[Magdalen] A Rose is a Rose.

[Lesley de Voil]

Ooh, I recognise that gesture!
I attended a Sarum mass at Christ Church, Bronxville, some years ago
now. The deacon and sub-deacon each held an end of a cloth not
dissimilar to a humeral veil, only shorter. This in the Sarum Mass is
called a Houseling Cloth, and is suspended horizontally under the
distributing priest's hands and the communicant's chin, so as to catch
any fragments of the Host. I found it a very moving gesture of
respect.

Regards
Lesley de Voil

On 3/19/15, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 12:48 PM, Marion Thompson
> <marionwhitevale at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Why not use a ciborium for the  main distribution?  We only use the small
>> paten for the altar party.
>
> Our celebrants at High Mass use a ciborium; the M.C. has the paten and
> holds it under each communicant's chin or hands while holding the
> celebrant's sleeve (and it's an art form to move the paten gracefully
> while figuring out what the next communicant will do in terms of
> receiving on the tongue or in the hands). Paten is used for Low Mass,
> at which the number of hosts is usually in the single digits.
>
>
> --
> Scott R. Knitter
> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>