We have a large group of lay parishioners who serve as Eucharistic Ministers within the parish. All of them have been trained in the parish and are commissioned to serve only here.
Some parishioners prefer to serve only at mass, administering the Blood of Christ at Sunday and weekday masses. Others administer the Body of Christ to sick and housebound parishioners. Occasionally, some Eucharistic Ministers have been asked to lead Eucharistic Services on weekdays in place of a mass, when a priest is unavailable to celebrate. All are Extraordinary Ministers, doing what priests normally do if they were available. Eucharistic Ministers are also permitted to expose the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance, for Adoration.
This ministry has a profound effect on the faith of each lay minister. It also calls all receiving Holy Communion from lay ministers to deepen their faith in whom they are receiving. When several ministers are seen working during the mass- some administering the Blood of Christ, others collecting their pyxes and departing with a blessing to administer to a housebound person- something of the breadth and depth of the parish's faith can be seen.