Sunday, March 8, 2009

Back to our regularly scheduled b****ing...

As I have stated many, many times, I am not a fan of the Boston Marathon-esque starting-gun rush to the altar after the consecration when 7-8 EM's storm the altar, while there are easily under 200 butts in the pews.

Today may be an all-time low.

The priest called for spare EM's, and the rush followed...and one of the lucky fastest sprinters declined receiving...yet proceeded to serve the Eucharist to others.

We can debate this one all you want (more learned readers than I will probably come up with good theories*), but it seems to me that if you are conscious that your own soul is not in a state to receive the Host, why would you be distributing same?

Madness. Ignorance. Hubris.



* Let's go with the most innocuous explanation I could come up with - the guy went to Mass already this weekend, and didn't want to receive twice. The APPEARANCE of impropriety should be enough to dissuade him...not to mention the surplus of wannabe EM's. Step aside and let someone else do it, don't send mixed messages to the sheep...

7 comments:

The Digital Hairshirt said...

As an EM . . . NO! You MUST receive if you are going to distribute the Eucharist! You needn't take both species, but you must receive the Host.

Why did the priest or sacristan allow that?!

Joe of St. Thérèse said...

And I'm complaining about what happens in LA, LOL!, that IS an all time low. Liturgical terrorism at its finest.

Joseph Tremblay said...

Wow, and here I've been complaining of late about the rush of people who leave immediately after receiving the Eucharist ...

Kasia said...

WOW.

I've been an EM at my parish. One time I collared (excuse the pun) the priest ten minutes before Mass (the earliest I could find him) and asked him to please hear my confession because I knew I wasn't fit to receive but that I was scheduled to serve. Another time the coordinator tried to press me into service when I wasn't scheduled, and I declined because I knew I needed to go to Confession.

I have never heard of an EM declining to receive but still serving as an EM. I don't know what the rules are - could not cite them - but I know a canon lawyer who could confirm if anyone wants to know for sure...

P.S. The word verification is "brain"...as in, "I'd like to brain whoever came up with having a fleet of lay Eucharistic Ministers in the first place...I've been to parishes that do not use them, and Communion really doesn't take that long..."

Packrat said...

I hope the EM didn't have a cold or the flu - Yuck.

Joseph Tremblay said...

From Kasia (who is having trouble with the internets at work and asked me to post this on her behalf):

Although now that I think of it, I suppose the tiny silver lining of that is that it was probably the first time many of the attendees had seen someone choose not to receive. Maybe it started some balls rolling around in the crania?

gemoftheocean said...

8 EMs for 200? I have to say here we have been using 5. 1 extra to help with the Host, 4 for the Communion Cups (we NEVER did Commuion Cups at all until this last year) - we WERE using 2 for a while, but the lines got so backed up at times, (and the Communion Cup is always handled slowly with care, so I can understand why that takes so long....)I gyess it depends on the "Math" of your church and how it's laid out.

And yes, I would have guessed that maybe the person who offered to help already recieved Communion and he was the husband or family member of someone assisting at that particular Mass server/reader etc.