非常務聖體員組

非常務送聖體員是一項教友職務(見《天主教法典》230條3項)。「非常務送聖體員」是在神職人員不足的情況下,因應各團體的需要,在經過適當培育後,被委任幫助神職人員,作送聖體的服務。這裡所指送聖體的服務,不但在感恩祭中,更要到家裡、安老院或醫院,為未能到聖堂參加彌撒的長者及病人服務。

 今日教會的牧靈上,非常務送聖體員非常重要,他們是「聖職人員的協助者和合作者,去為團體服務」(《非常務送聖體員答與問》5頁)。非常務送聖體員是一個服務團隊,而非善會(《非常務送聖體員答與問》9頁)。 

非常務送聖體員的服務,是「以基督肢體的身分,作基督肢體的服務員,體現出基督的關心,及肢體的憂戚相關,使基督肢體得到滋養,在主內團結合一」(《非常務送聖體員答與問》5頁)。病弱者雖然不能到聖堂參與感恩祭,但教會並沒有忘記他們,並且將基督的愛,帶到他們中間。猶如昔日宗徒「挨戶擘餅……讚頌天主」(宗2:46-47)。

非常務送聖體員不單將聖體(聖血),送給那些未能參與感恩祭的兄弟姊妹,也同時將天主聖言,即主日讀經和主祭的講道,深入淺出地和他們分享,並與他們一起祈禱;也要將堂區、教會的訊息告訴他們,同時也將他們的需要,例如:需要辦修和聖事,傅油或進入了醫院等等,通知堂區。可以說非常務送聖體員是堂區(團體)和領聖體者的橋樑。 

因此,非常務送聖體員的不斷在職培訓,和豐富的靈修生活,是非常重要的,特別是對聖體的熱愛,時常參與感恩聖祭,領聖體聖血,勤讀聖經。使在生活上,更肖似基督,在送聖體時,感動領受者,以共同建立愛的團體(參考《非常務送聖體員答與問》51頁)。
 

Lay Communion Ministers

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.
Archdiocese of Brisbane (1982, revised 1993, 2012).

1. To use special ministers of communion, there must be a genuine need because sufficient ordinary ministers are not available.

(a) Within a Mass

A genuine need exists at Mass when the time taken for the distribution of communion begins to unbalance the parts of the liturgy. The time of thanksgiving, for example, should not be compromised. (General Instruction, 121)

A variety of circumstances could give rise to this genuine need for special ministers. These could include:

  • a large congregation who wish to receive communion,
  • the absence or illness of an ordinary minister,
  • communion given in the form both of bread and of wine.

These circumstances might be temporary or of a more permanent nature.
An ordinary minister, however, should not be regarded as being available for the distribution of communion when he is not available to be present at the whole celebration of the eucharist.

(b) Outside a Mass

A genuine need exists outside of Mass, when the ordinary ministers are unable to give the sick and the aged “every opportunity to receive the eucharist frequently, and even daily during the Easter season”.
(Pastoral Care of the Sick: Rites of Anointing and Viaticum, 72)

Communion ministers make it possible to bring communion to the sick more frequently, and thus free the priest for his other responsibilities to the sick:
visiting them, celebrating reconciliation with them, giving them the anointing of the sick.

A genuine need may also exist when a priest is not available to preside over the worshipping community. In these circumstances, and with pastoral collaboration between priest and people, a special minister might preside over a service which may include a communion rite.

2. The bishop, as chief pastor of the diocese, is responsible for choosing and designating people as ministers of communion.

The priest, in conjunction with members of the parish community, should develop a list of persons suitable to be communion ministers, It should include women and men, lay and religious.

The list of names should be submitted to the Archbishop in writing.

The Archbishop’s approval for a person to act as a minister of communion applies only in the parish or community from which the request was made.

Their designation is valid for a limited time only, the length of which is to be determined by the priest.

There is no restriction on the number of people who may be nominated for a particular parish. Sufficient ministers to meet the needs of the parish should be nominated. They should be people whose lives conform to the meaning of their service, so that their appointment will cause no scandal.

3. Prior to their designation to this ministry, the ministers should be adequately prepared. This preparation should be spiritual and liturgical as well as practical. On completion of this preparation there is to be a public rite of designation celebrated in the community where the ministers of communion will function.

Normally the rite of designation in a parish would take place at a Sunday Mass.

A rite is given in One Bread. One Cup. published by Liturgy Brisbane.

4. In unforeseen circumstances, where there is genuine need, a priest may designate ‘ad hoc’ ministers for a particular occasion.

(a) Within a Mass

The priest should approach suitable persons before Mass begins, ensure that they understand what they are doing, and how to do it, and he should use the short rite of commissioning ministers for a single occasion. This short rite is given in One Bread. One Cup. It is not used for regular communion ministers.

(b) Outside a Mass

Illness in a family where a rich eucharistic faith is known to exist, for example, could be the occasion for the ‘ad hoc’ designation of a family member to bring the eucharist home to the sick person (cf. 1(b) above).

5. Care should be taken to enable the ministers to function with dignity.

These suggestions may help parishes (pastors, liturgy planning teams, communion ministers, etc) to make the required practical arrangements for communion ministers.

(a) Within a Mass

  • Ministers should be suitably dressed.
  • They should normally not perform other ministries at that Mass (reader, cantor, usher, collector, etc.).
  • They sit in the assembly; some parishes like to include the ministers in their entrance processions.
  • The ministers come to the altar after the sign of peace.
  • After the Lamb of God, the priest gives communion to the ministers – first the bread and then the cup. The priest and the communion ministers then take the eucharist to the people according to the local custom. (Alternatively, ministers may receive communion after they have ministered to the assembly – a stronger sign of their service.)

(b) Outside a Mass

Though communion ministers may bring communion to the sick at any time the sign value is enhanced when the eucharist is carried directly from Mass to the sick person. The communion is thus clearly related to the community table.

  1. Thus, at communion time, the presider may prepare the pyxes at the altar, and then, after the Communion Prayer, ‘send out’ the ministers as community representatives. A rite for this ‘sending out’ is given in One Bread. One Cup.
  2. Alternatively, the ministers may remain till the end of Mass, talk with other members of the community, and then take the prepared pyxes from the tabernacle to the sick.
  3. However, apart from a Mass, the minister may go to the tabernacle, place the required number of hosts into the pyx and leave the church.

The way the pyx is carried and where it is placed should respect the dignity of the sacrament. On their way to the sick person, ministers should avoid long or unnecessary distractions. Other members of the community may go with the minister.

On arrival at the home, the minister greets the family and the sick person in a friendly manner and places the pyx on a table or at the bedside. The prayer begins, using the rite in One Bread. One Cup. What remains of the consecrated bread afterwards may be consumed or returned to the tabernacle.