Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 9 November 2025

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

As you will read on page 9 of this bulletin, those who wish to receive Eucharist under both forms will have the opportunity starting on the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, at the Saturday 5pm Vigil Mass, and the 9am and 11am Masses on Sunday.

Four ministers of the cup will stand in front of the altar at the step facing the assembly. Those who wish to receive the Precious Blood of Christ are asked, from wherever they are seated in the church, to come up the diagonal aisles (where Hosts are offered) so as not to have two-way traffic in the center aisle. Ushers can help with direction.

To make it easier still, if you plan to receive under both forms, please sit in the front pew sections of the church.

It has been a while since we have done this, COVID shut down a lot of things and many were slow to return. We have recently added some new Eucharistic Ministers and I think we can start again. If, for some reason, we do not have enough ministers or we don’t consecrate enough wine for a certain Mass, please be patient. We will figure it out.

For a while we have been thinking this would be a solution for people who are not gluten tolerant, to receive the Precious Blood. As we have thought this through, however, we realize that a gluten intolerant person can’t receive from a cup that has been used by people who have just consumed a Host with gluten.

A word about the hosts we use - they are not gluten free, but are called low gluten. I don’t know how they do it, but they make a host that has a gluten content below 20 parts per million. Very low. Unless you actually have a celiac condition, I am told these should not pose a problem.

The best solution we have come up with is that once the presider of the Mass has distributed Communion to the front two sections of pews nearest the ambo (known in other churches as the pulpit), he will purify his fingers and then distribute low gluten hosts from a separate ciborium and cup at that Communion station. At this time anyone who needs a low gluten host or to receive from the cup can come forward. People will also have the option of receiving from the cup only. One of the other ministers of the cup will come over and assist the priest when available.

You can find more details on page 9.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all his benefits, for all that he has accomplished through creation, redemption and sanctification” (CCC 1360). Catholics actively participate in the Eucharist as the source and summit of their Christian life. This active participation manifests itself by :

• gathering with a community of believers each Sunday and holy day,
• praying together at Mass in word, gesture and song,
• listening together to God’s Word,
• giving thanks and praise to God together for the gifts of creation, and in a special way, for the gift of Jesus – his life, death and resurrection, and
• sharing in and becoming the Body of Christ through reception of Holy Eucharist at Mass.

Catholics believe that through active participation in the Mass and, in a special way, through the reception of Holy Communion at Mass, they become the real presence of Christ, and are therefore sent to be Christ’s presence in the world until he comes again in glory. St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, put it this way in the 5th century: What you see…is bread and a cup. This is what your eyes report to you. But your faith has need to be taught that the bread is the body of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ…If then, you wish to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle as he says to the faithful, ‘You are the body of Christ and his members’…You reply ‘Amen’ to that which you are, and by replying you consent… Be a member of the body of Christ so that your ‘Amen’ may be true… Be what you see, and receive what you are.”

Special thanks to all our ministers of Holy Communion for their unique service to the Body of Christ, helping us to become begotten sons and daughters by adoption.

The Lord be with you,