What Is The Best Way to Distribute Communion?

Michie · Friday at 5:24 PM

Over two decades ago, after being a daily communicant for years, I suggested to an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion what I thought was the best way to distribute Communion into the mouth. I somehow hit a nerve in this individual and it didn’t go well. I decided then to keep quiet… until now.

There are three main things that everyone hopes happens at the distribution of Communion: 1) to reverently give the Body of Christ to communicants in a state of grace; 2) to get the Host in the mouth properly without it dropping; and 3) to provide a hygienic exchange from Eucharistic Minister to communicant.

Now anyone who receives on the tongue has likely experienced a few different kinds of delivery systems:

There’s the Mail Slot, where the priest seems to just try to slide the Eucharist into the mouth.
There’s The Flicker, which tries to just kind of flick the Eucharist in the mouth while quickly moving the hand back to avoid any lip, tongue, tooth contact.
The third is the Free-for-All, where you can almost see the one distributing the Eucharist sizing up each person, sometimes head cocked to the side, in hopes of just getting it into the mouth.
I also just heard about a highly unusual option, where the Host is held straight up and down at nose level with each communicant left to figure out what to do next.

Much of the calculus of Communion distribution, however, seems to have to do with what the recipient is doing. The mouth could be open slightly, or maybe a lot, leaving the Eucharistic Minister to react instead of directing.

Continued below.