I have a question today about an accident I witnessed during a televised Catholic Mass.
This morning I found myself up at the crack of dawn. Unable to fall back to sleep I decided to start my day by tuning in to our local Catholic Mass on television.
Today, Father Joseph Devine of St. Rose of Lima parish in Meriden, Ct was celebrating the Mass on ORTV (Office of Radio and Television).
A recording of the Mass can be seen HERE.
Since each television Mass is sold on DVD it is not available to download or upload to this blog, so going directly to the link is the only option to view the entire 30 minute Mass.
The reason I am mentioning this is because of what happened during this morning's Mass. The priest accidentally dropped the consecrated Host into the Cup,
then fished the soggy Consecrated Host out of the Cup...
...placing the soggy Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ on the paten.
He then breaks off a piece, placing it in the Cup, and soon eats PART of the soggy Host leaving several soggy pieces of the Host on the paten.
He then places a small soggy piece of the Consecrated Host into the hands of a gentlemen... (so the Blood of Christ is now on the hands of this gentleman)
and then LEAVES the rest of the soggy Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ on the paten, covering it with linen and removing it from the altar.
You can see the soggy Host in the image below being covered up.
Should he have not eaten the entire soggy Consecrated Host?
Should he have wiped the Blood from his wet fingers on the cloth?
Is there another way this is handled when something like this occurs?
I was truly expecting him to eat the entire Host quickly before it could fall apart.
I'd love to hear from a priest how such an accident is properly handled.
In Christ,
Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner
Source: http://www.ortv.org/streaming/TV%20Mass%20stream.htm
Video: http://dv2.discovervideo.com/play/?vod=17340
Accidental intinction: I'm away from my GIRM at the moment, so I'm sure someone would be happy to fill in the details that I'm missing
ReplyDeletea. The lay person should have been given the Host by Intinction...the lay person is NOT allowed to put the Host in their hands when he Host has been dipped in the Precious Blood of Christ....this was a Liturgical Abuse to the nth degree, so you're absolutely right to worry about this.
b. The purificator, paten, corporal are to be used in this situation. (As the Paten is there to catch particles of the Host and the Precious Blood. So he did cover it right (as weird as it may look) to of course be properly cared for after the Liturgy.
c. The soggy Hosts that weren't used (which should not have been disributed in the hand he should have finished then and there, but see b.
I'll have to check my rubrics for more detail on this situation :)...God bless you for your concern Julie. I'm thinking about becoming a Byzantine Priest, so I'm well intuned with the Liturgy)
This priest was just not thinking.
ReplyDeleteThe Host should have been left in the chalice, and another Host used for the fraction rite. The soggy Host should simply have been consumed with the Precious Blood.
If there were no other Hosts present, the priest should have omitted the fraction rite, consumed the large host directly from the chalice, and given the remaining Precious Blood to the server for his Communion.
The priest seems to have been fixated on the LARGE HOST. I.e., he seems to have thought that ONLY that Host can be used for the fraction rite. And he seems to have thought that the server or Communion minister MUST receive a piece of the large Host.
Out of necessity, I once celebrated Mass without a large Host, and discovered that some people think a large Host is necessary for validity of the Mass!