Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×

  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Eucharist And Communion Bread

moldlady

By moldlady
in Coping with Celiac Disease

Recommended Posts

Caeli Rookie
Caeli
Posted

Thanks for the greeting Jersyangel. As you read, my villi have returned to normal, but I have been living in Italy since Spetember 2007 (doing some further studies), and unfortunately, I am not able to prepare my own meals as I live in a College, so I have had many problems of late. But I am am enjoying the "Roman" experience as much as possible (when not writing essays etc) and hopefully when I get back to OZ I will be able to take better care of my diet.

Ciao.

Caeli

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


2kids4me Contributor
2kids4me
Posted

I

am a Catholic Priest who is also a coeliac. If there is more than one chalice used at Mass, the priest puts a piece of the consecrated bread into only one chalice, not every chalice. Some priests may place a piece in every chalice, but this is not required by liturgical rubrics.

I had no problem when my kids were diagnosed celiac. Our priest has a separate chalice on the altar - he does not add a piece of host to this one, he even takes care to cover the chalice before he breaks the host into the main chalice. My son serves at the altar and receives the blood of Christ (wine) up there from the separate chalice. My daughter has a sensitive stomach and does not like the wine...the priest was very understanding and asked that she come forward for a blessing during Communion...he understands that she is dealing with many issues and has been very sympathetic - he did not want her to avoid coming up for fear of getting ill and he always smiles and blesses her ...she simply comes up with her arms folded across her chest and he makes the sign of the cross on her forehead along with a "May God bless you".

Both children were confirmed last year by the bishop - he served my children with the separate chalice (my daughter agreed to acceot the chalice because it was a special occasion (she had tummy ache later though) The bishop was told ahead of time by our priest. No problem whatsoever.

CarlaB Enthusiast
CarlaB
Posted
You need to talk to your priest about this! According to Catholic tradition, a PIECE OF THE EUCHARIST MUST BE PLACED IN EACH CUP - ie lets put gluten into the cup.

Caeli has already addressed this .... but it is good to point out that some priests do put a piece of the host in every cup (most do not), so it's good to watch to see whether he does. There were a couple times when traveling that I had to abstain from receiving because the priest put a piece of host in every chalice. I think it only happened twice.

Caeli, thank you for the clarification. I hope your GI issues clear up soon. It looks like we're going to Rome over Christmas for an ordination. :)

feelingbetter Rookie
feelingbetter
Posted

Hi- I am new here and gluten free for 1 month. I am learning as much as I can. I have a rather unique situation with regards to communion. I am a recovering alcoholic so I never receive the wine and now not the host. I go to a very large cathedral with many people and several different priests. I receved communion over Easter and paid the price for 2 days afterwards. I guess I will just not go up and leave it at that. I think I will just have to trust that God will understand why I am doing what I am doing. :unsure:

moldlady Rookie
moldlady
Posted
  • Author

Thanks to everyone for your input. I decided to only have the "wine" and did not do the wheat thing. It went well and no side effects. :)

ML

CarlaB Enthusiast
CarlaB
Posted
Hi- I am new here and gluten free for 1 month. I am learning as much as I can. I have a rather unique situation with regards to communion. I am a recovering alcoholic so I never receive the wine and now not the host. I go to a very large cathedral with many people and several different priests. I receved communion over Easter and paid the price for 2 days afterwards. I guess I will just not go up and leave it at that. I think I will just have to trust that God will understand why I am doing what I am doing. :unsure:

I would suggest either the low gluten host, or to see if you can get some kind of dispensation to use grape juice .... it seems that they make some kind of exception, though I can't remember what, for priests who are alcoholic since they must receive under both species. Maybe Caeli will check in again and let us know. At any rate, I'd talk it over with your priest.

silk Contributor
silk
Posted

Hi 'feelingbetter'. I have struggled with this too. Although I am not a recovering alcoholic, I have not been able to received the host since I went gluten-free in November of 07 and it if very difficult to deal with since the Eucharist is a key part of the mass. I also attend a very large Cathedral with several priests and don't go to any one service because several times are offered and we usually hit the one that is most convenient for what is going on. This makes it impossible to receive any special considerations and there is just too much risk involved with CC to make it worth it. I have been told by many that taking the Eucharist is not necessary to receive the blessings of the sacrament.

I had such a hard time thought, not going forward with my family. I started to feel like 'what's the point in even going to Church if I can't take part in the Eucharist. It's part of why I joined the Church and because of what we believe to be true about the sacrament andwithout it I felt like I could attend any service anywhere. I almost felt ashamed like those around me would notice that I was not going and that it was because I was in a state of mortal sin. (I know, it sounds dramatic) but it felt so strange not to partake in something that was such a privilege to me ( I am a convert of 25 years.) And then there was the 'where do I sit?' factor because if you sit in the middle, people have to crawl over you to get out and back in. So I came upon the solution to all of this FINALLY!! on Easter this year. I just walked forward with my husband and daughter and bowed before the host while my daughter was receiving communion and stepped aside and walked back to our seat with her. It felt so much better and it also felt like I was more a part of the sacrament than just sitting in the pew as an observer.

