No gluten free Communion hosts

[Mountain_Girl406]

Vatican rules the Body of Christ can’t be gluten free
I'm posting this for discussion, but my feelings are that Celiac disease is a real thing (though I think the notion that all people should avoid gluten is more of a fad) and that there's no reason those people suffering from Celiac couldn't be accomodated.

 

[Dave-W]

"No gluten free Communion hosts"
The Ashkenazic rabbis have said the same thing concerning Passover matzoh.

It may be legal in Sephardic circles, though.

Clearly indicated on the box: NOT kosher for Passover.

 

[CoolDude68]

Our daughter has a severe reaction to anything with Gluten in it. I was happy to see that the new church we went to had a Gluten free choice for communion. Even eating one piece of bread that's not Gluten free would make her very ill in her stomach.

 

[pdudgeon]

Vatican rules the Body of Christ can’t be gluten free
I'm posting this for discussion, but my feelings are that Celiac disease is a real thing (though I think the notion that all people should avoid gluten is more of a fad) and that there's no reason those people suffering from Celiac couldn't be accomodated.

they have been accommodated; there is provision already for a blessing to be given, and they are able to take a spiritual communion.

 

[FireDragon76]

I get my hosts from Catholic nuns that use wheat starch instead of wheat flour. It is safe for most celiacs and it is completely canonical.

 

[FireDragon76]

"No gluten free Communion hosts"
The Ashkenazic rabbis have said the same thing concerning Passover matzoh.

It may be legal in Sephardic circles, though.

View attachment 200969
Clearly indicated on the box: NOT kosher for Passover.

those gluten-free matzos are as addictive as crack. a little crumbly but most gluten free crackers are more like potato chips than bread.

 

[CoolDude68]

Isn't it more about the heart and motive behind the communion, more so than the ingredients in the actual bread? God knows the heart. God would understand if Gluten would make someone ill I'd think and wouldn't condemn them to choose an alternative.

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

they have been accommodated; there is provision already for a blessing to be given, and they are able to take a spiritual communion.

Is that considered equivalent to the actual Communion? At my parish, all are invited to cone forward and recieve such a blessing at the altar during Communion, those too young to have made first Communion, those who are not Catholic, those who feel they aren't in the right place to receive. Because the blessing and spiritual Communion is open to all, I don't see how it can be equivalent.

 

[FireDragon76]

Spiritual communion is equivalent for those who cannot otherwise receive the physical elements. The individual is still participating in the liturgy and contributing to the sacrifice (the Great Amen being the most notable example, in some traditions the sacrifice of the Mass is invalid without it, and some Vatican II types will emphasize this)

Communion's validity is not dependent on its exclusivity or lack thereof. The important thing is that Jesus Christ is given for you, after all.

 

[Fantine]

This makes me remember a Vietnamese prisoner of war who wrote a book on his ordeal. Once a month during his 9 year imprisonment relatives were allowed to visit. They tried to smuggle in a small piece of bread, so that the priest would be able to say Mass, breaking up tiny crumbs of bread for each prisoner attending.

"That is what kept me alive for 9 years," he told me.

All I could think of while talking to him was that this was the real "panis angelicus," the bread of angels. It could have been made with rice flour. It could have been stale and moldy, carried in sweaty hands at great personal risk to the carriers. It kept them alive because Jesus was present---Jesus wasn't thinking, "Sweaty...moldy...wrong kind of flour...uh-uh..."

I often think that he was present to those prisoners in an extra special way--and that he fortified them miraculously. (They lived on a diet of raw turnips and occasionally a small piece of fish if they could smuggle it in.)

 

[Michie]

Body, blood, soul and divinity are in both forms.

 

[Tallguy88]

Vatican rules the Body of Christ can’t be gluten free
I'm posting this for discussion, but my feelings are that Celiac disease is a real thing (though I think the notion that all people should avoid gluten is more of a fad) and that there's no reason those people suffering from Celiac couldn't be accomodated.

They can still receive communion by receiving the blood from the chalice. It's still a full communion.

 

[Fantine]

The Vietnamese POW's didn't have access to wine, either. They would be out in the fields all day trying to smuggle an extra turnip into their lodging so they wouldn't starve.

My point is that there are situations in which they can't be adhered to--whether it is people with severe allergies, people who are in desperate circumstances, either economically or due to imprisonment, etc.

This man had more reverence for the Eucharist than anyone I'd ever met--lay or religious...and now you want to tell him that the One who kept him alive in the POW camp wasn't really there?

 

[Dave-W]

All I could think of while talking to him was that this was the real "panis angelicus," the bread of angels.

Indeed. God bless him.

 

[Tallguy88]

The Vietnamese POW's didn't have access to wine, either. They would be out in the fields all day trying to smuggle an extra turnip into their lodging so they wouldn't starve.

My point is that there are situations in which they can't be adhered to--whether it is people with severe allergies, people who are in desperate circumstances, either economically or due to imprisonment, etc.

This man had more reverence for the Eucharist than anyone I'd ever met--lay or religious...and now you want to tell him that the One who kept him alive in the POW camp wasn't really there?

I wasn't talking about your friend's case. I was responding to the OP.

 

[Davidnic]

Gluten and Communion: What's a celiac to do?

A little more info on options