What Is The Best Way to Distribute Communion?

Simple Concept, Real Results

Over two decades ago, after being a daily communicant for years, I suggested to an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion what I thought was the best way to distribute Communion into the mouth. I somehow hit a nerve in this individual and it didn’t go well. I decided then to keep quiet… until now.

There are three main things that everyone hopes happens at the distribution of Communion: 1) to reverently give the Body of Christ to communicants in a state of grace; 2) to get the Host in the mouth properly without it dropping; and 3) to provide a hygienic exchange from Eucharistic Minister to communicant.

Now anyone who receives on the tongue has likely experienced a few different kinds of delivery systems:

• There’s the Mail Slot, where the priest seems to just try to slide the Eucharist into the mouth.

• There’s The Flicker, which tries to just kind of flick the Eucharist in the mouth while quickly moving the hand back to avoid any lip, tongue, tooth contact.

• The third is the Free-for-All, where you can almost see the one distributing the Eucharist sizing up each person, sometimes head cocked to the side, in hopes of just getting it into the mouth.

• I also just heard about a highly unusual option, where the Host is held straight up and down at nose level with each communicant left to figure out what to do next.

Much of the calculus of Communion distribution, however, seems to have to do with what the recipient is doing. The mouth could be open slightly, or maybe a lot, leaving the Eucharistic Minister to react instead of directing.

But what if there was a way to lead instead of react? I would like to suggest — as I did over 20 years ago — what might be the easiest and least risky option: the Ice Cream Cone. The Eucharistic Minister holds the Host at the bottom, with what a priest has called the “underhand grip,” and then offers it at an angle so that the communicant moves her tongue out to “catch” it.

It works because if a priest holds the Eucharist at an angle like an ice cream cone, the recipient's tongue is naturally led to the right place. Like offering a child ice cream, if the cone is held straight up, the child will have to work hard to lick it properly; or if directed straight into the mouth, the ice cream gets all over the lips and little gets on the tongue. But as every parent knows, angling the cone a bit is enough of a suggestion for the child’s tongue to come out to meet it. This same principle is at work with the Eucharist. If held from the bottom at a 45 degree angle, the recipient will naturally reach out to catch it, with the moisture of the tongue easily connecting and holding it.

I recently told a young priest about the Ice Cream Cone delivery and he wrote to me shortly after trying it, saying, “You were extremely right.” He added that “if the communicant has tongue out and, even better, head slightly back, it’s foolproof. The Host will never fall — which can be a possibility for old people or smokers who don’t have a sticky tongue anymore—and fingers never touch the tongue.” [This all assumes the communicant is kneeling - it gets slightly trickier with height when people are standing and/or in motion.]

As for hygiene and the question of mouth versus hand reception, my priest friend said that with hand to hand distribution, he touches every set of hands. “Try to put something into a pair of cupped hands without touching and without dropping it from several inches. You can’t do it.” But with the mouth, “I touch maybe 1 in 50 tongues (and it’s with someone doing something unusual).”

There certainly might be better delivery philosophies, but after 30 years of daily consideration, I think I’m onto something.