Question of Faith
A weekly question of faith answered by Cleveland Catholics. Fr. Damian Ference, Vicar of Evangelization and Deacon Mike Hayes Director of Young Adult Ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland co-host with frequent guests from the Diocesan Office who join in the conversation.
Question of Faith
What Becomes of the Precious Blood that Remains After All the Congregation Has Received?
Discover the sacred intricacies of the Catholic Mass as Mary Hrich, our Director of the Office for Worship, discusses what happens to the Precious Blood after Communion. From reverent consumption to the purification of vessels, Mary guides us through the liturgical protocols.
Church Search goes to Sacred Heart in Wadsworth.
Readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter.
We invite you to be part of our next episode by contributing your burning questions about liturgy and music and even more by sending questions to mhayes@dioceseofcleveland.org
On today's Question of Faith what becomes of the precious blood that remains after all the congregation is received? Hey everybody, this is Question of Faith. I am Mike Hayes it only took me five takes to get that question out and I am the Young Adult Ministry Director here in the Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 2:And I'm Father Damian Ferentz, a vicar for evangelization.
Speaker 3:I'm Mary Rich. I'm the Director of the Office for Worship for the Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 1:Yay, Mary's back.
Speaker 2:Welcome back More liturgy questions, my fave.
Speaker 1:I can tell your heart is all aflutter, Father.
Speaker 2:It's burning within me. Are you kidding me? So this is a good question, because it's obvious when, if there are hosts left over after the communion rite, after the distribution to the faithful I mean if there are a few the priest may consume, but if there are a significant amount, those hosts go back in the tabernacle and that is the proper place for the reposition of the Blessed Sacrament as host, but in the form of precious blood. The question is, what happens? Because the tabernacle is not the proper repository for the precious blood. So this person who wrote in wants to know what happens then. Yes, mary, do you want to start us off?
Speaker 3:In general, when the precious blood is consecrated at the liturgy and if there are some left and you have both ordinary ministers that would be clergy or extraordinary ministers like the Eucharistic ministers, the precious blood gets consumed. However, we never self-communicate. So if I'm the Eucharistic minister and I'm an extraordinary minister, because I don't have a collar and the last person is received and there's still precious blood in my cup, I can't just go glug, glug, glug and be done. So communion is about receiving, not taking. So the proper thing for that extraordinary minister to do is to bring that cup back up to the altar to the deacon. If there's a deacon there, the priest is there, and then either the priest or the deacon. If there's a deacon there, the priest is there, and then either the priest or the deacon can consume or, if it's not right for them to do that, if there's too much left, then they can re-present it to. If I'm the extraordinary minister, they can re-present the cup to me and ask me to consume Nice.
Speaker 2:That's pretty much what I was going to say too.
Speaker 1:And where does that happen? That just happens over at the credence table, or At the altar At the altar.
Speaker 2:Usually at the altar. Now, when Bishop Lennon was here, I think he preferred, because then after that, then the vessels are purified and they can be purified immediately then or after Mass, right, isn't that right? So I'm looking at the when the distribution of communion is over the priest or deacon or acolyte because an acolyte is entrusted with a special ministry purifies the patent over the chalice and also the chalice itself. And obviously if you have other chalices or other saboria, then you would do that there too. But then it's purified, so you consume what is there and then you would pour a little water. Some, actually priests, pour a little bit of wine and water for their purification and then purify, pour a little water. Some, actually priests, pour a little bit of wine and water for their purification and then purify those vessels after that.
Speaker 3:Can I just make one little point? There, you may you said the priest or the deacon or the acolyte. In this sense, in what the germ is saying, acolyte is an instituted role.
Speaker 2:We're not talking about an altar server. I know some churches call their servers their acolytes.
Speaker 3:But really that is an ordained ministry.
Speaker 2:Well, it's close to ordained. It used to be a minor order, but now it's not. But in order to become a priest or a deacon, you have to become an acolyte along the way. So, yes, it's a formalized, instituted ministry within the church, as is a lector. So there are and we use those names like acolyte and lector, but there are formally instituted lectors and acolytes in the church too. That's a good. It's a good catch.
Speaker 3:Fun question. I had a pastor call me one day and ask me about institution of ladies as acolytes, and the answer to that is it would be a possibility. According to Rome, however, they have to be formed first before they can be instituted, and we don't have that formation program set up yet.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 3:So that's why it hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a possibility. Pope Francis made that a possibility Because when it's no longer an order, when it's no longer part of a minor order, then it's open to not change, not just men who can be ordained priests. So it's consistent, it makes sense. But you're right, in our diocese we haven't moved in the formation of those ministers yet outside of seminarians and deacons.
Speaker 1:And Mary, correct me if I'm wrong here and I won't even edit it out if I am. But if you're a deacon or a acolyte, you are to purify at the credence table. Only the priest is to purify at the credence table. Only the priest is to purify at the altar. Is that correct? I think that is correct.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that. This is why I don't do liturgy this is why these questions are your favorite, Father. You learn I don't like them.
