With the COVID-19 public health emergency officially ending today, the Chicago Archdiocese has sent out guidance that the measures put in place during the pandemic are almost entirely being lifted now. Among the aspects of church life now able to be restored: communicants may once again drink from the common cup. In our archdiocese, the cup has not been on offer to the people for the last three years.
A couple of months ago in our Worship Commission, in the course of a discussion about whether or when to resume offering the cup, our pastor asked the commission members whether we'd personally partake of it. I confessed that I wouldn't be comfortable.
I haven't been partaking of the cup for the last three years. When the moratorium was placed on offering it to the people, deacons were given the option of having their own chalice with consecrated wine, alongside the priest's chalice. I declined; it didn't seem right that I should be allowed my own cup if nobody else but the priest was.
Of course, the pre-COVID practice - which can now resume - was that the deacon partakes from the priest's chalice, after the priest partakes. So for me to be willing to partake, I have to trust that the priests alongside me are healthy.
And obviously, we'd be asking the people in the communion line to trust, not that one prior drinker is healthy, but that 10 or 20 or 30 prior drinkers all are healthy.
At some point, I think we have to trust the science and the scientists. If they tell us the risk of getting COVID is quite low, then I should believe them. No matter how many willies it might give me to drink from a cup that someone else already has drunk from.
I suppose the archdiocese is not first to the party in offering the cup again; perhaps some of you have been drinking from a common cup again already? What are your thoughts?
I've already drank from the cup but it's confusing. They seem to be offering the cup first.
ReplyDeletePersonally, it doesn't bother me. Most germs are killed by stomach acid. It's a little skeevy for me if I think about it but perhaps a good exercise against my latent OCD.
Make that "drunk".
DeleteThe Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC started offering the cup again sometime in April. Maybe at Easter? I don’t remember. I don’t know what the Catholic Churches are doing here. I have seldom been sick. But I was sick with influenza A at Christmas and with gastroenteritis at Easter.My husband was also, both times. I don’t know where we picked up the germs. We don’t go many places where we are around people. But since I hadn’t suffered either kind of illness for more than 35 years, it’s made me wonder about the state of my immune system right now. So I will not drink from the cup. Maybe switch to the local Lutheran church which provides individual cups.
ReplyDeleteAre the Episcopalians intincting where you are?
DeleteIntinction is a great call-out. This article notes that there is a way that Catholics can intinct, too. I don't think I've ever seen it done this way, but it appears to be legal. I'd rather do this than drink from a cup that others have drunk from.
Deletehttps://ct.dio.org/item/5361-hey-father-is-intinction-allowed.html
The EC here is still not permitting intinction since occasionally someone’s fingers might touch the wine. So we can limit our exposure to whatever germs the priests and EMs might be sharing on the bread. :)
DeleteWe have not resumed receiving from the cup in our parish yet. I say "resumed" because pre Covid we were only doing it on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday. The deacons have been partaking from the priest's chalice for two years, and also purifying it. I have read that Covid is most likely to be transmitted through the air, which means if the priest is contagious, one is going to get the germs by standing next to him, whether they drank from the chalice or not. Pretty sure that's how we all got Covid in December. Fortunately (and thanks to Paxlovid) we were not seriously sick.
ReplyDeleteI do miss receiving from the chalice when I am EMHC, but we're not doing that either. I don't mind drinking after two people, which that was, but I have always been squeemish about doing it after 50 people in the Communion line. On Holy Thursday we would need to consume what was left in the chalice after maybe a hundred people. I don't miss that.
I'm not so worried about Covid now, but there's still stuff like Norovirus out there. I actually think that's worse than Covid. It doesn't kill you most of the time, just makes you wish you were dead.
I am fine with our parish's very minimal use of the common cup. That isn't archdiocesan wide, the parishes are left to their own discretion. Many parishes have gone back to the common cup, which is fine. For them.
I'm told we're not going to resume offering it to the people immediately. All the EMs would need to be given refresher training. I understand we're looking at September to resume. So that will give us a few months to learn from other parishes' experiences.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's possible that the cup could be suspended again. Our archdiocese seems to base its decisions on CDC guidance.
As a very imperfect mother, my wish is this: If you have to mark Mothers Day, do it by forgiving your mom, alive or dead, for just one thing.
DeleteOkay, this is tacky, but funny: https://www.concordiasupply.com/TrueVine-Cup-Prefilled-Communion-Bread-Juice-Sets-100?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&leadsource=77&msclkid=4f29dd63d4f81eb7d439b93ede0e385c&utm_campaign=PLA_Shopping_Supplies_ISO_Communion&utm_term=4582901937153236&utm_content=Communion%20Cups%20%26%20Prefilled%20All%20Iso
ReplyDeleteOr maybe it's only funny if you have grandkids who love Lunchables, and pudding snacks with peel-off tops.
