Body.
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Sure you could. It doesn’t have to be kids doing it, you can have other adults holding the patens. Most parishes are never hurting for help to distribute communion.
 
They had them and they must still have them so I don’t think they need to buy any more. But they just don’t use them now. Idk. I just wondered if there had been a new rule that came down about using patens that I didn’t know about since suddenly I noticed they were no longer being used. It won’t stop me from attending Mass. It’s completely on the Priest and between him and the bishop as to whether he will use them or not. If he is doing something out of order, I’m sure he will be corrected. I’m just kind of a nobody in my parish so I don’t make waves.

✝️
 
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The poor girl. I remember years ago feeling bad for a young guy at a firm reception for potential new job candidates who accidentally spilled his plate of chicken on a stick appetizers all over the carpet in front of 30 people in suits. Spilling the blood of Our Lord would be that times 10,000 in embarrassment.

I recently saw a Eucharistic minister somehow fumble a host onto the floor and I had to tell him “There is a host on the floor”. I understand accidents happen, but there were 2 ministers and about 2 people receiving ahead of me and no one noticed this?
 
phil19034 said:
Most parishes are never hurting for help to distribute communion.
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Except mine! It’s the only parish I’ve ever heard of where you have to get on a waiting list if you want to take communion to the hospital or the homebound because there are so many people serving, but they have to beg for ministers to help at Sunday Masses.
 
Trishie said:
. She sobbed for days, “I spilled His blood”, she kept saying, and then stopped going to Mass.
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Why do I think this grieved our Lord more than the accidental spilling of the Chalice contents???
 
Duesenberg said:
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TheLittleLady:
**93.] The Communion-plate for the Communion of the faithful should be retained, so as to avoid the danger of the sacred host or some fragment of it falling.
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While I believe their use typically does more harm than good (except for the positive sign value their use projects), I do agree they should be used given the language you provided from RS.

Sadly I don’t think it’s largely about $$$. I think most pastor have little knowledge of RS and would just discount RS’s comment on this matter if it were brought to their attention.

One question I have is should they be employed in cases where communion is offered under both kinds and someone is receiving communion under the appearance of wine?
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All the patens I recall from times past were pretty flat. Were a liquid to fall onto them, I think the liquid would roll right off. Further, I think having a paten in close proximity to a chalice in motion and the hands of the communicant wouLd seriously increase the risk of an accident.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Reminder, lay persons are EMHCs, Eucharistic Ministers are priests, bishops and deacons.

Speak to your pastor.

The Vatican instructions are clear. Maybe someone just needs to do a fund raiser to purchase them?

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...doc_20040423_redemptionis-sacramentum_en.html

**93.] The Communion-plate for the Communion of the faithful should be retained, so as to avoid the danger of the sacred host or some fragment of it falling.
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Actually, only bishops and priests are Eucharistic Ministers, because only they can confect the Eucharist. Deacons are technically Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.
 
TheLittleLady said:
The plate is for the Hosts only, a plate would make distribution of the Chalice even more akward!
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I don’t know that the paten is only for the hosts – and I won’t until I see something from the Church.
 
dconklin said:
At our large parish we would not have enough servers to hold patens as we have eight people distributing the Precious Body.
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Then train more servers.

I know tiny parishes with armies of servers because they make the effort and take the time to train them.
 
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Mattapoisett64 said:
All the patens I recall from times past were pretty flat. Were a liquid to fall onto them, I think the liquid would roll right off. Further, I think having a paten in close proximity to a chalice in motion and the hands of the communicant wouLd seriously increase the risk of an accident.
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That’s sort of the case when distributing the hosts too in many situations.
 
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As you can see from the Vatican publication I linked above, the Vatican uses the term “Plate”.

In the parlance of the typical US Parish, if you ask for the Paten you will be handed the small guilded plate used by the Priest on the Altar.

Typically, Communion Plates are on a long wooden handle allowing the Altar Server to reach under the communicant’s hand/chin.

Give a read to the full document RS linked above as well as to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (available at vatican.va) and you will see in detail the norms for distribution under both kinds, how the Chalice is to be presented to the Faithful and you will see that the Communion Plate is never mentioned to be paired with the Chalice WRT the faithful.

So cool that the Church makes public all of these norms.
 
I never knew this was a law of the Church. Of course it makes perfect sense. But even my traditional OF parish with its communion rails has never used plates. My university parish at UNT used them though (I actually felt that more of the faithful believed in the Real Presence at that parish. What should I do?
 
This lack of the plate is not proper. That is the bottom line. Please find another parish. This is just plain inappropriate.
 
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