Florida Catholic | Extraordinary Ministers of Communion

Communion ministers have an extraordinary job

Extraordinary ministers of Communion fill a vital role in assisting with distribution of the Eucharist at liturgies and to the infirm and homebound.

BENNET BOLTON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 01.25.08

Mary Moriarity distributes the Eucharist during a Mass celebration at St. Mark Parish in Boynton Beach.
LINDA REEVES | FC

PALM BEACH GARDENS | Being a parish Communion minister is special in more ways than one.

These men and women who assist at Mass by placing the Eucharist on someone’s hand or tongue are called extraordinary ministers — as in “extra”-ordinary.

“The ordinary ministers of holy Communion are the bishop, priest or deacon,” explains Margaret Owers, who works in the diocesan Office of Liturgy. “The extraordinary ministers are laity who have been commissioned by proper authority to assist the ordinary ministers.”

Would you like to help your parish by serving as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion?

Workshops are offered during the year to prepare extraordinary ministers who serve at the altar and who bring the consecrated host to the homebound.

The next Saturday
workshops are:

• March 8, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.,
St. Martin de Porres Parish, 2555 N.E. Savanna Road,
Jensen Beach.

• April 12, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola, 9999 N. Military Trail,
Palm Beach Gardens.

For more information, call Margaret Owers at
561-775-9539.

Owers said the term “eucharistic minister” is no longer used because extraordinary minister of holy Communion is a more precise definition for lay ministers when they are used. Church authority allows them to carry out their ministry in situations when the priest offering Sunday Mass would be overwhelmed if he had to distribute Communion by himself.

And they have an extraordinary devotion to what they do.

“It is an honor to be able to help distribute the Eucharist,” said Mary Moriarity of St. Mark Parish in Boynton Beach.

The 53 parishes and missions of the Diocese of Palm Beach have scores of these extraordinary ministers. However, “there is more to this ministry than Sunday Masses,” Owers told the Florida Catholic. “They also take Communion to the homes of shut-ins who cannot get to church because they are too ill or are confined to nursing homes and hospitals. There is a great need for this.”

The position of extraordinary minister is important, and in order to serve in this role one must be prepared. Owers said the diocese will conduct workshops this year to train new extraordinary ministers. Each of these Saturday sessions runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Conducting them will be Owers and Carmelite Father Michael Driscoll, who is director of the diocesan liturgy office and also the pastor of St. Jude Parish in Boca Raton.

“We use unconsecrated hosts to demonstrate to the new people how to hold and place the wafers given to communicants and allow them to practice,” said Owers. “Candidates must be practicing Catholics. They are sent to the workshops by their pastors or by a person chosen by a pastor to manage the ministry in the parish.”

Freeda Heavey, one of the ministers at St. Edward Parish in Palm Beach, has been distributing Communion at Sunday Mass there for 20 years. Before that, she did the same at St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in New York City.

“I do this because I want to be more fulfilled at Mass,” Heavey, a native of Galway, Ireland, told the Florida Catholic. “Being a minister of holy Communion brings me a much greater level of personal spirituality.”

She also does on-demand visits to shut-ins at their own homes and brings the homebound Communion.

Irene Hey is an extraordinary minister at St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in Delray Beach.

“For me, it is an honor and a privilege to be able to help distribute the body and blood of Jesus Christ to the members of our faith community,” she said. “Being able to participate in the Mass in that special way is joyous and fulfilling.”

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