Q: A visiting priest in the diocese brought to my attention after the celebration of our Chrism Mass, that the priests who are concelebrating the Mass should not receive the small “assembly” hosts for their communion, but they should receive the consecrated bread broken at the altar during the Breaking of the Bread. Can you direct me to any documentation that makes that requirement and/or is there a pastoral exception? I have never heard that in the past. I thought about consecrating enough of the 2.5 inch hosts and breaking them in half for the priests. What’s your thought.?
thanks.
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A: I know of no such legislation. The concelebrating priests must receive communion from bread consecrated at the same Mass, but there is no requirement that it be a freshly broken host.
One way to look at those small hosts is that they have been pre-broken for ease of distribution.
I’m all for using freshly broken hosts at Mass for priests and people, but there’s no requirement for a concelebrant to have one.
If your visiting priest knows of some legislation, I’d be pleased to see it.