“Before the pandemic, we had about 200 customers,” said Sister Anna Tran, O.C.D., who oversees altar bread production at the Carmel of St. Teresa in Alhambra, a community of cloistered discalced Carmelite nuns. “We shipped approximately 250,000 hosts to parishes, hospitals, schools, and religious communities per week. Once the pandemic hit, by April 2020, all of the orders from our customers were cancelled. The customers who did order were very minimal (about 10%), so probably about 90% of our customers either cut down or cancelled their order completely.”
Mother Brenda Marie Schroeder, O.C.D., prioress of the Carmel of St. Teresa, said that after a year “we had to throw away all our supply of small altar breads. It was starting to get buggy.” She said that large hosts were still in demand because priests were still celebrating Mass, albeit privately. But not the small ones.
The Carmel wrote recently to customers, who are throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, as well as parts of Nevada and Arizona, expressing the hope that they would resume their orders when public Masses resume.
In the meantime, a local supporter of the nuns, Jennifer Nolan, offered to help, because she realized what an impact the loss of business would have on the Carmel.
“I thought I could set up a monthly donation base,” said Nolan, founder of Catholic Polytechnic University. “Hillsdale College has thousands of people who give $10 a month. That’s what these nuns need — an army of people.”
So Nolan set up a monthly donation option on the nuns’ website. The change soon made a difference. “Just in one week we got 27 donors for them,” Nolan said. “It’s so hard not to know: ‘Are we going to have enough money for food next month?’ If they have 100 donors giving $20 a month, they’ll have an amount they know they can depend on….”
The above comes from a May 12 story in Aleteia.
Just sent a donation. Hope you do too! Very easy on their website.
https://www.carmelteresa.org/donation
Hey, lots of people felt the pain. And it’s going to last a long time, especially for church workers. Meanwhile, I’ve heard from friends that their bishop has a campaign asking them to “give half” of their stimulus checks from the government. No way. Didn’t those nuns get stimulus checks? They should have. Did the business operations that make the hosts apply for a PPP forgivable loan?
God knew full well what the economic impact would be of causing the pandemic. It’s resulted in the greatest transfer of wealth from the little people to the elites in history. More power is now concentrated in the hands of evil secularists, and the church has suffered tremendously. Way to go. Nice job with providence, there.
If I were a priest I would have celebrated Mass using the small hosts already purchased and in stock in the sacristy. Otherwise they would go stale and go to waste. Why purchase new large hosts? Bread is bread. A host is a host. A priest doesn’t have to use a large host.
I would assume most priests like the larger hosts since they are easier for the congregation to see and adore at the Consecration — as we are supposed to do.
If no one is at Mass, which is why they don’t need the small hosts, then the priest can use a small host because there’s no one there to see him celebrate Mass.
I suppose that is true in some cases, but a larger Host is easier to see even on videos. Some churches had virtual adoration, too, on websites and a larger Host is needed for that,
I don’t get online adoration. It’s fake. You’re not adoring by watching a video. You’re not in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. You’re viewing pixels on a screen that your mind is tricked into construing as an image of a monstrance with a host in it. It’s not adoration. Why not also say that a picture of a monstrance with a host in it counts as adoration, so take a picture on your phone and just pull it up whenever you want to “adore”. Or print a picture and hang it on the wall of your home so you can have perpetual adoration in your house. That’s no more silly than watching adoration on a TV. Really, please explain the difference between a picture on the wall and viewing on a TV screen if you think that online adoration is authentic.
God likes us to adore Him. He doesn’t care if it is online. Compared to those who brawl against Him and distrust Him and don’t even believe in Him, I think He is OK with those who love Him.
I bilocate there, Kevin T.
Not really, but just want to have some fun with you.
I do say the Rosary and other prayers online as the pictures and holy images in Catholic chapels do help me to meditate when I do not want to get out a book, or am tired and cannot use my imagination.
As you can tell by now, the Anonymous post May 17 at 8:46 pm was mine by accident. None of the other Anons were mine.