The communion sets come in gluten free, too.
Obviously these are Protestant, wouldn't work for Catholic congregations because of purification issues.
Have seen these in the Congegational Church, though a lot of congregations have gone back to using glass cups to cut down on plastic waste.
DeleteMy ( maternal) Baptist grandparents church had little glass cups, kind of elegant, they were footed, but sturdy. They just used regular bread, cut up into squares, like to make dressing. I remember as a preschooler helping myself when the plate was passed. Nobody told me I couldn't. I had no clue about Communion, either Catholic or Baptist. I thought it was nice they furnished snacks, it was a long drive home.
DeleteDecades ago, I was in favor of the cup; then a priest upset me because he seemed to argue that everyone should use the cup.
ReplyDeleteThat was about the time that our mental health board became an Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Board, and I became aware of the problems that our "alcohol culture" presents for those who are addicted to it. I decided it was inappropriate to push the cup on people, and that alcoholics and others should feel free to abstain from the cup.
Especially since I got my walking stick, I have ceased to partake of the cup.
Intinction of course is the normal way of communion for Eastern Catholics. I am not familiar with advantages and disadvantages.
Jack - an interesting article at America by Jim McDermott - “Could you explain what the Synod on Synodality is to a 10-year-old? If not, we need to simplify some things.”
DeleteWe had a priest who had gone through alcohol rehab. He had permission to use "mustum", which I guess is basically alcohol free wine. I'm assuming they could do that for congregants too, similar to the low gluten hosts we have for gluten sensitive people.
DeleteThe fear with intinctin is that the Blood will drip on the floor and people will walk in it. The Anglicans have a kind of chip-and-dip dish with the Cup in the center and Bread around it so that spillage would be absorbed by the other wafers. I am not sure that the tray is supposed to be used any longer, but I saw the arrangement several times.
DeleteWell, right now the prohibition of intinction in this EC diocese is due to health concerns.
DeleteThe intinction which is legal in the Catholic church (although I don't believe I've seen it at a Sunday mass) requires:
Delete1. The priest, not the communicant, does the dipping. The communicant then receives the intincted host on the tongue.
2. It requires one of those patens (communion plates) to be held under the chin. We don't actually use those at our parish (shhh, we're probably breaking a rule), but I used to wield those things when I was an altar boy in the 4th grade. Never actually caught anything on one, though. At least two times, a priest and communicant managed to drop the host, and I managed to not catch it, so it fell to the floor. That was back when priests would yell at servers for falling short of perfection. Got yelled at, or at least got dirty looks, for those ones.
I should add: even though we don't have altar servers use patens during communion, our ciboria are wide, flat vessels with large mouths. More like a shallow bowl than a cup. They fit under communicants' chins just fine on the (very) rare occasion I have to give the host on someone's tongue. I've caught a dropped host at least a couple of times that way.
DeleteBtw, if you Google "communion patens" you get a lot of pictures of patens. We need Adam from America's Test Kitchen to do a make/model comparison test and tell us which paten is the best value. Just on the first page of Google results (this is not a well-researched comment), I see items ranging in price from $42.95 (a simple disk) to $175 (fancy shmantzy, but not necessarily superior in function). Some look to have more practical designs than others.
DeleteMy rule for a dropped host: five second rule. If the communicant dropped it, they can pick it up and consume it. If I were to drop jt as an EMHC, ( I never have) I would consume it. If it has been in someone's mouth, I would put it aside on a purificator and it would be taken care of in the sacristy after Mass. Don't know if that is according to Hoyle but the carpet gets vacuumed frequently, I don't think any harm would be done.
DeleteWe don't use patens any more here, haven't for decades. The kind I disliked the most were the kind with long handles. An overzealous server would just about shove them into your throat.
DeleteThe Orthodox method of intinction is that the bread cut up like for stuffing is place in the cup and absorbs the wine. A little cube is placed on a spoon. The communicant opens his mouth wide and the priests overturns the spoon, ideally without touching mouth or tongue.
ReplyDeleteBeneath the chalice a wide wine-colored cloth is held on both sides by servers in case any drops of wine or small bread crumbs fall.
During the pandemic some Orthodox churches administered communion this way with disposable plastic spoons.
I am happy for communicants who want the Cup if this can return safely. Immunity levels, tolerance to alcohol, and willingness to drink from other people's vessels do vary. Hopefully the Cup enthusiasts will remember that.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, please let us know if you dodged the tornadoes! Stay safe.
ReplyDeleteJean, thanks for asking, but the tornadoes went south of us. We were in a warning, though, and the sirens went off. I found out really quickly that I can get down the basement stairs with a crutch. I'm actually glad I did, because I was scared to try it before. It wasn't that hard. It caught me in the middle of making cookies, fortunately I hadn't put them in the oven yet.
DeleteGlad you didn't take a direct hit. Careful on the stairs!
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