I was raised Orthodox. We got spoon-fed our wine. Like, a little baby spoon. And the bread would be IN the wine. We got little pieces of wine-soaked bread.
Greek or Russian Orthodox. I think Russian did it that way, but it’s been a looooooooooooooong time.
Doctor_Who
Russian. My dad’s family is actually sort of mixed Eastern European (and my mom’s is mixed Western European), so we figured “close enough”.
The consensus seems to be we are Czech/Ukranian, but when I visited Ellis Island I looked up our name and it’s Hungarian, so I guess that’s in there too.
Roborat
Huh? the last name “Who” is Hungarian? Never would have guessed that.
vlademir1
As I recall, bread soaked in the wine rather than separate is mostly a Russian Orthodox and it’s close relatives thing. A sacrament spoon is a reasonably common, but by no means universal, Orthodox thing in general.
Yeah, that is basically what we of the Serbian Orthodox Church do too.
I guess it’s being poor thing/custom. Probably back in the days you couldn’t always have enough wine for everyone, so you took one cup worth of it, put bread int it and then shared.
But eh that’s just custom. The weird idea fro me is NOT using bread and wine.
JohnF
We have the bread in the wine (grape juice) at Metropolitan Community Church Brisbane, so it’s not just an Orthodox thing, as we’re as Protestant and Liberal as you can get in a Christian Church.
Huh. Now that I think of it, churches that keep the bread and wine separate, but believe in transubstantiation, are going against literature… they’ve got their pound of flesh without a drop of blood in it!
I was raised Methodist. When we got to the Eucharist – once a month as I recall – we got a small cube of bread and a tiny glass of “wine” (real wine for the adults, Ribena for the children). We had to get up and kneel around the edge of the dais, and were given the sacrament.
…afai remember, it was like 24 years since I last went to church. (I stopped when I was 10, and am now an Atheist). xD
Look in the parentheses: Stand. Stand. Kneel. Sit. Stand. Stand. Kneel. Kneel. Stand. Sit. [Communion, effectively a Kneel]. Kneel. Kneel. Kneel. And technically, during the Recessional, you Stand again.
This is fairly typical during Mass, and I’ve never seen a non-Catholic visitor NOT comment on it at the time.
Kryss LaBryn
Canadian Anglicans (at least, at my old church), and I assume British Anglicans do the same thing, although if your knees aren’t up to it it’s okay to stay seated. They have a little padded bar to kneel on and everything.
So far as Communion went, you had to be Confirmed first (a sort of graduation ceremony following extracurricular studying with the priest), which you could do when you were seventeen. After that, you could take the Eucharist (before that you’d go up and kneel, but not put out your hands, and the priest would just bless you). Once you had been Confirmed, you could put out your hands for the half-piece of holy wafer (which had like zero taste and would basically dissolve on your tongue–may have been rice-based, thinking about it now), and then the secondary priest would come around with the goblet and give you a sip of the wine (which was really, really tasty; Wild Vines’ Blackberry Merlot is pretty close to my memory of it; very sweet and fruity).
We learned in Confirmation classes that, between the goblets always being either actual gold or silver (which germs can’t live on), and the alcohol, plus the goblet being wiped and turned slightly between each sip, there wasn’t much of a risk of germs being shared, as by the time that portion of the goblet came round again, the alcohol in the wine plus the precious metal would have killed off the few germs still left behind after wiping.
Galdan
Fun fact: Confirmation, which is a Sacrament among Catholics, used to be the one and the same that Ordination of Priests (the Sacrament that makes you into a priest), and it was based on the Imposition of Hands the Apostles did to transfer the power to do miracles to their advanced disciples, which in turn was based on the transference of power by Christ when he gave his Apostles and Disciples the power to heal the sick and exorcist demons, and by the Holy Spirit, when he descended on them during Pentecost …
It’s funny because, if you think about it, priests are supposed to receive Divine Power, D&D RPG style…
It was later made into three levels: Confirmation (you were a full Christian, required a priest), Ordination of Priests (you were a priest, required a bishop) and Ordination of Bishops (you were a bishop, required three bishops). Each time you received more Divine Mojo…
Christianism originally was a very “magical” religion…
Ed Rhodes
I remember a story in Reader’s Digest where someone’s husband went to their first Catholic mass. Stand, kneel, stand, sit, kneel, the husband wiped his face with a handkerchief and dropped it in his lap.
