A reader writes

My local church and the churches in the surrounding towns all seem to have stopped giving the Blood of Christ to parishoners. This began even before the swine flu scare and it has been bothering me for some time.

Are they allowed to just drop this tradition like that? More importantly am I missing a portion of Christ?

Here’s the Catechism:

1390 Since Christ is sacramentally present under each of the species, communion under the species of bread alone makes it possible to receive all the fruit of Eucharistic grace. For pastoral reasons this manner of receiving communion has been legitimately established as the most common form in the Latin rite. But “the sign of communion is more complete when given under both kinds, since in that form the sign of the Eucharistic meal appears more clearly.” This is the usual form of receiving communion in the Eastern rites.

So do not worry. The whole Christ is present in both species. If you don’t receive the cup you don’t miss a thing in the grace department.

Personally, I prefer receiving under both kinds since it completes the Eucharistic gesture, but the fact is, as the CCC notes, in the Western Church the custom of receiving under both species is a recent revival of ancient practice which is still by no means universal in the Latin rite. I hope it becomes more universal, but don’t sweat it if you can’t receive the cup sometimes. Jesus is fully present in the Host.