(Mv.IV.3.3) [229] Then the Blessed One addressed the monks, “Gather, monks. The Saṅgha will invite.”

When that was said, a certain monk said to the Blessed One, “There is a sick monk, lord. He hasn’t come.”

“I allow that a sick monk give his invitation.”

“And, monks, it should be given like this:

“Having arranged his robe over one shoulder, the sick monk should approach one monk, then sit in the kneeling position with his hands placed palm-to-palm over the heart and say, ‘I give (my) invitation. Convey my invitation. Invite on my behalf.’

“If he makes this understood by physical gesture, by voice, or by both physical gesture and voice, his invitation is given.

“If he does not make this understood by physical gesture, by voice, or by both physical gesture and voice, his invitation is not given.

(Mv.IV.3.4) “If he manages it, well and good. If not, then, having carried the sick monk into the midst of the Saṅgha on a bed or bench, they should invite.

“If the thought should occur to the monks who are tending to the sick monk, ‘If we move the sick one from this spot, his disease will grow worse or he will die,’ then the sick one should not be moved from his place. The Saṅgha should go there and invite.

“Not even then should a factional Saṅgha invite. If it should invite: an offense of wrong doing.”

(Mv.IV.3.5) “Monks, if the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) invitation, goes away then and there (not to the Invitation), the invitation should be given to another (monk).

“Monks, if the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) invitation — then and there — renounces the training, if he admits: to being a novice, to having renounced the training, to having committed an extreme offense, to being insane, to being possessed, to being delirious with pain, to being suspended for not seeing an offense, to being suspended for not making amends for an offense, to being suspended for not relinquishing an evil view, to being a paṇḍaka, to being one living in affiliation by theft, to having gone over to another religion, to being an animal, a matricide, a patricide, the murderer of an arahant, the molester of a bhikkhunī, a schismatic, one who has shed a Tathāgata’s blood, or a hermaphrodite, then the invitation should be given to another (monk).

“Monks, if the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) invitation, goes away (somewhere else) while on the way (to the Invitation), the invitation is not conveyed.

“Monks, if the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) invitation — while on the way (to the Invitation) — renounces the training, dies, …

“admits to being a hermaphrodite, then the invitation is not conveyed.

“Monks, if the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) invitation — on arriving in the Saṅgha — goes away (somewhere else), the purity is conveyed.

“Monks, if the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) purity — on arriving in the Saṅgha — disrobes, dies, …

“admits to being a hermaphrodite, then the invitation is conveyed.

“Monks, if the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) invitation — on arriving in the Saṅgha — falling asleep, doesn’t announce it, then the invitation is conveyed. There is no offense for the conveyor of the invitation.

“Monks, if the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) invitation — on arriving in the Saṅgha — having entered a (meditative) attainment, doesn’t announce it, then the invitation is conveyed. There is no offense for the conveyor of the invitation.

“Monks, if the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) invitation — on arriving in the Saṅgha — doesn’t announce it out of carelessness, then the invitation is conveyed. There is no offense for the conveyor of the invitation.

“If the conveyor of the invitation, having been given (another monk’s) invitation — on arriving in the Saṅgha — intentionally does not announce it, the the invitation is conveyed. For the conveyor of the invitation: an offense of wrong doing.

“I allow that, on the Invitation day, when an invitation is given, that consent be given as well when the Saṅgha has something to be done.”