Speaker 1:That's why you guys are here answering them all it's interesting because these are the questions we get most often, of course, are questions on liturgy and canon law. If you've got others, Fr Damien prefers those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, give me some good philosophical questions around culture.
Speaker 1:Not that we don't want your liturgy questions or your canon law questions, but Fr Damien would prefer other questions.
Speaker 2:Well, no, it's fine, you can bring in Fr Eric to do these things. I mean, I have preferences too. I mean, you know, similar to you probably.
Speaker 1:I like the liturgy questions actually, but I prefer the ones that you like as well, so we take all kinds of questions. If you have a question, by the way, mhaysdioceseofclevelandorg, to send them our way and we will answer them on this here. Podcast.
Speaker 2:Let me say this because this is a cool thing that when the if you watch the priest or the deacon or the acolyte when they are purifying their vessels, they are to say a prayer silently. I could do it by heart, but I have it in front of me so I might as well read it what has passed our lips as food, oh Lord, may we possess in purity of heart that what has been given to us in time may be our healing for eternity. So on many credence tables or on the wall by the credence table, that prayer will be there. I know it's at our seminary, so you're supposed to be praying that prayer as you're doing the purification, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 3:That's very cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a hard time memorizing that one. I've printed it out and put it on the credence table. I hard time memorizing that one.
Speaker 2:I've printed it out and put it on the credence table. I have it, but I was adding a word to it and I have to remove the word I was saying. What is pastor lips? Is food of the Lord? Maybe he's possessed in purity of heart what has been given to us in time of beer healing for all eternity? It doesn't say all eternity, it just says eternity. But for some reason I added all.
Speaker 1:So I have to remove the all. Yeah, it's a school of redundancy school right All eternity. You can have all eternity.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I did that I must have heard someone say I don't know.
Speaker 1:Anyway.
Speaker 2:I'm doing my best, so leave me alone.
Speaker 1:That's right. English major in me went all nuts on you there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the philosopher in me did too, whatever.
Speaker 1:The other question I think that would come from this is what if there's too much? You know, like we don't want Eucharistic ministers falling down the aisle because while it is the blood of Christ, it still retains the effects of alcohol, shall we say, and I've seen this happen. I mean, there's a lot of wine left that they poured in before it was consecrated and now have to consume all this. So what happens? I mean, do we just keep asking people to come forward for a second cup?
Speaker 2:That's what I do. I don't think you're ever supposed to pour precious blood down the sacrarium, unless someone's like spit up in it or something like that. And we should say this too, if you don't know what a sacrarium is. Every church is supposed to have a sink back in the sacristy that drains directly into the ground. So after the vessels are used at mass, they're cleansed once again at this sink, and so if there are crumbs, they're never just crumbs. They're small particles of the body of Christ that may not be visible to the human eye, but they're not going into the sewer system, they're going into the ground. It's more reverential that way.
Speaker 3:Correct. Yeah, one of the things Bishop Wust and I talked about when we talked about this question actually was the concept of are you receiving a second time at the same liturgy? Like, for instance, if I was asked to consume this cup, am I receiving it a second time? Is it like I'm getting twice as much Jesus, so I'm twice as good as you?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:And sometimes like that's a cultural mindset. But, really what we're talking about at Mass is one body, one spiritual communion. So we're still receiving of the one spiritual communion, even if we have partaken twice out of the cup because we were helping Right Exactly.
Speaker 1:You don't get more grace from more communion.
Speaker 3:And I'm not twice as good.
Speaker 1:Right, so anyway. So I think that covers our question for today. And so, Father Damon, you've been traveling around.
Speaker 2:I have. Recently I was down at Sacred Heart Parish in Wadsworth. I have good friends down there. In fact one of their parishioners was just ordained a transitional deacon. His name is John Hawkins. Deacon John Hawkins and I met John when he was in high school because his youth minister, allison Gosiaco, was his youth minister over a decade ago and she was in my youth group from Hudson, so if she's my spiritual daughter, john's kind of like spiritual grandson or something. Anyway, it was very cool. He was ordained so I went down there to have dinner with Allison's family. I stayed at the rectory that night and then concelebrated mass the next morning because John was preaching the mass his first time, you know, assisting as a deacon, and he did a really fine job. He also assisted with Tolilege for me for a while. So we go way back. Parish is pretty great. The pastor's father, joe Labock. He's been there since 1997. Been there since 1997.
Speaker 3:And he says I've been here since before Mother Teresa and Princess Diana died, which for his parochial vicar is like oh my gosh, you're so old.
