The Time of Dispensing the Holy Eucharist

I. Ordinary Communion; under this name also comes Communion of devotion to be received by a sick person.

1. Ordinary Communion can be distributed on all days (canon 867, § 1), except Friday of Holy Week, on which it is permitted only to carry Sacred Viaticum to the sick (canon 867, § 2). Viaticum is understood as it was explained above (n. 164); therefore Communion cannot be ministered on Friday of Holy Week to a sick person to whom Viaticum so understood has already previously been conferred. Nevertheless, Easter Communion could be given to one who can receive it conveniently enough only on Friday of Holy Week, for the law of communicating at Easter prevails over the liturgical law of not distributing Holy Communion on the aforesaid Friday.

2. Ordinary Communion can be distributed only at those hours at which the sacrifice of Mass can be offered, and likewise at other hours if a reasonable cause suggests it (canon 867, § 4). A reasonable cause for ministering Communion earlier or later than is permitted in itself is present, for example, if a sick person cannot observe the fast until one hour before dawn, or if someone, prevented from receiving Communion earlier, has remained fasting beyond one hour after noon. For the rest, note:

a) The faculty of distributing Communion at the hours at which Mass can be celebrated is to be taken in a broad sense, so that at whatever time, whether by common law or by privilege, it is permitted to celebrate, Communion also can be distributed. Hence it can be distributed in the oratory of a religious or pious house, where according to canon 821, § 3 Mass can already be begun at midnight; this is clear from the cited canon itself. Likewise it can be distributed in a conventual or parochial Mass (canons 821, § 1; 867, § 4; 863).

b) An indult of anticipating Mass can, with sufficient probability, also be extended to the distribution of Communion, even if in fact Mass is not anticipated.

c) On Holy Thursday the Holy Eucharist seems able to be distributed only before and during the solemn Mass; both because after the solemn Mass another Mass can no longer be celebrated, and because according to the rubric of the Missal only some species are to be reserved for the sick.

d) On Holy Saturday Holy Communion cannot be ministered to the faithful except during the solemnities of Masses or continuously and immediately after they have been completed (canon 867, § 3). Hence it is prohibited in churches where Mass is not celebrated. Moreover, considering the obvious sense of the canon, it seems to be required that the distribution of Communion be made jointly with Mass, so that it forms one thing with it. Yet this does not prevent there from being a reason excusing from the law, as if men, after having completed spiritual exercises, could not wait for the solemnities of Masses. Indeed, considering also the custom persisting in Rome, it can seem to someone that canon 867, § 3 speaks only of the place where the solemnities of Masses take place, but not, for example, of a separate chapel.¹

e) A celebrating priest is not permitted to distribute the Eucharist within Mass to faithful so distant that he himself loses the altar from view (canon 868). Therefore the interpretation of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 7 February 1874 (n. 3322), according to which it would suffice that the voice of the celebrant be heard, even if the altar were lost from view, seems to fall away. But the decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (n. 2672), 7 December 1844 (n. 2885), 24 March 1860 (n. 3099, ad I), and 11 May 1878 (n. 3448, ad VIII), which agree with the Code, remain. Nevertheless others judge that the canon is not to be urged in this way.

3. It is not necessary that Communion be united with Mass, but it can also be distributed outside it. But if it is united with Mass, it must be done within Mass immediately after the Communion of the celebrant; and if Mass is celebrated privately, for a reasonable cause it can also be done immediately before and immediately after Mass (canon 846). These things also hold in a Mass for the dead.²

¹ Cf. Response of the President of the Commission for the Code, 10 July 1909 (Il Monitore Ecclesiastico 1922, p. 371; 1924, p. 21).

² Cf. Roman Ritual, title IV, chapter 2, n. 11. Cf. S.R.C., 19 December 1829, n. 2672, ad 1; 23 July 1868, n. 3177; 24 March 1860, n. 3099.

II. Viaticum can be ministered on any day, even Friday of Holy Week (canon 867, §§ 1 and 2), and at any hour of the day or night (canon 867, § 5).

“In the administration of Holy Communion, the versicles and the prayer Deus qui nobis are of precept; but the blessing is always to be given, with the single exception of the case when it is given immediately before or after a Mass of the Dead, under the formula The blessing of God, etc.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 30 August 1892, Esztergom, response to 10.

“The prayers are to be said during the ablution and wiping of the fingers.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 14 January 1898.—In the administration of the Most Holy Eucharist during Easter time, before or after a Requiem Mass, the prayer and versicles of the season must be said, with the Alleluia omitted. Sacred Congregation of Rites, 26 November 1878, Siena.

“Whether the stole for administering the Most Holy Eucharist outside Mass must always be of the color agreeing with the Office of that day, as the Roman Ritual prescribes, or whether it may also be white, as being most fitting for the Sacred Eucharist, as many Doctors judge?—Response. Affirmative.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 March 1836, Trent, response to 12.

“A priest returning to the altar after the Communion of the faithful must genuflect before he covers the sacred ciborium, and must genuflect again before, after the ciborium has been replaced in the tabernacle, he closes the little door of the tabernacle itself.” Sacred Congregation of Rites, 23 December 1862, Rome.

