As many of you know, an incident of this nature occured at my RC parish last year. The EEM, unsure of how to handle it, turned towards the pastor. He met her gaze then averted his eyes. Left to her own devices, she bent over, picked it up and redeposited it in her Pyrex glass communion bowl. It was the last time I attended Mass at that parish.
I am quite surprised by Father's response and fully expect he will be receiving plenty of email on this topic, including one from me.
Have any of you experienced this in your parish?
A small child dropped a host at our parish a few weeks ago. Father immediately bent down, picked it up and consumed it, without blinking an eye then went back to his work of distributing. He is very serious about reverence to the Eucharist...
I don't understand the surprise. This is the way a dropped host has always been handled. In the old days, the priest would cover the spot where the host was dropped with a purificator, then come out after Mass and wipe the spot with water.
I haven't seen that done in 40 years. If there are no obvious particles of the host on the floor, then there is no Real Presence there.
Anytime I've seen a consecrated host hit the floor while I've been in line for communion I've consumed it myself. The information posted above will be a good reference in case I ever see it happen again.
Dear NYer,
I've seen this twice over the past 27 years, and in both cases, the individual distributing the Blessed Sacrament immediately bent down, carefully picked up the Host, and immediately consumed it. Without any fuss, without any scene.
sitetest
The Orthodox do the same thing.
Yes, the young man (a seminarian as it turns out), saw the host fall to the floor. He very carefully picked it up and consumed it.