Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Peace be with you. I wanted to speak with you today about Communion. Bishop Byrne has announced that we have permission to resume reception of Precious Blood after the lifting of COVID restrictions. He has set the day for the feast of Corpus Christi, which this year falls on June 11th. We have had several conversations amongst staff, Parish Council and parishioners to try and figure out how to proceed.
The two main options were to not offer the Cup, as we have been doing, or to go back to offering the Cup as we had been doing before COVID. There are, of course, downsides to both options. Many parishioners have been asking to receive the Precious Blood again, so we would like to start. However, many servers are profoundly uncomfortable with consuming the remainder of the Precious Blood from the Cup at the end of Communion due to health concerns. We are also uncomfortable with the idea of pouring out the remaining Precious Blood down the Sacrarium.
We would like to start a middle way. The form that we would like to use is Intinction. This is where the Host is placed in the Blood and then received in communion on the tongue. Is it ideal? No. In fact, Intinction has been prohibited by the USCCB for parishioners because of the danger of losing drops of Precious Blood. The form of Intinction we will be using is where the priest will distribute Communion on the Tabernacle side of the church, and if the communicant desires the Precious Blood, then they will sign to the Chalice being held by the server standing next to the priest, and the priest will intinct and place the Host and Precious Blood on the tongue of the Communicant. We will try this for several weeks and while doing so will ask for your feedback to see how it is proceeding.
Bottom line: If you wish to receive Communion under both species, please sit on the Tabernacle side of the church and point to the Chalice when you are ready to receive. Please remember that you do not have to receive the Precious Blood. When you receive the Host, you receive the fullness of the Body of Christ.
God bless you all, Fr. James