221. b) Due time. α) As regards days, according to the present discipline of the Church, Communion as Viaticum can be distributed on all days, but other Communion can be given on those days on which it is lawful to consecrate the Eucharist. Hence it is lawful to distribute Communion on Holy Thursday, even in churches and oratories in which solemn Mass is not sung. It is expedient, however, that all receive Communion only before or within the solemn or conventual Mass. Likewise, it is lawful to distribute Communion on Holy Saturday, but only during the solemnities of the Masses or immediately after they have been completed;²¹⁶ and therefore not in churches or oratories where the solemnities of the Masses are not celebrated. It is not lawful to distribute Communion on Good Friday, because the Eucharist is not then consecrated. Nevertheless, in certain places a custom is already gaining force of giving Communion even on Good Friday, since this day is now in those regions a feast of precept.²¹⁷ But when such a custom does not exist, or if special permission has not been granted, Communion is not to be distributed at all on Good Friday except by way of Viaticum, which can licitly be given on all days and at all hours of the entire year.²¹⁸

β) As regards hours. When a just cause exists, the faithful who are fasting can receive Communion not only in the morning hours, but also in the afternoon, provided, however, that scandal or wonder among the people does not arise from it.²¹⁹ Therefore, the prohibition against celebrating Mass after midday does not extend so strictly to the distribution of Communion. At night it is lawful to administer Viaticum; but to distribute Communion for the sake of devotion is not lawful by common law except on the night of the Nativity of the Lord for all religious institutes, pious places, and seminaries of clerics where the Most Holy Sacrament is reserved, provided this is done with the doors closed. In churches or public oratories which serve for the public use of the faithful, it is not lawful on the night of the Nativity to distribute Communion to the faithful unless there is a reasonable cause for doing it, at least in the judgment of the Ordinary.²²⁰ Irreverence toward the Most Holy Sacrament, which can easily arise because of worldly festivities customarily celebrated on that night, must be avoided.

For the sick staying in houses where the Most Holy Sacrament is reserved, it is lawful to carry Communion even shortly after midnight if they cannot remain fasting. Before the decree of Pius X (December 7, 1906), a bishop, and indeed even a pastor, could give permission that Communion be carried at night to those sick persons who could not observe the fast any longer; but now the fast no longer binds them so strictly, as was explained above, and therefore Communion is not to be carried through the streets at night (except by way of Viaticum).

It is indeed fitting that the faithful receive Communion within Mass after the Communion of the priest, because thus there is a greater union with the sacrifice of the Mass. Today, however, the faithful can receive Communion both before and after Mass (even a Requiem Mass), and indeed at all daytime hours, as was said above. But a priest vested in the sacred vestments of the sacrifice is not to distribute Communion before or after a solemn, sung, or even conventual Mass;²²¹ therefore, the priest must distribute Communion either before he puts on the chasuble or after he has taken it off.

²¹⁶ Ibid., c. 867, § 3.

²¹⁷ In ancient times there was a fairly universal custom of receiving Communion even on Good Friday (cf. Martène, De antiq. Eccles. rit., l. 4, c. 23, n. 25). In our days such a custom, approved by the Holy See, exists in the parish of Delbrück in the Diocese of Paderborn, where on that day a particle of the true Cross is exposed for public veneration and people come from the entire region to receive the Eucharist.

²¹⁸ Code of Canon Law, c. 867, § 5.

²¹⁹ Code of Canon Law, c. 867, § 4, establishes: "Holy Communion is to be distributed only at those hours at which the sacrifice of the Mass can be offered, unless a reasonable cause counsels otherwise."

²²⁰ "Whether (by force of canon 867), without an Apostolic Indult, Holy Communion can be distributed to those requesting it at a Mass celebrated on the night of the Nativity of the Lord in parish and conventual churches, whenever, at least in the judgment of the Ordinary, a reasonable cause for doing it is present? Reply: Affirmative." Thus Cardinal Gasparri, President of the Pontifical Commission (cf. Monitore Ecclesiastico, 1922, p. 371).

²²¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, January 19, 1906 (Decr. auth., n. 4177, ad 3).

Question 6. At what hour can communion be dispensed?

Resp. §4. Holy communion is to be distributed only at those hours at which the Sacrifice of the Mass can be offered, unless another reasonable cause advises otherwise.

§5. Nevertheless, Holy Viaticum can be administered at any hour of the day or night (Can. 867).

On a day of great concourse for a plenary Indulgence or Jubilee, communion can be administered from the time to the time when Masses are celebrated in that church, either according to the form of the Rubric or according to the form of the Indult granted to the same church. - S. C. R. 11 Jun. 1904; 7 Sept. 1860.

Indeed, we think that very rare cases can occur in which it would be lawful to distribute communion toward sunset. By force of canon 867 §4, and without an Apostolic indult, Communion can be distributed in the Mass which is celebrated on the night of the Nativity of the Lord in parochial and conventual churches, whenever, at least in the judgment of the Ordinary, a reasonable cause for doing this is present.