His wife, noticing this, said; “Is your fly open?”
The husband responded; “No, should it be?”
Greywolf1963
That is because Catholicism is not just a religion, it’s an excersise regim.
Only time I had the wine was for my First Communion, where the priest dipped the host in the wine before placing it on my tongue. Not the best wine I’ve ever had by a long shot, but still not the worst.
They still do; our CEO drinks it so I order it for the work fridge.
-Sentinel-
Where do you live? In Canada, Coke Zero is available everywhere normal Coke is.
Daibhid C
In the UK they’ve renamed it Coke Zero Sugar, but I haven’t noticed it tasting any different.
The tabloids apparently said people were up in arms, but they say that every time anyone does anything.
Needfuldoer
That’s what they did here in ‘murica, too. Same stuff, new label. It’s basically the diet version of Coca-Cola Classic, as opposed to Diet Coke (which is more like New Coke). It’s good, but I still keep some regular Diet Coke on hand. Sometimes you just need the kind of nostalgia rush that only the metallic aftertaste of aspartame can conjure.
She knew she was trying a new branch of Christianity, but new food? That’s a bridge too far – this is a woman who can’t even eat most kid’s food because too many ingredients are brushing up against each other.
My parents Presbeterian church had wine on the inside cups on the tray and grape juice on the outside, and the tray of cups were passed up and down the pews. Every Episcopal church I have been to was full on wine in a chalice and you want up front to get it. “The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.”
Episcopal churches mix water and wine during the prep. Though from having been the assisting acolyte for at least three different priests (back before I was a godless atheist) the amount of water used to dilute the wine can vary significantly.
Freemage
Yup. It’s fun when the priest overestimates the number of people coming up for Communion. You’re not allowed to just throw that stuff out after the blessing–it’s officially “the Blood of Christ” at that point. Acolytes (not assisting with the Eucharist proper) are the last ones to receive Communion for this very reason–you learn quickly to judge how much to drink by how much the priest tips the goblet.
At every Anglican church (the English Episcopal church) I was at it was: the blood of Christ, shed for you.
Not sure about the alcohol content, but I started taking communion around my confirmation (11 years old). So I’m guessing it’s not that alcoholic.
(It should also be noted that the wine was watered down and wasn’t exactly potent to begin with. Unless you’re a child or an alcoholic, there’s no reason to skip it.)
The priest told us that germs had a hard time living on silver and gold (the metals are toxic to bacteria, apparently), so between that and the alcohol in the wine, they were pretty much all killed by the time the used spot on the cup, which is rotated slightly between each person as well as being wiped, came around to be used again.
So apparently not as bad as one might think; even if someone in the line before you had a cold or what, it was supposed to be okay.
Knayt
Your priest is half right at best. Silver is toxic to bacteria (technically it’s silver oxide particles at low concentration, but unless the wine is being poured in a vacuum you’re good), gold doesn’t do much at all – gold nanoparticles do, but that’s not the same thing. However rotating the wine swishes it enough to let some bacteria move around, antimicrobials are far from instantaneous, and thus the actual sanitation effects are pretty minimal.
With that said, most peoples immune systems can handle eating and drinking communal food just fine, particularly as a lot of the really nasty diseases that can spread via mouth can only live in fairly tight temperature ranges around the human norm. Plus, it’s not like a priest is expected to be an expert here anyways; an epidemiologist saying the same thing would deserve much heavier criticism.