I have always liked these sisters because they wear the traditional habit however if they can only go to the next step and offer the Traditional Latin Mass.
His Imperial Majesty, we all probably like these Sisters. They are devoted women of God. Why do you presume to know “the next step” for them?
Might you promote the TLM without being critical of everyone who worships in the Ordinary Form?
Do you believe the Ordinary Form/Novus Ordo is valid?
It’s possible these women are listening to God and He has not called them to arrange for a priest to celebrate the Extraordinary Form Mass with them.
I think the traditional Mass movement would be better served by making the beauty and reverence of the TLM more widely known rather than by dissing other devoted Catholics.
Sisters can’t say Mass, sir.
Is there an email address or phone number in case they could use any more advice?
A bit of unclarity, Rolulus. Are you suggesting the Sisters personally offer TLM? Or obey ‘the rules’ and have a male priest offer the Mass?
No, mikey, don’t be silly. These faithful sisters can’t and would never want to take on the role of a priest, and no one is suggesting it. Clear now?
A priest always uses a larger host. One of my first jobs was working in Altar Breads, for a huge contemplative monastery of about 100 nuns. As a Catholic lay woman, I came from outside the monastery to help the nuns, referred by a priest who often said Mass there. I helped bake from scratch, box, and mail, worldwide, several recipes and styles of Altar Breads– big ones for priests, bishops, etc., and little ones for laymen. This huge contemplative monastery observed Perpetual Adoration, which we all so loved.
A nun was always assigned her Holy Hour daily, and everyone else could come too, at any hour of the day or night. The huge monastic church was so holy, beautiful and peaceful, with many rows of choir stalls up by the main altar, separated from laymen, for the choir nuns to pray (in Latin Gregorian Chant) the entire Divine Office, daily.
It was just impossible for the nuns to make a smooth and viable, workable transition to the different type of religious life as mandated by the Council. So, the whole thing ended. The beautiful monastery and grounds were all sold off, transformed into a large business complex, and shopping mall, with stores, restaurants, several big condo complexes, a cinema, health club, etc. All the nuns had gotten old and soon died, and today, there is no trace of the monastery. I hope this doesn’t happen to the good Carmelite nuns of Alhambra.
Thank you for sharing your story. Sorry it has an unhappy ending but the Lord is good all the time.
Many diocese are ending their dispensation so they will need hosts again.
It’s MIKE. Mikey is a character from an old cereal commercial. ‘Even Mikey likes it . . .’
mikem– remember the Sugar Frosted Flakes cereal commercial of the 1950s, with little Mikey being encouraged to eat his cereal, by Tony the Tiger?? So cute. Too bad all those sugary cereals are “junk food,” loaded with sugar, deprived of nutrients, not good for children! But Tony the Tiger is “Grrrrr–eat!” Adorable.
So You Can Use Capital Letters, Why Not Always?
These women are not Cloistered Nuns — they are Carmelite Sisters who never have been cloistered since they came from Mexico many many yrs ago. They actually teach and do many other things which have nothing to do w/being cloistered. The are simply sisters (not nuns). Nuns are female monks, i.e. cloistered. Sisters are those who get involved w/many projects such as tracking; conferences; etc. I’m a Carmelite OCD and have been cloistered yrs ago. So I know what I am saying.
Anonymous– are you a nun in a cloistered O.C.D. Carmel? Which one? These are not O.C.D. Carmelites, they are a separate branch– but I bet they lead a deeply prayerful life, with some Carmelite characteristics. Are these sisters semi-cloistered, half-active and half-contemplative, with a teaching charism? Who founded them– and when? I know of other Carmelite nuns who came from Mexican Carmels (O.C.D.s), to escape the horrific 1920s religious persecutions. Were these sisters originally part of that flight from Mexico? I think perhaps a variety of priests, sisters and nuns escaped to America, during that period.
If you’re cloistered how do you get internet?
They’re moving to Santa Ana, aren’t they? Something doesn’t add up about this. Are they moving their factory to Santa Ana?
