Q: Hello, Father. I am continuing to read your book, “Eucharistic Reservation“, with great interest and much enjoyment.
A question and a comment.
Question: HC, 17, states: “It is first of all for the Priest or Deacon to administer Holy Communion to the faithful who ask for it.” We have a ministry that takes Holy Communion to the sick or homebound. Does HC, 17, however, imply that a person may request to Holy Communion outside of Mass even if he is not sick or homebound?
Comment: On p. 74 of your book, ER, it states: “The distribution of communion does not take place during the Liturgy of the Hours.” I noticed, however, that Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest does have communion during the LOTH; in fact, it seems to prefer Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer to a Celebration of the Liturgy of the Word [with Holy Communion].
Thank you again for your always patient and kind help.
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A: Thanks for reading my book.
That number cites Eucharisticum Mysterium 31, which states that the priest or deacon are the usual ministers of holy communion during Mass. I think HC 17 is simply stating who the usual ministers of communion are. A person who is not sick or homebound could request communion outside Mass, but priests and deacons will have to judge the appropriateness of the request. Distributing communion at the home of someone who overslept on Sunday is one thing; distributing communion in a prison is something else.
You are correct that SCAP, compiled by the USCCB and approved by the CDWDS, does permit communion during Morning and Evening Prayer on Sundays without a priest. Still, the Liturgy of the Hours itself does not envision it, and I’d be cautious about extrapolating a practice accommodating the exceptional circumstance of a Sunday without a priest and applying it more broadly in the liturgy.