As some of you may know, the Catholic Church  in the United States has recently entered into a multi-year Eucharistic revival aimed at reinvigorating our Faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. It is a great example of a core belief of the Church that we should reflect on every day but that can also use a tune-up   every so often. Just as we should seek to enter more deeply into a life of prayer each day, it  does us good to go on a retreat in order to get an additional boost.  
 
As the national initiatives of this revival get  underway and we move towards a Eucharistic congress in Indianapolis in 2024, now is a great time to revisit our personal and Family of Parishes devotions and practices surrounding the Blessed Sacrament. Deacon Henry has been working with current and future Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion to unify our practices surrounding bringing the Eucharist to the sick and homebound. Now that we have done training sessions with many of the volunteers from our parishes, we would like to implement these slightly changed procedures for those generous volunteers who bring Jesus to those who can’t come to us: 
· Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (EMsHC) should place their pyx on the credence table and put the required number of unconsecrated hosts in the pyx from the ciborium five minutes before Mass. Please mark the bottom of your pyx in case there are identical ones being used. 
 
 
· EMsHC should receive their pyx with consecrated Hosts following the Prayer     after Communion and not during the Communion procession. After the Prayer after Communion, the deacon or priest calls forward the EMsHCs forward to bless them, give them their pyxes, and send them out to their ministry.  
 
· EMsHCs should be sure to reverently proceed directly to the sick that they are ministering to without making unnecessary stops/errands. 
 
Finally, as a word from your pastor, I would  like to acknowledge a few things. First, I am   immensely humbled by those of you who bring Our Lord to the sick, suffering, and homebound. It is a ministry of immense charity, and I am deeply appreciative of what you do. Second,  I know that any adaptations or shifts in the   way things are done often times accidentally signify that what was done before was wrong  or bad. None of this is meant to diminish the hard work and dedication of those who were already taking Communion to the sick, but rather is meant to increase the reverence and sense of mission of the parish as we call           forward ministers of Communion and send them out to those in need. Thank you for your generosity, your flexibility, and your patience  as we seek to bring all our practices and policies in accord with our belief in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.