My experience is that most churches of the “high church” movements (along with Catholic and Orthodox) only offer wine, but that partaking of both parts of the sacrament aren’t mandatory for being in full communion. Meanwhile near universally the “low church” movements seem to have strong objections to alcohol even in the sacramental form and only offer grape juice. Some of those churches (largely Methodist and Presbyterian ones in my experience) who fit the “high church” format, offer a choice between wine and grape juice or just grape juice while still ceremonially and ritually hewing closer to the older Catholic and Orthodox sacrament.
That’s very informational, thank you.
As far as I remember, we never got wine (as a Catholic), just the ‘bread’, a consecrated wafer. Never wine, we just watched the priest and his altar servers take a small nip from the wine (and never grape juice). But that might be a country-specific thing (I’m from the middle of Europe).
CoMa
I of course meant “informative” not “informational” – sorry, thought too much in my first language
vlademir1
Yeah, it’s regional by traditions dating to the medieval period to my understanding. Where wine was not readily produced locally and thereby an exceptionally difficult to procure part of the service, such as in northern and central Europe, the standard developed to only offer the wine on specific occasions (typically Easter) to the laity or else to only to allow it to the clergy as part of the rite (specifically the priest partakes as the spiritual representative of his flock) so as to ensure there was always some wine for the chalice. In some areas as wine has become more readily available during the last century or so that has fallen by the wayside in others it has stood as part of deep rooted tradition. In my own area of the US, for example, having heavy central and eastern European roots within the local congregation, it’s only offered as part of the Easter Eucharist in other areas I’ve visited in the US, with more Mediterranean roots, it’s weekly.
My (UK, Anglican, evangelical, but both of those words have quite different connotations here from in the US) church has actual wine by default but there’s usually a non-alcoholic option. Either a separate station or a separate cup available on request, depending on the size of the service.
For context: I do drink occasionally. (The other day I had an almost-full sampler glass of beer with dinner! And I even finished most of it during the meal!) But I am convinced that I can feel even the tiny sip of communion wine. I know that it’s a higher alcohol percentage, but it’s not supposed to be *that* high.
Yumi
Maybe it’s the holy spirit.
Knayt
This definitely suggests a really low tolerance – wine caps out at about 20% alcohol, and even reaching that requires some specialized strains of yeast that can handle a higher alcohol environment. Past that you need to straight up distill alcohol to make it stronger, and that would be brandy anyways (or cognac).
A tiny sip is maybe 10 mL, and 2mL of straight ethanol (which again, high estimate) isn’t a lot. For reference, one shot is usually in the vicinity of 20 mL of straight alcohol, with larger shot glasses and stronger drinks pushing it up towards 40. A full sized glass of beer is theoretically roughly comparable.
vlademir1
There are a few strains in commercial use that can reach about 30% (specifically the one bred by Sam Adams for their Utopias line, but there are a few others in use for whiskey mash). None are useful for wine, but they exist ;D.
Also, cognac is a type of brandy.
vlademir1
If you actually practice the typical prescribed fasting before partaking in the sacrament the alcohol present will hit your system harder than normal drinking with meals. It’ll metabolize comparatively quick since since the total volume is so low, but if you don’t typically drink on an empty stomach just enough alcohol will hit your brain before it metabolizes to seem more significant.
Used to be an Episcopal acolyte (it meant doing more than just sitting in a pew during services), and we’d sometimes get asked to serve at funerals and weddings (typically, the family would give the priest a gratuity for the service, and we’d be given a bit off the top as a tip).
So, one time, a woman who’d been in the church for decades had died, and I was tapped to serve at the funeral. She’d been a major presence in the community, and so the church was PACKED. Standing room only, which rarely even happened on the big services.
So, Father B. set up two cups of wine–the big ones. And then… virtually no one came up to the altar railing. I think we had ten communicants; the rest were local Baptists and Gospel church-goers, who didn’t do wine at Communion.
Father B. took it in stride. He made sure I got a HUGE mouthful of wine, and then he did the finishing duties himself (no discarding the Blood of Christ, after all). It was the only time I’ve ever seen him have to pause in the process of finishing the last of the wine off–he was definitely feeling it for the rest of the Mass.
