The big task of cooking communion wafers for parkway Mass

LANGHORNE, Pa. (WPVI) -- With the Pope's visit to our area just a month away, many of the Catholic faithful are hard at work in preparation for the big weekend, including members of a Bucks County order of nuns who have the important task of cooking up something spiritual, and special, for the huge papal Mass on the parkway.

The Poor Clares are a small group of cloistered nuns in Langhorne. The sisters have been working hard recently to fill an important order: they've been asked to make 100,000 Communion hosts for the Papal Masses during Pope Francis' visit.

Sister Jean Therese tells us, "It's been a great excitement. We've been preparing for this event for the last couple months working almost double shifts at times, making extra bread, extra cutting and we're just happy and very thrilled that we can be a great part of this whole celebration."

The process of making Communion wafers is second nature to the Poor Clares. The religious order has been producing them for 98 years.

Flour and water are mixed together, then poured on stoves where they are pressed and baked into sheets. Those sheets are slipped into a machine that cuts them into the circular hosts distributed during the Mass. Every one is inspected before it's packed.

Sister Anne says, "Our sisters were feeling special just packing the breads and knowing that these will be blessed by the pope and consecrated by the pope."

Liturgy Committee Chairman Father Dennis Gill says, "I really wanted those communities here in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that have as part of their livelihood the making of hosts for Holy Communion to be a very special part of it."

Because they are cloistered, the sisters rarely venture beyond the monastery walls into the outside world. But they will be attending a Papal Mass in Philadelphia.

Sister Jean says, "This is quite a unique experience, a once in a lifetime experience that we will remember for years to come."

And for these sisters who lead a quiet life of prayer, baking Communion wafers for churches locally and as far away as California, seeing Pope Francis in person, consecrating the hosts they've made with their own hands, will surely be unforgettable.