My parish has a ministry in which people take turns to bake altar breads at home for parish use. One recipe adds honey. Mmm… looking forward to when Masses are back in full swing and the moms do their baking again.
Altar Breads have very strict, specific ecclesiastical rules– or else they are not allowed by the Church. And they are meant for the most holy Sacrament in all the world!! Not for secular purposes or sweet, earthly pleasure! I never heard of honey being allowed. What does your Bishop say about this?? Sounds like a terrible mistake!
It is not permissible to add honey.
Doesn’t affect the validity of the consecration.
You are wrong, think form and matter necessary for proper sacraments. Otherwise, why not just use a Snickers bar since they are delicious.
Flavored, unleavened wheat bread is still unleavened wheat bread. It’s valid matter. Even leavened bread would be valid matter for Latin Rite Masses, as it is in Eastern Rite Masses. A priest could consecrate a loaf of leavened, commercial wheat bread bought at a store and it would be validly consecrated. A priest could consecrate all the bread on the shelf in the store, for that matter, and it would be a valid consecration.
Your snarky remark about consecrating a Snickers bar is irrelevant because a candy bar isn’t bread. It’s a completely different substance. Whether bread has flavor added or not, it is still bread and valid matter for consecration.
Anonymous May 17, 2021 at 11:52
No. that is not correct.
Yes it is correct. Study some theology or ask a priest.
Anon at 11:52am- Then make the bread chocolate, go for the undeniable sacrilege.
Chocolate flavored wheat bread would be valid matter. Not recommended to use, but it would be valid.
The bread used in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharistic Sacrifice must be unleavened, purely of wheat, and recently made so that there is no danger of decomposition. It follows therefore that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament. It is a grave abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit or sugar or honey, into the bread for confecting the Eucharist. Hosts should obviously be made by those who are not only distinguished by their integrity, but also skilled in making them and furnished with suitable tools. (no. 48)
Redemptionis Sacramentum
Again, doesn’t affect the validity of the consecration.
Whatever happened to: “You have given them bread from heaven. Having all sweetness within it.”
A little sweetness in the bread signifies the spiritual sweetness of the sacrament, just as bread and wine are natural foods that signify the spiritual nourishment of the sacrament.
You really want to make a big thing of honey-sweetened Communion bread? Some people just look for things to gripe about, it seems to me. Why not be happy that the parish is involving its parishioners in making the altar bread, probably with kids helping and learning about the Mass in the process, then seeing the bread they helped bake brought to the altar, and it’s locally produced as an offering of love at the altar, transformed by Christ into his very self to feed those who made it and offered it to him?
I wish more parishes would do that instead of outsourcing their communion wafer production.
Sorry but no. It does effect the validity of the consecration. Stop doing it.
I’m not doing it, but I’m explaining that it doesn’t affect the validity of the consecration. Chloe posted that her parish does it. I’m defending that it’s still a valid consecration, and every bishop and theologian would have to agree with me because I’m correct. What you fail to distinguish is between validity and liceity. Flavored bread is illicit (against church law), but it is still valid matter for consecration. Just like oil altar candles are illicit but doesn’t affect the validity of the Mass. A Snickers bar is invalid matter because it isn’t wheat bread. Flavored wheat bread is valid matter, although considered illicit by current church law.
There is just one basic recipe for making Communion wafers for Mass– the ingredients are flour of the purest wheat, and water. That’s all. Big wafer for the priest, little round wafers for laymen. With a few holy, Church-approved, design variations, on the big wafers, usually. The priest has to break it, at the Fraction of the Host, at Mass, and put a piece of it in his Chalice. It is extremely holy! It becomes the “Bread of Heaven,” at Mass– the very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord! It is not earthly bread, after Transubstantiation, only the earthly appearance remains!