514 thoughts on “Eucharist”
Ana Chronistic
“and you have individual tiny glasses? not everyone drinking out of the same cup or anything??”
“um”
Doctor_Who
I was raised Orthodox. We got spoon-fed our wine. Like, a little baby spoon. And the bread would be IN the wine. We got little pieces of wine-soaked bread.
In hindsight, it was a little weird.
Pablo360
Yeah, that does seem a little…
…unorthodox ?
Dusk Rain
*claps* Very good.
Sambo
You deserve more recognition for that!
smparadox
Pablo – Like! Upvote! etc…
Sambo – I couldn’t agree more!
Paul1963
eeeYEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH DUM-DADUMMM!
Vinny
Greek or Russian Orthodox. I think Russian did it that way, but it’s been a looooooooooooooong time.
Doctor_Who
Russian. My dad’s family is actually sort of mixed Eastern European (and my mom’s is mixed Western European), so we figured “close enough”.
The consensus seems to be we are Czech/Ukranian, but when I visited Ellis Island I looked up our name and it’s Hungarian, so I guess that’s in there too.
Roborat
Huh? the last name “Who” is Hungarian? Never would have guessed that.
vlademir1
As I recall, bread soaked in the wine rather than separate is mostly a Russian Orthodox and it’s close relatives thing. A sacrament spoon is a reasonably common, but by no means universal, Orthodox thing in general.
ANeM
Wine soaked bread is one of my best memories of church. I honestly don’t really like wine, but man, it is good with bread.
4th Dimension
Yeah, that is basically what we of the Serbian Orthodox Church do too.
I guess it’s being poor thing/custom. Probably back in the days you couldn’t always have enough wine for everyone, so you took one cup worth of it, put bread int it and then shared.
But eh that’s just custom. The weird idea fro me is NOT using bread and wine.
JohnF
We have the bread in the wine (grape juice) at Metropolitan Community Church Brisbane, so it’s not just an Orthodox thing, as we’re as Protestant and Liberal as you can get in a Christian Church.
Chris Phoenix
Huh. Now that I think of it, churches that keep the bread and wine separate, but believe in transubstantiation, are going against literature… they’ve got their pound of flesh without a drop of blood in it!
Yet_One_More_Idiot
I was raised Methodist. When we got to the Eucharist – once a month as I recall – we got a small cube of bread and a tiny glass of “wine” (real wine for the adults, Ribena for the children). We had to get up and kneel around the edge of the dais, and were given the sacrament.
…afai remember, it was like 24 years since I last went to church. (I stopped when I was 10, and am now an Atheist). xD
Zortac88
You may be atheist, but I am a theist.
smparadox
Doctor_Who – No weirder than everything in EVERY religion.
Freemage
Some Episcopal Churches, I should note, use wafers rather than bread.
Also, I’m a little disappointed–Willis missed an element that I’m sure Joyce would’ve commented on by now–“Episcopal Calisthenics”. Here, take a look on the right-hand page: http://stjohnsfortworth.com/wp-content/uploads/24-Sept-2017-Bulletin-for-Web.pdf
Look in the parentheses: Stand. Stand. Kneel. Sit. Stand. Stand. Kneel. Kneel. Stand. Sit. [Communion, effectively a Kneel]. Kneel. Kneel. Kneel. And technically, during the Recessional, you Stand again.
This is fairly typical during Mass, and I’ve never seen a non-Catholic visitor NOT comment on it at the time.
Kryss LaBryn
Canadian Anglicans (at least, at my old church), and I assume British Anglicans do the same thing, although if your knees aren’t up to it it’s okay to stay seated. They have a little padded bar to kneel on and everything.
So far as Communion went, you had to be Confirmed first (a sort of graduation ceremony following extracurricular studying with the priest), which you could do when you were seventeen. After that, you could take the Eucharist (before that you’d go up and kneel, but not put out your hands, and the priest would just bless you). Once you had been Confirmed, you could put out your hands for the half-piece of holy wafer (which had like zero taste and would basically dissolve on your tongue–may have been rice-based, thinking about it now), and then the secondary priest would come around with the goblet and give you a sip of the wine (which was really, really tasty; Wild Vines’ Blackberry Merlot is pretty close to my memory of it; very sweet and fruity).
