One day about a week ago, after daily Mass, a parishioner stopped me with a question, why do we put a part of the host in the chalice at Mass? It’s a good question and one that I thought more than just 1 parishioner might be wondering about so I thought that I would answer the question here.

  You may have noticed that while the Lamb of God is being sung, the priest takes a small particle of the Sacred Host and drops it in the chalice. Why do we do this? What does that action signify? One answer is that the action of placing a particle of the Sacred Host in the chalice has roots in the early Church. There was a custom that was meant to signify the unity with the Pope and the local Bishop. The custom was that a small particle of the Sacred Host at the Mass celebrated by the local Bishop would be brought to each individual Church to signify unity. This custom, that only existed until about the 9th century, would be practically impossible today. Imagine having to wait around today until someone came with a piece of the Sacred Host from a Mass that Bishop Malesic had celebrated at the Cathedral.

  Though the custom may have died out, there is a deeper symbolic meaning behind why the priest places the particle of the host into the chalice. As we do that, we silently pray, “May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.” Placing the particle of the Sacred Host into the chalice represents the unity of the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist. Jesus is not and cannot be divided, but He is truly and fully present in both the Sacred Host and the Precious Blood. In a symbolic way, we visualize and remember this unity by mingling the Sacred Host and the Precious Blood at Mass.