Noticias de la Diócesis de Allentown

Five Faith Friday

Here is this week's installment of "Five Faith Friday" which contains five, faith-based things I found interesting and am sharing on Friday.

What I'm Reflecting On --
The commonly expressed term of "Eucharistic Ministers" by both clergy and lay people within the Church. What's interesting is that it's a misnomer. That’s not actually a term that the Church uses in its official documents. The proper term is “Minister of Holy Communion,” and that’s a person who distributes Communion at mass. There are two types of Ministers of Holy Communion. The first type are “Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion" which are priests and deacons. Then there are what are known as “Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion" who are lay people who distribute Holy Communion at Mass. The reason they’re called “Extraordinary” is because they’re meant to be used, on a somewhat extraordinary basis; that is, they shouldn’t be used in preference to the Ordinary Ministers, like priests and deacons.

The use of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion is a relatively new thing. On January 29, 1973, the instruction Immensae caritatis was issued by Pope Paul VI. With this instruction, the diocesan bishop was given permission to designate lay men and women to distribute the Eucharist as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. It stated that “ this faculty may be used whenever there is no priest, deacon or instituted acolyte present, or when the ordinary minister is prevented from administering Communion because of other pastoral obligations, ill health, or advanced age, or when the number of the faithful is so great that, unless Extraordinary Ministers assist in the distribution, the celebration would be unduly prolonged.” In short, it should be an exception and not the norm.

What Quotes I'm Reflecting On --
"When you use rape, incest, disability, poverty, or foster care as the reason abortion is necessary, you are telling millions of people who were conceived in, or have overcome these circumstances, that their life is not valuable. Our worth as humans isn't conditional, it is inherent." -Lila Rose

"You cannot support abortion and be in communion with the Catholic Church or call yourself a Christian. This is because abortion violates a fundamental moral law, God's prohibition against murder. A child is made in God's image and deserves her mother's love, not death" -Lila Rose

Which App I Downloaded --
Neumz (iOS download | Android download), whose name refers to the medieval musical notation neume, exclusively used for Gregorian chant nowaday. Neumz offers the complete Gregorian repertoire, covering the three-year liturgy of the Novus Ordo, recorded by the nuns of the Benedictine Abbey of Notre-Dame de Jouques in French Provence. The 7,000+ hours of chant are uploaded on the app’s database on an ongoing basis and enriched with square note scores, the original Latin text and its translation in the user’s language. Neumz is the first and only complete recording and the first complete digital resource for liturgical materials. The contents of the Psalter, Lectionary, Collectary, Antiphonary, Responsoriary, and Gradual are assembled into a 21st-century multimedia “Liber Digitalis” chant book.

What News I'm Following --
"U.S. Catholic bishops may press Biden to stop taking Communion" which comes on the heels of Press Secretary Jen Psak stating that the Biden administration "respectfully disagrees" with the Catholic Church over using aborted babies for research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced on April 16 that it was reversing restrictions on research using fetal tissue and organs of aborted babies.

What To Keep An Eye On --
The continued attacks on the Church. The latest that hit the media was this week in Los Angeles where a masked man took a sledgehammer to an image of Our Lady. Attackers also shot a bishop-elect in his home in South Sudan.

-- BONUS --
What To Do If the Blessed Sacrament Falls On The Ground --
According to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, “If a host or any particle should fall, it is to be picked up reverently; and if any of the Precious Blood is spilled, the area where the spill occurred should be washed with water, and this water should then be poured into the sacrarium in the sacristy” (GIRM, 280). You definitely should not leave any part of Jesus on the ground but instead pick him up immediately with reverence. Here's a longer article with further explanation.

Have a wonderful weekend and may God bless you and your family!



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