One needs to have tremendous respect for the Church, and for her strict rules regarding making Altar Breads for Holy Mass. The monastery in which I worked in Altar Breads, as a laywoman, observed strict silence all the time (except for a designated recreation and conversation time, daily) and there were many holy traditions and strict rules. The Presence of God prevailed, everywhere! There were codes, hand signals, perhaps handed down through the centuries, to communicate certain things, as necessary. The Mother Superior also used a unique musical set of bells, all on one unique, big instrument, for some communications– and each nun (and myself, during working hours) had to memorize a short Gregorian Chant melody, assigned to her name. Whenever you heard your melody being played, that meant the Mother Superior wanted to see you for a reason. Otherwise, silence prevailed, all were recollected in the Divine Presence of God. The Eucharist is very holy, and laymen should not get goofy secular notions about how it should be made, according to their imaginations. The wafers really should also barely be touched, during the entire process of making and boxing them up, preparing them for shipment. Respect, reverence, and holiness, before the Divine Presence of God, is often not well understood, in today’s post-Conciliar Church.
Everyone knows that Jesus didn’t use prefabricated, mass-produced, circular hosts at the Last Supper, nor did the Apostles when celebrating the Breaking of the Bread during their lifetimes. They used ordinary bread made by ordinary people at home. They used regular bread, crumbs and all. Christ knew there would be crumbs in the bread he used when it was broken and shared. Didn’t seem to bother him. We need to treat the consecrated bread reverently, but the practice I’ve seen in some places where priests spend several minutes purifying patens and ciboria, rinsing, wiping and repeating to remove any possible sub-microscopic particles after communion is overkill.
It was Passover, and leaven was forbidden to the devout Jewish household at that time, and still is in the Orthodox Jewish community. More than likely the unleavened bread the Lord Jesus used was prayerfully made by devout and pious Jewish women attached to the Temple.
Marin you seem to have no real sense of the sacred. The Sacred Host is holy bread that feeds both body and soul, and not some secular, profane bread bought in a secular or pagan market.
In Scripture, leaven is a symbol of fermentation, corruption and sin. Exodus 13: 6-7 and Leviticus 2:11-12 commands the Israelites not to use leavened bread in any offering to the Lord. The Jewish people still make the Passover bread with strict rules, mostly of flour, salt and water. The Catholic Church has followed the example of what was done in the Lord Jesus’s time.
By the way, I was only referring to Communion bread in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Canon 924.2 forbids the use of leavened bread in the Latin Rite. The Eastern Rite has its own tradition of using leavened bread, but we should not mix the two. Latin Rite people have the right to a Latin Rite liturgy, and the Eastern Rite has the right to theirs, and any other Catholic rite has the rite to its traditions.
Martin, He would have used unleavened bread-a special bread used at Passover to remind the Israelites that they had to leave quickly from Egypt. Exodus 12:14-17
Those purifying the vessels are following instructions. Use the time to adore Jesus.
FYI. There are two Communities of Carmelite Sisters/nuns in Alhambra, CA. The Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles is and active community of Discalced Carmelite (OCD) Sisters, founded by Mother Luisita, OCD, who discerned a calling to come out of the cloistered Carmelite community she was in to care for the sick and aged poor in Mexico. They carry on those missions in Duarte and Santa Clarita, CA. They also have a retreat house in Alhambra within their Motherhouse. The Carmel of St Teresa in Alhambra is a cloistered community of Carmelite nuns a few blocks away. The sisters you see pictured are the uncloistered sisters.
I didn’t see any of the priest readers comment on the bread used. So, here is what Cardinal Sarah restated, with Pope Francis’s approval, in a letter to bishops,“The bread used in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharistic Sacrifice must be unleavened, purely of wheat… It follows therefore that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament. It is a grave abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit or sugar or honey, into the bread for confecting the Eucharist.” The full 2017 letter to bishops is linked here:
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20170615_lettera-su-pane-vino-eucaristia_en.html
I’m not addressing the issue of whether it would be invalid or “only” illicit.
And,as noted, Eastern Catholics (licitly and validly) use leavened bread.
