Confusing Occurrence During Communion
I have been a member of my current parish for over a year now but a practicing Catholic for almost 40 years. At my parish, the wine (blood) is not usually offered to the laity. Today, however, one of the Eucharistic ministers was standing up front to the side with the chalice right next to where the host was being offered. He was standing in the same position where ministers have stood at other masses where the wine was given. I decided that I would take the wine since I hadn’t done so in a while. I wasn’t really paying attention as to whether anyone else was taking the wine, but in my experience it is not atypical for very few people to take the wine. When I got up to the altar. I bowed, took the host, made the sign of the cross, and proceeded a few feet over to the minister with the wine. To my surprise he emphatically and brusquely waved me off and muttered under his breath that the wine wasn’t available. I did notice that he had the sanitizer cloth covering the chalice. It was a little embarrassing because it is a fairly small church. I am confused. Why was there a minister up there with the chalice if the wine wasn’t available? I asked some of my Catholic family members today and they were shocked and had never heard of this before (nor have I). Do any of you fine Catholics have any insight? Maybe I am being too sensitive, but something about this interaction really bothered me.