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How do people who abstain from alcohol receive communion in Orthodox Church? I am thinking of the practice of communion under both kinds--intinction using a gold spoon. What about visitors to an Eastern Catholic parish who have never received in this way?

Thank you very much.

In my experience, the person in question approaches the priest beforehand and lets him know. The priest reserves a particle of the Body on the diskos and gives it to the person when he gets to the front of the line. It's easier in Melkite usage, when the Prosphora are cut into strips which are dipped into the Chalice as each communicant comes forward. Then the priest just doesn't dip.

Thank you very much.

In my parish, Father would leave a few cubes of the Lamb on the diskos for those parishioneers who were not receiving from the chalice. They would wait for all those to receive from the spoon before approaching for Holy Communion.

That is a good question. We have a non-alcohol consumer in my parish and the priest and the parishioner have an arrangement by where she is the last person to come up and the priest keeps some some of the consecrated bread separate from the wine.

Slava Isusu Khrestu

This is so nice to hear but my experience in the past with a new "older" priest was not like this!

Our former priest was able to accomodate me because of my alcoholism but, the new priest simply told me and I quote his words for I remember them so painfully, " You have to believe more. I will not allow what you want" Needless to say, I never received for over three years and shamefully left the church.

I know that as you read , you will notice that I am still bitter and the angry is still there.

Kolya

Go back, and find a better priest. I am truly amazed at this man's insensitivity. I wonder what he would tell a parishoner with celiac disease?

My parish priest, since Brazilian Latin Bishops Conference (CNBB) recommend to give communion in hands because of the H1N1, showed himself very upset. He said if the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord gives life they can't bring diseases. And there is not anymore bread and wine. So he gives the Blood for people who ask to not.

Other day he told us in the homily he was driving home, after had celebrated three liturgies in the day, and he was caught in what we call (curiously) "blitz" - a traffic stop. Since 2008, there is in Brazil a rigourous drinking and driving law, the "Lei Seca" (Dry Law), which forbids the driver of drinking even one can of beer or a glass of wine. Confident, he breathe deeply in the breathalyzer test and it indicated 0.00... grams of alcohol! As he commented and had the assentment of physicias, normally the gadget would detect at least some centigrams or something of alcohol!

In my UGCC church the priest has a a precut he leaves to one side and after the general communion, he put the Holy Communion on to a silver plate and offers the plate to the communicant who takes it off the plate and put it into their own mouth.

Depends. Start with the communion wine, which is maybe 10% alcohol. Dilute that by half by adding water to the chalice (and more, if you are Byzantine, and add the Zeon, which also causes the alcohol to evaporate faster). So, you end up with something which is maybe 5% alcohol. Since he gives the Precious Blood to the communicants, assume that the Chalice is mostly empty. And that he drinks what remains during the ablutions after each liturgy. So, over the course of 3-4 hours, he consumes the equivalent of perhaps 8 oz of a solution of 5% alcohol. Then, assume he hangs around the rectory for a while, then closes up the church, then gets in his car and has been driving for a while before being pulled over. A lot depends on the specific time, his weight, his metabolism and so forth, but it's probable that he metabolized all the alcohol by the time he took the breathalizer test. And those things aren't all that sensitive. They're calibrated to avoid false positives.

The masses in question he celebrated were Latin (he is birritual), so with no zeon. And, being a Melkite liturgy, or a Latin, all wine pratically remains in the chalice, as the communion is by intinction.

And he said the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord do not behavior like other nutriments. The Blood, for example, evaporates in our stomaches.

The Roman use seldom puts more than a couple drops into the communion wine, and the recommendation is for at least 12% alcohol wine.

That said, the amount normally consumed by the deacon is maybe a large glass of wine, since much of the Blood does, in fact, go along with the Body.

that all said, any Catholic priest not accommodating for celiac or alcoholic faithful is in fact not following Rome's directives on the matter.