Speaker 2:And his current parochial vicar was one of my teens in Hudson, Father Patrick Schultz, who's just finishing his assignment there. He's finishing up four years, but they got great music ministry down there. Tons of young people. They actually I think they have the record for the diocese for bringing people into the church. This year they had 35 with 16 baptisms, so pretty impressive. The place is on fire. And it was funny at the end of mass, just after communion, one baby cried and then it like rippled throughout and I'm like the babies are getting restless and they all just played off each other as like a cacophony of baby cries. But it was also good, because when the babies are crying you know your parish ain't dying so I was going to say if you're not crying, you're dying.
Speaker 2:That's great you ever been there?
Speaker 1:Sacred. Heart deacon formation program Nice, and so he's from that parish, as is Mike Neese, who's also in the deacon formation program.
Speaker 2:And they have two deacons down there too, and one of them is a dentist, Deacon Rich.
Speaker 1:And that's Sacred Heart in Wadsworth Ohio, so check that out. Way out in the heart of Medina County, correct? Yes?
Speaker 2:I think I don't know if it's in the heart of it. It's in the northern section of Medina, but they're also very close to Summit. Yes, so some people think they're in Summit, some people think they're in Wayne or Ashland, but yeah, they're in Medina County there, and they have a nice grade school too. Yeah, that's right, rocking grade school.
Speaker 1:Yep, and so we we're looking at the readings for the fifth Sunday of Easter Love, the gospel for this week Talking about the vine and says it talks about prune. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you, which I liked, that when I was listening to the synod and the one in Rome and they talked about you know, when we listen to each other, we're going to get pruned. We're going to get rid of some of our own biases and some of our own prejudices that we have, and that's going to be painful sometimes. You know, getting pruned is not an easy thing and I said so be ready to be pruned as you listen to people throughout your time in the synod Sounds good as you listen to people throughout your time in the Synod Sounds good.
Speaker 2:I will be a priest 21 years. In May, and it was the fifth Sunday of Easter that I celebrated my first Mass of Thanksgiving and these were the readings. And I remember that specifically because there were two reasons. I was nervous at the beginning of Mass and I welcomed people and said it's the fifth Sunday of Lent and Fr Carlton's like it's Easter. I'm like man, I already screwed up, so this isn't going to go, but it did go well. And then I preached that weekend on how the different vocations support each other. So I'm even thinking of my friend Allison Mary Taylor. They got married right out of college. They have seven kids now and Fr Patrick and I were over there with their family on Saturday night and how important it is for families to have priest friends and religious friends and deacon friends and single friends. We all need each other as the body of Christ and I like that imagery a lot. For that. I think it's super helpful.
Speaker 3:How about you, mary? I absolutely agree. You can only get richer in growth when you're exposed to more people. So when your family, you know family doesn't just have to be the blood relatives, but your priest friends and your nieces and nephews that are cousins and uncles, that are not necessarily connected by blood but they're friends of the family, that just helps for a more vibrant experience growing up, being exposed to wider ideas, being exposed to greater values, being able to see that other people think the same way that you do. One of the again I keep saying blessings of not being in regular parish life is occasionally I get time to spend that I didn't used to have. So this year, on Easter, was the first time I ever went to the family brunch when the food was still out.
Speaker 2:That was great.
Speaker 3:And I was with a niece and nephew who have a son who struggles with some of the same issues that my daughter does medically, and we were able to talk about specialists and about services that the county provides and things like that. Like, I never really thought of them in that way because I kind of lived in my own tunnel or my own bubble in my own house. But when you start broadening your horizons and when you start recognizing that you're part of a bigger picture and I translate this to parish life, to our lives as Catholics you know whether we're in this building in 1404 and East 9th Street or whether we're in a parish, we're part of a bigger picture and we, as the Diocese of Cleveland, are part of an even bigger picture. I got to go to a meeting in Detroit a couple of weeks ago of Region 6. So State of Ohio, state of Michigan, and this was a grouping of all the directors of the offices for worship and we got to talk about what are some of the concerns that we have in the diocese.
Speaker 3:What are some of the things that we see flourishing in the diocese. What are some of the things that we see flourishing in the diocese? What are some of the things that we're doing well in the diocese. I talked about my daily prayers and all these other priests that were in the room were like that's a great idea to be able to pray with people every day. So I think, when you open yourself to that, yes, there's some pruning. Is that something that maybe takes me out of my comfort zone? Maybe's it enables the growth, it facilitates the growth we all get richer when mary's around with an h see what I did there.
Speaker 1:I saw so anyway, thank you for joining us once again, mary.
Speaker 2:Thanks for inviting me. Of course, we'll have you back again for more liturgy questions. Liturgy questions. I'm gonna write some liturgy questions.
Speaker 3:That's right. Music questions. I'm better back again for more liturgy questions Whenever there's liturgy questions.
Speaker 2:I'm going to write some liturgy questions.
Speaker 1:That's right, you should do music questions.
Speaker 3:I'm better at music questions than liturgy questions.
Speaker 1:That's what we'll do. So if you have music questions, write them here M-A-S-D-I-S-O-S-C-L-E-V-E-N-D-D-O I'm out.
