Communion Plate - Paten - Fr. Louis Bulletin Letter 4/30/06
“And when the hour came, Jesus sat at table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’ . . . And He took bread, and when He had given thanks He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” (Luke 22:14-20). Saint Cyril of Jerusalem – a fourth century Father of the Church – exhorts us: “Do not see in the bread and wine merely natural elements, because the Lord has expressly said that they are His Body and His Blood: faith assures you of this, though your senses suggest otherwise” (Mystagogical Catecheses, IV, 6). In the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist “the Body and Blood, together with the Soul and Divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (Council of Trent, Decree on the Sacrament of the Eucharist, Canon 1). This enduring sacramental presence that “is called ‘real’ not as a way of excluding all other types of presence as if they were ‘not real,’ but because it is a presence in the fullest sense: a substantial presence whereby Christ, the God-Man, is wholly and entirely present” (Pope Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Mysterium Fidei, 39). When we participate in the Mass – or simply enter into church – we approach so great a mystery with wonder and awe, reverence and devotion!
On 25 March 2004, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum On Certain Matters to be Observed or to be Avoided Regarding the Most Holy Eucharist. The drawing up of this document was called for by Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia On the Eucharist (17 April 2003). This Instruction comprises many practical reminders concerning various aspects of the celebration of the Mass and devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Number 93 of the Instruction states that “the Communion-plate (or paten) for the Communion of the faithful should be retained, so as to avoid the danger of the sacred host or some fragment of it falling.” Already in the year 2000, the same Congregation’s General Instruction of the Roman Missal – the “how-to” manual for the proper celebration of the Mass – named the Communion-plate (or paten) of the faithful as one of the articles to be prepared for Mass (118) as had that Congregation’s 14 September 1984 Caeremoniale Episcoporum (125). Specifically, number 287 of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal mandated that when Communion from the chalice is carried out by intinction, a Communion-plate or paten is to be placed under the chin of the communicant. Thanks to a generous gift from a group of the faithful who wish to remain anonymous, we are able to reintroduce the use of the Communion patens at Saint Peter. May our use of these Communion-plates or patens be further expression of our reverence for so great a mystery!
Saint Peter, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!