I - What is a Eucharistic Minister?

A Eucharistic Minister is a lay person mandated by the archbishop or pastor to distribute Holy Communion to the faithful. They are also called extraordinary ministers.

At St. Augustine’s, there are two groups of Eucharistic ministers; those who distribute Holy Communion during liturgical celebrations and those who minister in hospitals and nursing homes.

II – Why do we have Eucharistic ministers to distribute Holy Communion, when there are priests to do the job?

"The priest, by virtue of his ordination, offers the sacrifice of the Mass. He confects the Eucharist and most fittingly it is he who distributes Holy Communion to the faithful. Therefore, the bishop, the presbyter and the deacon are ordinary ministers for Holy Communion. For pastoral necessity, however, the Holy See permits local ordinaries to mandate a suitable person individually chosen as an extraordinary minister for a specific occasion, either to give Eucharist to himself or to other faithful and to take to the sick who are confined to their homes.”

The faithful who are authorized as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist can distribute communion only when there is no priest, deacon, or acolyte; when the priest is impeded by illness or advanced age, or when the number of the faithful going to communion is so large as to make the celebration of Mass excessively long.