We learned in Confirmation classes that, between the goblets always being either actual gold or silver (which germs can’t live on), and the alcohol, plus the goblet being wiped and turned slightly between each sip, there wasn’t much of a risk of germs being shared, as by the time that portion of the goblet came round again, the alcohol in the wine plus the precious metal would have killed off the few germs still left behind after wiping.
Galdan
Fun fact: Confirmation, which is a Sacrament among Catholics, used to be the one and the same that Ordination of Priests (the Sacrament that makes you into a priest), and it was based on the Imposition of Hands the Apostles did to transfer the power to do miracles to their advanced disciples, which in turn was based on the transference of power by Christ when he gave his Apostles and Disciples the power to heal the sick and exorcist demons, and by the Holy Spirit, when he descended on them during Pentecost …
It’s funny because, if you think about it, priests are supposed to receive Divine Power, D&D RPG style…
It was later made into three levels: Confirmation (you were a full Christian, required a priest), Ordination of Priests (you were a priest, required a bishop) and Ordination of Bishops (you were a bishop, required three bishops). Each time you received more Divine Mojo…
Christianism originally was a very “magical” religion…
Ed Rhodes
I remember a story in Reader’s Digest where someone’s husband went to their first Catholic mass. Stand, kneel, stand, sit, kneel, the husband wiped his face with a handkerchief and dropped it in his lap.
His wife, noticing this, said; “Is your fly open?”
The husband responded; “No, should it be?”
Greywolf1963
That is because Catholicism is not just a religion, it’s an excersise regim.
Only time I had the wine was for my First Communion, where the priest dipped the host in the wine before placing it on my tongue. Not the best wine I’ve ever had by a long shot, but still not the worst.
Galdan
Some catholics used to do the bread soaked in wine too…
hof1991
still do, but rare. A little messy and the wine is optional anyway. If you are into Real Presence, don’t want to drip Him.
Mr. Mendo
I can’t help but feel that Joyce isn’t truly embracing the spirit of this whole “try new things” bit…
Gwen
Hopefully she won’t have sour grapes afterwards
Erik
*rimshot*
You earned it. 🙂
Freemage
So long as she doesn’t wine about it.
TemporalShrew
In fairness, “trying new things” is itself a new thing for her, so she isn’t particularly good at it.
Needfuldoer
Not true! Just the other day she bought a Coke Zero…
Mr. Mendo
I envy her, living back when those still existed…
duckgalrox
They still do; our CEO drinks it so I order it for the work fridge.
-Sentinel-
Where do you live? In Canada, Coke Zero is available everywhere normal Coke is.
Daibhid C
In the UK they’ve renamed it Coke Zero Sugar, but I haven’t noticed it tasting any different.
The tabloids apparently said people were up in arms, but they say that every time anyone does anything.
Needfuldoer
That’s what they did here in ‘murica, too. Same stuff, new label. It’s basically the diet version of Coca-Cola Classic, as opposed to Diet Coke (which is more like New Coke). It’s good, but I still keep some regular Diet Coke on hand. Sometimes you just need the kind of nostalgia rush that only the metallic aftertaste of aspartame can conjure.
Mephron
Having tried it, I think it tastes more like Diet Coke than it used to. It used to taste a bit more like just regular Coke than Diet Coke.
I’m not happy about it.
Knayt
She knew she was trying a new branch of Christianity, but new food? That’s a bridge too far – this is a woman who can’t even eat most kid’s food because too many ingredients are brushing up against each other.
Reltzik
One way or another, there’s going to be a lot of wining.
Gwen
Don’t most churches have a non-alcoholic alternative, even if they generally use wine?
Rheinman
My parents Presbeterian church had wine on the inside cups on the tray and grape juice on the outside, and the tray of cups were passed up and down the pews. Every Episcopal church I have been to was full on wine in a chalice and you want up front to get it. “The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.”
