Why don't parishioners get the wine at Mass?

[Jon_S_1]

Can’t the priest Consecrate the wine while it is in the bottle?

The spilling would be a problem…glasses a little larger so as not to spill???

Only glasses for the amount of people in attendance need be filled.

I am becoming a Catholic (hopefully) starting this spring and I really do appreciate your
answers.

Yes, the Baptist use grape juice and the Catholics ARE CORRECT and believe that the wine is the true blood of Christ.

Thank you and God Bless

It really isn’t an issue. That’s why it won’t change. If people don’t want the wine they are perfectly fine having the host only. Jesus is fully present in both.

The priest mixes water with the wine and consecrates it. So filling small cups would be a problem.

My parish typically has about four cups they use.

The most I’ve seen is maybe 20 at a very large mass.

But to fill up 500-2000 cups would take forever and greatly increase the risk of spilling.

As you know the baptist church uses teams of people to tediously full the cups. This is why my old evangelical church only did communion quarterly.

It was too much trouble to do it more often.

By the way ! Congrats on pursuing the Catholic Faith!

I started this road two years ago and I cannot wait until Easter Vigil and my confirmation. Christ’s One Holy and Apostolic church is such a Blessing.

 

[Gorgias]

Only glasses for the amount of people in attendance need be filled.

Next time you drink from a glass and finish your drink, look in the bottom of the glass. A little bit of the beverage remains in the bottom of the glass. Now, imagine that you have 300 little cups, each of which still contain a little bit after they’ve been used at Mass. Now… remembering that we believe that the wine becomes Jesus, really and truly, consider the problem: what are we to do with all that consecrated Precious Blood after using the little bitty cups?!? It’d be a horrible logistical problem!

 

[DoGodsBidding]

The Baptist churches can easily clean the grape juice that drips in the tray or spills on the ground.

In Catholic Churches it becomes the blood of Christ. Really and truly. It can’t just be wiped up in a napkin and thrown away.

Further the priest must consecrate the wine. That cannot be done with wine in thousands of little cups, nor can the priest fill the cups after the consecration.

It is just completely different.

Plus all of the little cups have to be purified. Plus the precious blood is to be contained only in containers that are made of certain types of metal. It is the precious blood of our Lord and Savior, and must be handled with reverence.

DGB

 

[Jon_S_1]

Plus all of the little cups have to be purified. Plus the precious blood is to be contained only in containers that are made of certain types of metal. It is the precious blood of our Lord and Savior, and must be handled with reverence.

DGB

Excellent points.

 

[jmcrae]

And that may be purely regional.

Here in the flu-prone NE the chalice is offered at every Sunday Mass but the option of receiving the Precious Blood by intinction (dipping the Host into the chalice) is more common during weekday Masses when fewer extraordinary ministers are available to offer the chalice.

Whereas in my Diocese, such a thing would be forbidden (dipping into the Chalice).

At my home parish, the Precious Blood is offered on Sundays but not on weekdays, because we have a high population of homeless people staying at the local shelter, many of whom are in the early stages of recovery from alcoholism. (They attend Mass elsewhere on Sundays.)

At the parish where I work, which is in a middle class neighborhood, the Precious Blood is offered at morning Masses on weekdays, as well as on Sundays.

 

[Jennie1964]

Hi JMcrae, I just read your Tiber Swim Team 2001 post about your joining the Catholic church. Thank you for writing that. And that part where your mom had the dream and wasn’t surprised? Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I still have a huge smile pasted to my face.

 

[Randy_Carson]

I watched a mass online the other day, and noticed that the congregation were given a wafer but no wine? Why is that? The priest drank some wine at the alter, but none was given to the parishioners.

Isn’t the command to eat and drink of his body and blood? Is the Catholic church doing something wrong when they don’t let the people have the wine?

~a confused, seeking, Protestant.

As has already been pointed out, during the height of flu season, a common cup may create problems.

More theologically significant is the FACT that when someone receives under one species, they are actually receiving the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus because He cannot be divided.

There is scriptural proof of this, by the way. Note this passage carefully:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant of my blood; do this, whenever you drink of it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. **Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in and unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. **A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.” 1 Co 11:23-29

Paul says that anyone who eats OR drinks in an unworthy manner sins against both the body AND the blood.

IOW, if you eat the bread unworthily, you sin against the body and blood

OR

if you drink the cup unworthily, you sin against the body and the blood.

Therefore, there is no problem for parishioners who do not receive the cup.

Hope this helps. :tiphat:

 

[QNDNNDQDCE]

Although the Sacred Blood is not always distributed to the laity, the priest always communes under both kinds. Why? The mass is a sacrament of Christ’s sacrifice, and the presence of both species symbolizes the separation of the blood from the body even though in reality Christ’s blood is not separate from his body. The presence of both species and their consumption symbolize the immolation.

In reference to the Eucharist as a sacrifice, the communion, under both kinds, of the celebrating priest belongs at least to the integrity, and, according to some theologians, to the essence, of the sacrificial rite, and may not therefore be omitted without violating the sacrificial precept of Christ: “Do this for a commemoration of me” (Luke 22:19). This is taught implicitly by the Council of Trent (Sess. XXI, c. i; XXII, c. i).
newadvent.org/cathen/04175a.htm

 

[LegoGE1947]

And that may be purely regional.

Here in the flu-prone NE the chalice is offered at every Sunday Mass but the option of receiving the Precious Blood by intinction (dipping the Host into the chalice) is more common during weekday Masses when fewer extraordinary ministers are available to offer the chalice.

Years ago I was told that the fact that the Precious Blood is alcohol, would kill any germs in the Chalice and thus would make less likely transmission of any diseases from one communicant to another. Anyone else ever heard this? (I can’t drink alcohol anyhow, but was just wondering about this.)

 

[rfournier103]

Years ago I was told that the fact that the Precious Blood is alcohol, would kill any germs in the Chalice and thus would make less likely transmission of any diseases from one communicant to another. Anyone else ever heard this? (I can’t drink alcohol anyhow, but was just wondering about this.)

I think a priest told me this once when I was a youngster. It makes sense.

 

[jmcrae]

Hi JMcrae, I just read your Tiber Swim Team 2001 post about your joining the Catholic church. Thank you for writing that. And that part where your mom had the dream and wasn’t surprised? Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I still have a huge smile pasted to my face.

You’re welcome!

 

[GreenWhiteBlue]

but the option of receiving the Precious Blood by intinction (dipping the Host into the chalice) is more common during weekday Masses when fewer extraordinary ministers are available to offer the chalice.

By the way, that is NOT an “option”. A priest who is distributing communion may intinct the host and then give you communion on the tongue. However, a communicant may NOT take the host and then walk over to someone holding a chalice and self-intinct. Beside the disrespect shown to the Eucharist (the host is not a tortilla chip, and the Precious Blood is not there to be treated like a bowl of salsa!!), intinction by the laity is strictly forbidden by the instruction entitled “Redemptionis Sacramentum”, issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship in 2004 with the approval of Pope John Paul II. In section 104 of this instruction, we find the absolutely clear prohibition that “The communicant must not be permitted to intinct the host himself in the chalice.” To self intinct is highly illicit, and one who knows the regulation (as all of us reading this now do) but who continues to do so commits a grave abuse.