Page:Low Mass Ceremonial (Burnett).djvu/63

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object the avoidance of abuses to which the administration of the chalice is easily subject. It should be possible to eliminate such abuses without a withdrawal of the chalice. Definite instruction beforehand, and due care on the part of the priest at the time of communion, will do much to ensure reverent action on the part of communicants.

If either species be given alone, "the Blood is taken with the Body under the species of bread, and the Body is taken under the species of wine," and so Christ entire is given and received. Nothing is gained by the use of an intincted host. The sacrament may be given in part, (as is most convenient in the communion of the sick), but there can be no giving of Christ in part, nor partial communion with Christ, for he is indivisible. Each species signifies the particular grace given thereby, viz., the bread, strength; the wine, joy. The imparting of these graces appears to depend at least to some extent, on the manner in which the species are given and received. In the Eucharist, by Christ's command, His Body is to be eaten, and His Blood is to be drunk. May we not, must we not, believe that the particular grace signified by the species of wine may be expected when that species is given and received as a drink, in strict agreement with Christ's doctrine ("My Blood is drink indeed"); and that it may not be so confidently expected when (as in the case of an intincted host) that species is given and received after the manner of food? When the communion is given in one species only, there may indeed be some loss of the special grace signified by the species which is lacking, but no loss of any grace that is needful for salvation. In the species of the consecrated bread, the Body of Christ is not given without His Precious Blood; and in the species of the consecrated wine, Christ's Precious Blood is not given without His Body. To believe otherwise is to accept as true the false doctrine that in the Eucharist we feed upon the dead Christ; for only as dead was the Body of Christ separated from His Blood.

The allowance of the use of an intincted host in certain localities in Europe, at intervals from the seventh to twelfth century, was always followed by a condemnation on doctrinal grounds and by a prohibition of the practice. An appeal to the precedent of a similar usage which for many centuries

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