Joe Helfrich
Episcopal churches mix water and wine during the prep. Though from having been the assisting acolyte for at least three different priests (back before I was a godless atheist) the amount of water used to dilute the wine can vary significantly.
Freemage
Yup. It’s fun when the priest overestimates the number of people coming up for Communion. You’re not allowed to just throw that stuff out after the blessing–it’s officially “the Blood of Christ” at that point. Acolytes (not assisting with the Eucharist proper) are the last ones to receive Communion for this very reason–you learn quickly to judge how much to drink by how much the priest tips the goblet.
Rachel
At every Anglican church (the English Episcopal church) I was at it was: the blood of Christ, shed for you.
Not sure about the alcohol content, but I started taking communion around my confirmation (11 years old). So I’m guessing it’s not that alcoholic.
Kamino Neko
In churches I attended the ‘non-alcoholic alternative’ is simply skipping the wine and just having the host.
Kamino Neko
(It should also be noted that the wine was watered down and wasn’t exactly potent to begin with. Unless you’re a child or an alcoholic, there’s no reason to skip it.)
Pat
You don’t have to take it. Also, one cup is for quite a few people to share; you’re not exactly supposed to drink a lot of it.
Roborat
That seems a bit unsanitary.
Kryss LaBryn
The priest told us that germs had a hard time living on silver and gold (the metals are toxic to bacteria, apparently), so between that and the alcohol in the wine, they were pretty much all killed by the time the used spot on the cup, which is rotated slightly between each person as well as being wiped, came around to be used again.
So apparently not as bad as one might think; even if someone in the line before you had a cold or what, it was supposed to be okay.
Knayt
Your priest is half right at best. Silver is toxic to bacteria (technically it’s silver oxide particles at low concentration, but unless the wine is being poured in a vacuum you’re good), gold doesn’t do much at all – gold nanoparticles do, but that’s not the same thing. However rotating the wine swishes it enough to let some bacteria move around, antimicrobials are far from instantaneous, and thus the actual sanitation effects are pretty minimal.
With that said, most peoples immune systems can handle eating and drinking communal food just fine, particularly as a lot of the really nasty diseases that can spread via mouth can only live in fairly tight temperature ranges around the human norm. Plus, it’s not like a priest is expected to be an expert here anyways; an epidemiologist saying the same thing would deserve much heavier criticism.
vlademir1
My experience is that most churches of the “high church” movements (along with Catholic and Orthodox) only offer wine, but that partaking of both parts of the sacrament aren’t mandatory for being in full communion. Meanwhile near universally the “low church” movements seem to have strong objections to alcohol even in the sacramental form and only offer grape juice. Some of those churches (largely Methodist and Presbyterian ones in my experience) who fit the “high church” format, offer a choice between wine and grape juice or just grape juice while still ceremonially and ritually hewing closer to the older Catholic and Orthodox sacrament.
CoMa
That’s very informational, thank you.
As far as I remember, we never got wine (as a Catholic), just the ‘bread’, a consecrated wafer. Never wine, we just watched the priest and his altar servers take a small nip from the wine (and never grape juice). But that might be a country-specific thing (I’m from the middle of Europe).
CoMa
I of course meant “informative” not “informational” – sorry, thought too much in my first language
vlademir1
Yeah, it’s regional by traditions dating to the medieval period to my understanding. Where wine was not readily produced locally and thereby an exceptionally difficult to procure part of the service, such as in northern and central Europe, the standard developed to only offer the wine on specific occasions (typically Easter) to the laity or else to only to allow it to the clergy as part of the rite (specifically the priest partakes as the spiritual representative of his flock) so as to ensure there was always some wine for the chalice. In some areas as wine has become more readily available during the last century or so that has fallen by the wayside in others it has stood as part of deep rooted tradition. In my own area of the US, for example, having heavy central and eastern European roots within the local congregation, it’s only offered as part of the Easter Eucharist in other areas I’ve visited in the US, with more Mediterranean roots, it’s weekly.
willis
growing up catholic, only the biggest services even offered wine during communion, and it was always sort of a secondary thing?
