• Home
• >
• News & Events
• >
• News Articles
• >
• 2024
• >
• October
• >
• 10/28 Restoring Communion from the Cup
• >

News Articles

Restoring Communion from the Cup

October 28, 2024

To: Priests in the Diocese of Honolulu

From: Bishop Larry Silva

Date: October 26, 2024

Subject:  Holy Communion as the Precious Blood (Communion from the Cup)

Since the pandemic, some parishes have restored the practice of offering the Blood of the Lord to the faithful at every Mass, while others have not done so.

While we do believe that a communicant receives the entire Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ by receiving Communion under either species, it is a fuller sign of the sacrament to offer the Precious Blood to those who choose to partake of it. It is a sign the Lord himself instituted as a memorial of his offering his Body and pouring out his Blood on the cross for our salvation.

At our recent Presbyteral Council meeting we discussed some of the challenges to restoring Holy Communion from the cup. Among them are:

• Some people are still hesitant to receive from a common cup. [However, no one is obliged to do so, and offering the cup to those who do desire this fuller sign is important.]
• Some ministers of Holy Communion (ordinary and extraordinary) are concerned about having to drink a large quantity of the Precious Blood after Communion. [To solve this, the priest or deacon pouring wine into the chalices can be attentive to pouring just the proper amount.  Attentive sacristans can be trained to provide the proper amount of wine for each parish Mass, after noting trends over several weeks. And if there is still a larger amount of the Precious Blood left after Communion of the faithful, perhaps those in the first few pews who received the Precious Blood could be offered another portion to help with the consumption.]

Some have brought up the possibility of intinction. This is not permitted in the Diocese of Honolulu.  It does not fulfill the sign of eating and drinking.  A former directive follows:

Ministration of Communion by intinction, that is, by dipping the consecrated host into the Precious Blood, is reserved to the priest (GIRM, 287). In the Diocese of Honolulu it is generally not practiced since it eliminates the communicants’ legitimate option to receive Communion in the hand, and also denies the right the Faithful to receive Communion in the form of the consecrated host only.  Self-intinction is never permitted. If a communicant with a consecrated host in hand approaches a minister distributing the Precious Blood with the intention of intincting the host, it is advisable to very kindly say something like: “I’m sorry, but that is not permitted. Would you like to drink from the chalice?”

I therefore would like to ask all pastors to prepare for offering the Communion cup to the faithful in their parishes. For some, this might take some organizing and training. The faithful should also be catechized about the fact that the Lord intended his sacrament of love to be given under both species, even though the full Christ is received under one species only. And all should be reminded that, after the consecration, we never refer to the contents of the chalice as “wine,” but rather as “the Precious Blood” of the Lord.

I ask that every parish that has not already done so offer the Communion cup to all the faithful no later than Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025. Thank you for your cooperation!

For guidance and more information on implementing the restoration of Communion from the cup, please contact Father Alfred Omar Guerrero at the Office of Worship.

View the memo on Restoring Communion from the Cup as a PDF HERE.