Hope this helps. God Bless You

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


feelingbetter Rookie
feelingbetter
Posted

Silk and Carla thanks for the feedback. I know that I can always go up and fold my arms across my chest and the priest will give me a blessing. I was to sick to go to mass last Sunday so didn't have to cross that bridge. I know I have a huge pride problem. Feeling like everyone is wondering why I'm not going up or not receiving. As if people even notice. I think I will just go up for the blessing and be done with it. This has been a hard one for me. This disease is so life altering. I am still grieving many things.

Brenda

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):


  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      128,311
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    SWilson
    Newest Member
    SWilson
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.1k
    • Total Posts
      70.8k
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):


  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • trents
      I’m terrified it’s too late for me😭

      By trents · Posted

      Welcome to the forum, @Cathijean90! I went 13 years from the first laboratory evidence of celiac disease onset before I was diagnosed. But there were symptoms of celiac disease many years before that like a lot of gas. The first laboratory evidence was a rejected Red Cross blood donation because of elevated liver enzymes. They assume you have hepatitis if your liver enzymes are elevated. But I was checked for all varieties of hepatitis and that wasn't it. Liver enzymes continued to slowly creep up for another 13 years and my PCP tested me for a lot of stuff and it was all negative. He ran out of ideas. By that time, iron stores were dropping as was albumin and total protein. Finally, I took it upon myself to schedule an appointment with a GI doc and the first thing he did was test me for celiac disease. I was positive of course. After three months of gluten free eating the liver enzymes were back in normal range. That was back in about 1992. Your story and mine are more typical than not. I think the average time to diagnosis from the onset of symptoms and initial investigation into causes for symptom is about 10 years. Things are improving as there is more general awareness in the medical community about celiac disease than there used to be years ago. The risk of small bowel lymphoma in the celiac population is 4x that of the general population. That's the bad news is.  The good news is, it's still pretty rare as a whole. Yes, absolutely! You can expect substantial healing even after all these years if you begin to observe a strict gluten free diet. Take heart! But I have one question. What exactly did the paperwork from 15 years ago say about your having celiac disease? Was it a test result? Was it an official diagnosis? Can you share the specifics please? If you have any celiac blood antibody test results could you post them, along with the reference ranges for each test? Did you have an endoscopy/biopsy to confirm the blood test results?
    • Cathijean90
      I’m terrified it’s too late for me😭

      By Cathijean90 · Posted

      I’ve just learned that I had been diagnosed with celiac and didn’t even know. I found it on paperwork from 15 years ago. No idea how this was missed by every doctor I’ve seen after the fact. I’m sitting here in tears because I have really awful symptoms that have been pushed off for years onto other medical conditions. My teeth are now ruined from vomiting, I have horrible rashes on my hands, I’ve lost a lot of weight, I’m always in pain, I haven’t had a period in about 8-9 months. I’m so scared. I have children and I saw it can cause cancer, infertility, heart and liver problems😭 I’ve been in my room crying for the last 20minutes praying. This going untreated for so long has me feeling like I’m ruined and it’s going to take me away from my babies. I found this site googling and I don’t know really what has me posting this besides wanting to hear from others that went a long time with symptoms but still didn’t know to quit gluten. I’m quitting today, I won’t touch gluten ever again and I’m making an appointment somewhere to get checked for everything that could be damaged. Is this an automatic sentence for cancer and heart/liver damage after all these symptoms and years? Is there still a good chance that quitting gluten and being proactive from here on out that I’ll be okay? That I could still heal myself and possibly have more children? Has anyone had it left untreated for this amount of time and not had cancer, heart, fertility issues or liver problems that couldn’t be fixed? I’m sure I sound insane but my anxiety is through the roof. I don’t wanna die 😭 I don’t want something taking me from my babies. I’d gladly take anyone’s advice or hear your story of how long you had it before being diagnosed and if you’re still okay? 
    • trents
      diagnostic testing variance

      By trents · Posted

      Genetic testing cannot be used to diagnose celiac disease but it can be used to rule it out and also to establish the potential to develop celiac disease. About 40% of the general population has the genetic potential to develop celiac disease but only about 1% actually develop it. To develop celiac disease when you have the genetic potential also requires some kind of trigger to turn the latent genes "on", as it were. The trigger can be a lot of things and is the big mystery component of the celiac disease puzzle at this point in time with regard to the state of our knowledge.  Your IGA serum score would seem to indicate you are not IGA deficient and your tTG-IGA score looks to be in the normal range but in the future please include the reference ranges for negative vs. positive because different labs used different reference ranges. There is no industry standard.
    • Scott Adams
      diagnostic testing variance

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      Since nearly 40% of the population have the genes for celiac disease, but only ~1% end up getting it, a genetic test will only tell you that it is possible that you could one day get celiac disease, it would not be able to tell whether you currently have it or not.
    • KDeL
      diagnostic testing variance

      By KDeL · Posted

      so much to it.  the genetic testing will help if i don’t have it right? If theres no gene found then I definitely don’t have celiac?  I guess genetic testing, plus ruling out h.pylori, plus gluten challenge will be a good way to confirm yes or no for celiac. 
×
×
  • Create New...