Rosie
In the Episcopal church, your non-alcoholic alternative is to cross your hands over your chest and drink nothing.
And in my church it wasn’t watered, it was fortified. Port, like the Anglicans. Kills more germs when you have everyone sip from the same cup.
phlebas
My (UK, Anglican, evangelical, but both of those words have quite different connotations here from in the US) church has actual wine by default but there’s usually a non-alcoholic option. Either a separate station or a separate cup available on request, depending on the size of the service.
hof1991
Catholic and most Anglican/Espiscopalian are Biblical on this. Unleavened bread and wine. The Bible-based churches use substitutes.
Bad wine too. High alcohol since it cuts down on germs being shared. Low quality so no one drinks it outside of services.
Optimal Optimus
Will we finally get to see drunk Joyce?
Yumi
As unlikely as that seems, I’m now picturing Joyce taking a sip of wine, panic herself into thinking she’s drunk, and acting accordingly.
Lexi
I really, really, really hope this is exactly what happens.
Paul
I have some weird alcohol intolerance thing. A sip of alcohol I don’t even know about is enough to make me dizzy.
Grethelwveir
Friend, same. My tolerance limit is any, and I don’t even get to be a fun drunk. I turn into blubbering mess and have to go home.
duckgalrox
That sounds like an allergy. I have a friend with an alcohol allergy.
Christine
For context: I do drink occasionally. (The other day I had an almost-full sampler glass of beer with dinner! And I even finished most of it during the meal!) But I am convinced that I can feel even the tiny sip of communion wine. I know that it’s a higher alcohol percentage, but it’s not supposed to be *that* high.
Yumi
Maybe it’s the holy spirit.
Knayt
This definitely suggests a really low tolerance – wine caps out at about 20% alcohol, and even reaching that requires some specialized strains of yeast that can handle a higher alcohol environment. Past that you need to straight up distill alcohol to make it stronger, and that would be brandy anyways (or cognac).
A tiny sip is maybe 10 mL, and 2mL of straight ethanol (which again, high estimate) isn’t a lot. For reference, one shot is usually in the vicinity of 20 mL of straight alcohol, with larger shot glasses and stronger drinks pushing it up towards 40. A full sized glass of beer is theoretically roughly comparable.
vlademir1
There are a few strains in commercial use that can reach about 30% (specifically the one bred by Sam Adams for their Utopias line, but there are a few others in use for whiskey mash). None are useful for wine, but they exist ;D.
Also, cognac is a type of brandy.
vlademir1
If you actually practice the typical prescribed fasting before partaking in the sacrament the alcohol present will hit your system harder than normal drinking with meals. It’ll metabolize comparatively quick since since the total volume is so low, but if you don’t typically drink on an empty stomach just enough alcohol will hit your brain before it metabolizes to seem more significant.
Pablo360
I think you severely overestimate the volume of wine used in typical eucharistic ceremonies.
Freemage
True, but I got a story…
Used to be an Episcopal acolyte (it meant doing more than just sitting in a pew during services), and we’d sometimes get asked to serve at funerals and weddings (typically, the family would give the priest a gratuity for the service, and we’d be given a bit off the top as a tip).
So, one time, a woman who’d been in the church for decades had died, and I was tapped to serve at the funeral. She’d been a major presence in the community, and so the church was PACKED. Standing room only, which rarely even happened on the big services.
So, Father B. set up two cups of wine–the big ones. And then… virtually no one came up to the altar railing. I think we had ten communicants; the rest were local Baptists and Gospel church-goers, who didn’t do wine at Communion.
Father B. took it in stride. He made sure I got a HUGE mouthful of wine, and then he did the finishing duties himself (no discarding the Blood of Christ, after all). It was the only time I’ve ever seen him have to pause in the process of finishing the last of the wine off–he was definitely feeling it for the rest of the Mass.
Pablo360
Nice