Less demand: nuns preparing altar breads haven’t been as busy because of national and local lockdowns. The demand for Eucharistic bread is at a “trickle” according to the nuns who provide for much of Ireland’s need.
The Irish Catholic reported last September on the “absolute decimation” of demand for altar breads at the onset of the pandemic, with the effect being likened to a guillotine dropping.
Nine months on, the situation is still far from the pre-pandemic norm for those who make the altar breads.
“Since the churches opened, there’s some hosts going out every day, but nothing, absolutely nothing like what it used to be,” Sr Lucy Conway of the Drumcondra Redemptoristines told this paper.
“Will it ever come back to what we were used to?” she asked.
She described Northern Ireland’s positive effect on the sales, saying that the earlier reopening of churches, coupled with the continuation of First Communion and Confirmation ensured the demand for Eucharistic breads rose to a “trickle”.
“Thing are moving along slowly but surely,” Sr Conway said.
Pre-pandemic, the Redemptoristines at St Alphonsus Monastery would have sent out 30 to 40 orders of hosts on a Monday, but recent Mondays have seen no more than 12 orders going out, despite churches being reopened.
“We try to be optimistic the best we can, but we don’t know if it’ll ever go back to that,” Sr Conway said.
Meanwhile, Sr Fiachra Nutty of St Mary’s Abbey, Glencairn, Co. Waterford used the same word, “trickle”, to describe the current level of demand for their Eucharistic bread services.
“The bottom completely fell out of Eucharist bread altogether, to the point where we were literally only supplying hosts really to priests who were saying Mass privately. It’s what you would expect,” Sr Nutty explained.
Both sisters said that priests’ hosts went out consistently throughout the latest lockdown, while monasteries and religious houses around the country also continued to receive a small number of hosts.
Sr Nutty moved to a different department in the Abbey as demand remained low, but said they managed to “keep the unit open”.
“We’ve had a couple of substantial orders, but nothing like what we would normally be having or experiencing over the Easter or Pentecost season,” Sr Nutty said.
“Even coming up to Corpus Christi we would always have had an increase in sales and it just didn’t happen,” she said.
Despite this, the sisters have continued to find solace in the work itself, with Sr Conway saying “it’s a beautiful work for contemplative nuns”.
“They’re made by the nuns in a prayerful atmosphere. In the silence of the morning and packed in the quiet of the afternoon,” she said.
“We’re hopeful and optimistic that in time, things will improve,” she concluded.