Eucharistic Ministers

In Preparation for Mass

• Use the Ministry Scheduler to maintain your availability. If you become unavailable to serve at a Mass on your schedule, you are responsible for finding a substitute. Please use your ministry’s group text to ask for a substitute, then request a substitute in Ministry Scheduler.  If no one responds to the group text, please follow up with individuals to find someone to accept your role.  If you still cannot find anyone, please email Fr. Brett by Friday, so that the celebrant can be aware of the shortage.

• Please do your best to respond to requests for substitutes – all of us will need a sub at some point!  If you do accept someone’s substitute request, please then go to Ministry Scheduler to add yourself to the schedule.

Upon Arrival at Mass

• Arrive 20 minutes before the start of Mass and sign in to the binder in the sacristy. Please check-in with the Mass Coordinator, or the priest or deacon.

• After checking-in, please look around the congregation and watch for anyone who may have a difficult time approaching the altar for Communion (e.g., folks in a wheelchair, or walker, etc.) Please go to them and introduce yourself as a Minister of the Eucharist. Ask if they will come up for Communion or would prefer that Communion be brought to them in their pew. Make those arrangements.

• The presider will pray with all those serving Mass in the sacristy approximately five minutes before Mass begins. 

Communion Preparation

• At the Sign of Peace, extend “peace" to your family and neighbors in the congregation and then quickly move to the altar.

• As you approach the altar from the right, bow when you reach the altar, and then walk to the front of the ambo before approaching the altar; you may go first to the credence table to sanitize your hands. 

• As you approach the altar from the left,  bow when you reach the altar, and then walk to the side of the altar to the handrail before approaching the altar; you may go first to the credence table to sanitize your hands. 

• Stand behind the priest near the back edge of the rug, and wait for Communion. Once you have received Communion, go to your assigned Communion station and distribute the Eucharist.

Communion Distribution

• As you distribute the Body of Christ, if someone arrives with their arms crossed for a blessing, raise your hand over the person's head and say “God bless you,” or “May Jesus be in your heart.” 

• When distributing the Blood of Christ, wipe the rim and turn the chalice a quarter turn after each person.

• If the Body of Christ falls to the floor, pick it up and consume it. Under no circumstances do we dispose of it in any other way.

• If you spill the Precious Blood, place your purificator over the spill, get a new one from the drawer behind the tall door in the sacristy, and return to a position where Communicants will not step on the purificator. Inform the priest immediately after Communion, and he will handle it after Mass.

After Communion

• If you have been distributing the Body of Christ, place your ciborium on the altar. Wait while the priest or deacon places the remaining hosts in the large ciborium to be returned to the tabernacle. Take your empty ciborium to the sacristy and purify it. Leave ciborium on the small table in the sacristy.

• If you have been distributing the Precious Blood, go directly to the sacristy with your chalice, consume any remaining Precious Blood, and purify your chalice. Leave the chalice on the small table in the sacristy.