Interesting discussion. The people who are saying that illicit bread, such as with flavor additives or raisins in the bread, would be validly consecrated are correct. Flavored bread presents no theological difficulty, for it is still bread. Raisins in bread are a bit different: raisins would not be consecrated but the bread surrounding and containing the raisins would be consecrated. That’s a strictly theological answer to a narrow question about valid consecration. Whether it should be done… the church has pronounced on that and said it shouldn’t be done. But if it’s done, it’s a valid consecration.
If the flour is in a notable quantity mixed with eggs, butter, milk, honey, oil, or any liquor other than natural water, it becomes invalid matter, for it is then something really different from ordinary bread.
We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about flavor added to wheat bread. Valid matter.
Interesting discussion. The people who are saying that illicit bread, such as with flavor additives or raisins in the bread, would be validly consecrated are correct. Flavored bread presents no theological difficulty, for it is still bread. Raisins in bread are a bit different: raisins would not be consecrated but the bread surrounding and containing the raisins would be consecrated. That’s a strictly theological answer to a narrow question about valid consecration. Whether it should be done… the church has pronounced on that and said it shouldn’t be done. But if it’s done, it’s a valid consecration.
Think of it this way: a laicized priest shouldn’t consecrate the Eucharist according to church law. But if he does, it’s valid consecration even though he shouldn’t do it. Similar reasoning applies to using flavored bread. It shouldn’t be used, but if it’s used the consecration is valid nonetheless.
Personally, I would not attend nor take Communion at such a mass as I would wonder about the priest’s intentions to really consecrate the Host. If he doe not intend to consecrate it, it is not, and how would I know if he is so blatantly disobedient.
Real story from the 70s… ooh boy… the 70s. Anyway… on a high school retreat the youth minister brought raisin bread for the eucharist. It was at a retreat camp so the Mass was outside and there wasn’t a sacristy nor church with supplies of hosts… so the raisin bread was the only bread available for the Mass. The priest had to make do with that and at consecration… I kid you not… he said, “Take this all of you and eat it. This is my body, except for the raisins. Do this in memory of me.”
Those crazy 70s!
It seems this priest did not do the the Consecration using raisin bread out of disobedience, but in an emergency situation. It seems his intentions were good, but whether or not it was valid or licit I do not know. I doubt there was any sinful intent on the part of the youth taking the “Communion” either. Most probably did not know any better.
It doesn’t matter, Kevin T. In the situation you mentioned, a grave abuse has occurred, the Mass should be stopped, and the abuse should be immediately reported to the Bishop!
You can’t stop a Mass once the consecration has begun. That would be a grave abuse. Catch 22!
I think you are confused. It has to be wheat flour and water, only. Now for the scrupulous, what if a fly poops in the dough? No problem. It would not be enough to alter the wheat flour and water into something beside ORDINARY bread.
ordinary bread = wheat flour and water. Not the kind of bread you buy in the store. Or crackers.
Wheat crackers could be consecrated. Yes indeed.
No.
Raisin bread is invalid matter. Not valid.
The bread is valid matter. The raisins are not.
If you removed the raisins, placed them to the side in a dish on the altar, and consecrated the bread from which the raisins were removed it would be validly confected. So what’s the difference between the raisins being two feet from the bread versus within the bread? It doesn’t affect what the bread is to have something that isn’t bread inside the bread.
Consider this thought experiment: what if raisins were mixed in with hosts in a ciborium on the altar during consecration. What if a pernicious person hid the raisins underneath the hosts so they couldn’t be seen and weren’t noticed until after the consecration? Would the hosts have been consecrated even though there were raisins underneath them? Of course! Because the hosts are bread. The raisins would not be consecrated because they aren’t bread. So what’s the difference between the raisins being beneath the bread/hosts or embedded within the bread? Nothing, as far as valid consecration of the bread is concerned.
Raisin bread is not valid matter. The bread around the raisins is not valid matter. It is not ordinary bread. Why do you resist this truth? If the bread 2 feet away from the raisins was made of only wheat flour and water, it would be valid matter. It is consecration, not a magic trick.