ASK FATHER: Father doesn’t put particle of Host into the chalice

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

I attend daily Mass in my local parish and one local priests (who is not newly ordained) always omits commingling a particle of the Host into the precious blood after consecration. He fractures the Host into four pieces for distribution and does so only after he’s begun the Angus Dei… but never drops a particle. Am I being too picky? Am I over participating? If not how to proceed? I am afraid that he won’t take kindly to my questioning his rubric. But if I have firm grounds

If the priest is NOT properly doing the co-mingling, various called the “Immissio” or “Commixtio”, then, no, you are not being overly picky.

That part of the rite is not to be omitted.

It is of monumental symbolic meaning.   Among the things that the fraction of the Host represents are the three forms of the Church, Triumphant, Suffering and, for the piece put into the chalice, Militant (us).

If the priest is not the pastor, address yourself to him.  If this is the pastor, you might ask him to explain that part of the rite.  If that doesn’t produce positive results, try to develop a chain of correspondence and bring it to the bishop.

This is a touchy situation, it seems.  However, you have the right to make your concerns known.  Redemptionis Sacramentum 183 ff.

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10 Comments

  1. APX says:

    Thanks for explaining the commingling. There was a first communicant who asked why The priest does that, and I honestly didn’t know the answer.

    There was a priest who couldn’t even handle the low gluten hosts who would omit the commingling and only receive under one species. Perhaps the priest in question is doing something similar not aware of his error.

  2. frjim4321 says:

    Interestingly an ancient practice was to practice the commingling using a morsel of consecrated bread from reservation. I can understand why this was discontinued, but it is a very interesting bit of Catholic trivia. It’s so long and I don’t have the citation anymore, but I think it was called the “frumentum,” or something like that.

  3. JARay says:

    I always try, where possible, to be the first to receive from the chalice and to be the one who manages to consume the particle of Host dropped into the chalice. My reason for this action is that I was once distributing from the chalice and a woman actually found that she had received that particular particle of Host and she immediately spat it back into the chalice because she had no idea what it was that she had received and just though that she had received a bit of rubbish so she spat it back! I immediately retrieved the particle and consumed it myself. The important lesson from this is that the vast majority of our congregations today simply have no idea that the priest drops a particle of Host into the chalice. Hence the reaction by this woman when she accidently received it.

  4. vandalia says:

    Just to state the obvious, this does not invalidate the Mass, but of course you have to work pretty hard to have an invalid Mass. But it is obviously something that should be done. Forgetting once is understandable, and if it is remembered only after the priest’s communion he almost certainly should not go back and do it with another chalice (at least that is my interpretation), but ignoring it all together is not good. The best solution is almost always to ask the priest; if he bites your head off, find another parish.

    With respect to communion, and with JARay that is one reason for not using the priest’s chalice for the communion of the people. (There is an even more basic solution.) Now, can you imagine the outcry if people were forced to receive communion under both species? This has led me to believe that the quickest way to get people to want to do something in the Church is to absolutely forbid them from doing so.

  5. Mike says:

    Far from being an accretive custom that grew out of the answer to a “Catholic trivia” question, the Fermentum deliberately symbolizes the Resurrection in its commingling of the Body of Christ with the Precious Blood. To omit it would bespeak, at best, ignorance of the theology of Holy Mass.

  6. hwriggles4 says:

    I am wondering if the celebrant was an elderly priest. Our parish had a good retired priest who began to develop some memory issues. A few years before his death, this good retired priest was starting to lose his focus during the Mass, and he got to the point where homilies were tedious. The last year he was with us, when he served Mass, he was normally assisted by another priest or a deacon, with either the other priest or deacon giving the homily.

  7. grumpyoldCatholic says:

    Ok I am totally confused now. I have been to many a Mass and can’t recall seeing this. Is it part of the Mass or part of the Novus Ordo service?

  8. APX says:

    Grumpyoldcatholic,

    Yes, it’s part of the OF (and other Eastern Rites as well). It is supposed to occur during the fraction of the host during the Agnus Dei when everyone is shaking each other’s hands. It occurs with little fanfare and is thus easy to miss.

  9. grumpyoldCatholic says:

    APX, Thank you for the info. I am a server for the EF Mass and have never seen this . I haven’t been to a NO service in quite a long time. I have to drive 130 miles to go to Mass. There is a diocese church here in town but I won’t go.

  10. APX says:

    In the EF, it happens before the Agnus Dei when the priest makes a cross (or a series of them) over the chalice and says “Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum”.

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