Shannon,
The problem with this is the matter of sacrilege.
The Blood of Christ is so sacred that if you note carefully, after the liturgy, the priest, and only the priest, or maybe a deacon if he's present, has to purify any vessel that has contained the Blood of Christ. This involves rinsing it with water to capture every drop and drinking the water. When the vessel is eventually washed, the wash is poured down a special sink that empties directly into the ground rather than into the sewer.
If the Precious Blood were distributed using little plastic cups, each one would have to be similarly purified and washed by the priest in order to avoid the sin of sacrilege. Either that, or they would have to be collected and burned. The problem with that, is that you would have to ensure that each communicant returned the plastic cup, otherwise, again, there is the danger of sacrilege by letting the remaining drops of the Precious Blood go out of the control of the sacred ministers.
Do not forget that we are talking here about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist: the Precious Blood is, in a very literal, albeit sacramental way, the Precious Blood of Christ and not a mere symbol as it is in Protestant churches, and we must treat it with the utmost reverence and care.
Protestant churches treat the Eucharist the way that they do because they do not believe what we believe about It. . . . that It is really and truly the Precious Blood of Christ. Hence, they treat it cavalierly. We cannot do the same.
If receiving the Precious Blood is so important to you, (and remember that both the Body and Blood are received under either form of the consecrated host or the cup, so there is no strict obligation to receive both the host and the chalice,) then I recommend going to a church that distributes Communion in the form of intinction, that is, by dipping the Body of Christ into the Blood of Christ and giving both sacred species to the communicant at once, as they do in Eastern Rite Catholic parishes.
Eric Ewanco
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