Purification of Pyxes
Date: November 26, 2022
Author: Fr. Edward McNamara, LC
Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy and sacramental theology and director of the Sacerdos Institute at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum university.
Question: Thank you for your helpful indications regarding the distribution of pyxes to bring Holy Communion to the sick (see October 30column). Are there any guidelines for the purification of said pyxes? Often, when I bring Communion to the infirm, I notice that there are small particles of the sacred species left in the pyx (especially after fracturing a host for someone who finds it hard to swallow an entire host), and so I've undertaken the practice of purifying the pyx after each Communion visit. However, this is a personal practice, and not something that I have extended to or expected of our extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion to the sick. Should a priest, deacon, or acolyte be purifying their pyxes on a regular basis? Are there liturgical guidelines or historical precedent to guide us? -- S.W.,Sacramento, California
Answer: Regarding the purification rite the ritual for Communion to the Sick simply says that “After the conclusion of the rite, the minister cleanses the vessel as usual (de more purificationem peragit).”
Then a period of silence follows before the final prayer and, when foreseen, the blessing and dismissal.
While this rubric is somewhat sparse as to details, it provides the essential information required to answer the query about who, where, when and what.
Who: The rubric simply mentions “the minister.” Hence, in the case of bringing Communion to the sick, indeed, in all cases of distribution of Communion outside of Mass, there is no requirement that the purification be carried out by an ordained minister or by an instituted acolyte but by the minister who has carried out the rite. For this reason, there is no obstacle to the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion purifying the pyx. This means that those extraordinary ministers should also be given proper training as to how to purify the sacred vessels in this context.
Where and when: This will depend on circumstances. In normal circumstances the purification will be done immediately after distributing Communion before the conclusion of the rite and in the same room where the rite has been carried out. In some hospital or care centers where Communion has been distributed to multiple patients in different rooms, the rite can be initiated and concluded in the chapel. And this is also where the purification will take place.
What: The rubric says that the vessel is purified “as usual.” Therefore, nothing extraordinary need be done, and the guidance of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal may be followed:
“279. The sacred vessels are purified by the Priest, the Deacon, or an instituted acolyte after Communion or after Mass, in so far as possible at the credence table. The purification of the chalice is done with water alone or with wine and water, which is then consumed by whoever does the purification. The paten is wiped clean as usual with the Purificator ….”
In the case of a pyx, purifying involves rinsing the vessels with water and consuming the water containing any fragments of the Blessed Sacrament, then drying the vessel with a purificator.
There may be some practical difficulties with small relatively flat pyxes designed to hold about 8 to 10 hosts and therefore not very susceptible to being easily purified with water which is then consumed.
In such cases I think it would be possible for the minister to defer the purification until it can be carried out in a proper and safe manner. Thus, on returning to the church, the minister could extend a corporal upon the credence table, purify the pyx with water or with the corner of a folded purificator over a chalice and then purify the chalice with water.
If, as would appear to be the case of our reader, there are many such small pyxes, then it could be a good practice for the extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion to leave their pyxes in a designated place in the sacristy so that one minister may purify all the vessels together in the manner specified above.
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