Communion Options

Low-gluten hosts

Low-gluten hosts contain wheat and some gluten. For Eucharistic use, they must retain enough gluten to make bread, with no foreign ingredients or processes that change its nature. The Vatican’s 2017 letter sets out these requirements; completely gluten-free hosts are not valid matter.

Ask your clinician whether a particular low-gluten host is appropriate for you. Its gluten content, the quantity consumed, and handling all matter. Arrange preparation with your parish so the host stays separate from ordinary hosts, including during consecration and distribution.

Read the guide to low-gluten hosts →

The Precious Blood alone

You receive the whole Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, under either species. Catholics who cannot receive a host may receive the Precious Blood alone, including at Masses where the chalice is not offered to the rest of the congregation. The US bishops’ pastoral guidance explains this provision.

Receive from the common cup like everyone else. The priest drops a particle of the host into the chalice at the fraction; the amount of wheat is minute. Drink from the cup and do not think twice about it. Where the chalice is not usually offered, ask your pastor whether it can be offered to you.

More on wine only and mustum →

Care with cross-contact

Preventing gluten cross-contact is part of caring for everyone with celiac disease. Celiac disease can cause complications even without noticeable symptoms; feeling well after an exposure does not establish that it was harmless.

• Keep a suitable low-gluten host in a separate, clean pyx.
• Arrange handling that prevents transfer from ordinary hosts, hands, and vessels.
• For reception from the chalice, nothing special is needed. Where the chalice is not usually offered, ask that it be offered to you.

Permission and parish arrangements

Start with your pastor. Permission for low-gluten hosts or mustum belongs to the competent Ordinary and may continue for as long as the need lasts. In the United States, the bishop may delegate permission for laypeople to pastors; the USCCB states that medical certification is not required. Your parish can explain the arrangements in your diocese.

Prepare your parish conversation →

When sacramental Communion is unavailable

Spiritual communion is a prayer expressing love for Christ and the desire to receive him. Saint John Paul II encouraged this practice in Ecclesia de Eucharistia, paragraph 34. It sustains your prayer when sacramental reception is unavailable. Bring that desire to Mass and continue working with your pastor on suitable arrangements.

A guide to spiritual communion →