Communion Practice

[Brother Adam]

Has the church made any statements on the use of unconsecrated hosts and wine for practicing for first communion with children? Thanks.

[CatherineM]

I'm not sure, but that's how we always did it. I became a sacrastin when I was 12, and our pastor took all us girls into the sacristy, and had us taste both so that we wouldn't feel like the unconsecrated ones were off limits. I guess he didn't want a curiosity to become an issue later. That was many years ago, so it's certainly possible something has come out about it since.

[MissyP89]

I wish they'd let me try some unconsecrated wine. Typically, I hate wine to the point that I grimace...so if I had an idea of what it tasted like, I'd not be embarrassed to go up for the Precious Blood.

[Arpy]

No such statements come to mind, but our parish's last two priests have been great, orthodox men, and they have been fine with it. My youngest sister practiced for and received her First Communion last year, and she still brags about having been allowed to drink wine. I think it's cooler to drink blood, but I digress.

[HisChildForever]

That's how we practiced.

[Resurrexi]

I don't see what the problem would be... it's not different than ordinary bread and wine.

[puellapaschalis]

When I was being prepared for Holy Communion, the kids in my parish didn't get to "practise", but the kids at Blessed Sacrament did. We found this most unfair.

I used to be catechist at a parish where the FHC kids went through a run through of the entire Mass. It bordered on letting them think that this was indeed real...not so good. But then the FHC catechists did have an alarming tendency to talk to these seven year olds as though they were dumb and stupid.

[Nihil Obstat]

I don`t see why there would be a problem. There's nothing special about them beforehand.
After all, the churches order unconsecrated wafers in bulk.

[Brother Adam]

There are both good reasons to use unconsecrated bread and wine, and good reasons not to. The only thing that comes close to talking about it is the following:

[quote]"The practice is reprobated whereby either unconsecrated hosts or other edible or inedible things are distributed during the celebration of Holy Mass [b]or beforehand after the manner of Communion[/b], contrary to the prescriptions of the liturgical books. For such a practice in no way accords with the tradition of the Roman Rite, and carries with it the danger of causing confusion among Christ's faithful concerning the Eucharistic doctrine of the Church. Where there exists in certain places by concession a particular custom of blessing bread after Mass for distribution, proper catechesis should very carefully be given concerning this action. In fact, no other similar practices should be introduced, nor should unconsecrated hosts ever be used for this purpose." - Redemptionis Sacramentum 96[/quote]

I think it is probably fine to do, but for the reasons that its not a good idea to use it leave me with the preference not to give them unconsecrated bread or wine. While they are only bread and wine, they have already been set aside for the most holy of reasons.

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Brother Adam' post='1764721' date='Jan 28 2009, 02:17 PM']While they are only bread and wine, they have already been set aside for the most holy of reasons.[/quote]

This is true. But I suppose if the bread and wine are ordered knowing that some will go to practice (or ordering a lesser quantity solely for practice), it sort of eliminates that con, right? I know we had wine for my Communion practice, but for some reason I think we did not use the bread but pieces of regular bread. (It was so long ago though, I might be wrong.)

[MithLuin]

The idea is that the kids have to know that it's 'not real.' You are teaching them what to do, the action, what the mass is all about....but you cannot leave room for confusion that this is 'the real thing'. So, not only would you want to explain that ahead of time, you would want to ask some questions so that they would understand. If they can't answer "why isn't this real?" with "because a priest isn't here", then maybe they aren't ready for first communion after all .

[Brother Adam]

Catechesis is important, but it still remains that in the church today there is a real general sense of confusion where over 30% of professed Catholics reject the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This means that some practices that may otherwise be acceptable have to share in special scrutiny to ensure that the Church is moving in a direction that will foster more reverence for the Eucharist. The question is not so much about whether they are ready or not for communion, but what is good for the Church as a whole, and what Christ would want as well. Practicing using unconsecrated bread because it is what "we want" because we want to know the taste is the wrong reason to use it, and in fact only serves to lead to further confusion about our role in the Church and in receiving Jesus in the Eucharist (an honor, not a "right" in the modern sense).

[Slappo]

It's tough because to use something other then a (unconsecrated)host could either make the (consecrated)host seem replaceable(we used something else before), or holy(it's so important we had to practice).

I never had practice...

[TeresaBenedicta]

For RCIA, we 'practiced', but only in receiving the unconsecrated host. Mostly because our pastor wanted to teach us all how to receive on the tongue properly and, I suppose, to give us a chance to taste the unconsecrated host before hand. I'm fairly certain everyone there (I was the youngest, at 18) understood that the host was not consecrated and that it was not Jesus. In fact, I'm fairly certain my pastor made it incredibly obvious.

I think it might be somewhat shaky to practice like that if you're uncertain that everyone who's practicing truly understands the Eucharist. If there's any chance of confusion, I wouldn't do it.

There are other items that can be used. Any time I eat 100 calorie chips a'hoy wafers things, I always think that they'd be perfect for a little kid to practice with. Granted, that would deal only with the logistics of receiving, not necessarily the taste aspect.

We never practiced with wine.

[Orans]

I made my first communion at age 6 -I was the youngest in my class because my birthday is at the very end of the year. I still remember the growing excitement as we had our first confession, and practiced the first communion ceremony in the chapel of our school. The last time we had the rehearsal it included receiving unconsecrated communion wafers, and this was certainly the pick before the Big Day.
I think it's good to have children "taste" the bread and the wine before First Communion, but don't know of any rules against it.