Andreas, you make many good points here, in particular that it takes more reverence to stay in your seat and not receive Holy Communion than it does to automatically go up and receive out of habit.
Right, it’s not arbitrary. The Church adjusts it according to the larger issue, which is to encourage Communion.
The Church encourages frequent Communion. To have to stay in one’s seat because of a difficult schedule is not reverence.
I can see that I didn’t have a way to support the alleged mitigated fast for busy Catholics, but apart from that, my point is actually a minimal one, consistent with Church practice: namely, that the one-hour fast is appropriately set, to encourage more frequent Communion. This is what the Church wishes to do. The one-hour fast should not be thought a bad thing. Catholics going to daily Mass are preparing themselves in all kinds of ways for their life with Christ. A lot of them pray the breviary, show up early for the Rosary, stay a few minutes after Mass, and make a sacrifice to be there at all. Often the opportunity cost is real.
It most certainly is. It takes great reverence for Our Lord not to commit a sin of sacrilege out of love for Him. How can we be casual towards Communion?
The Church deemed a one-hour fast an appropriate balance between the need to fast prior to Communion, and the lives people lead today. The daily communicants I see are not casual towards Communion.
They are if they don’t go to frequent confession.
I think the daily communicants are among those who most frequently go to confession.
Daily communicants, yes. But what about the people who receive every Sunday no matter what, and only go to confession once a year? Do you think the Church had that in mind when it instituted frequent communion and the 1 hour fast? :nope:
They go that often?? What’d you do, hire Pew research or something?
Hey ctos!!! You’ve come full circle!
They go that often?? What’d you do, hire Pew research or something?
Kidding. No, I think the Church wants more Confession. Actually it might not be a bad idea to institute a three-hour fast for Sundays. Just a thought.
Confession won’t help those unmarried couples that live together or insist on practicing birth control. So they just follow the crowd and do what everyone else does.
They go that often?? What’d you do, hire Pew research or something?
Kidding. No, I think the Church wants more Confession. Actually it might not be a bad idea to institute a three-hour fast for Sundays. Just a thought.
My main point is that the one-hour eucharistic fast is consistent with the mind of the Church in encouraging, i.e. making possible, more frequent Communion. Attempts to argue that ‘ctos likes to eat’ or ‘daily communicants want easy holiness’ and whatnot have all failed. And every time you argue that the disciplines are not arbitrary, I reply, ‘correct’!
I have no problem with the one hour fast. What I don’t understand is why some people feel it’s so difficult to go without eating for one hour or more. We live in a society of convenience, and that alone is a barrier to holiness.My main point is that the one-hour eucharistic fast is consistent with the mind of the Church in encouraging, i.e. making possible, more frequent Communion. Attempts to argue that ‘ctos likes to eat’ or ‘daily communicants want easy holiness’ and whatnot have all failed. And every time you argue that the disciplines are not arbitrary, I reply, ‘correct’!
Incidentally, the eucharistic fast once precluded water as well. So, how traditional do you want to be?
I think the question of the eucharistic fast is interesting because it reveals a failure to appreciate the mind of the Church in a larger way. The pattern is this: the one-hour fast at first blush sounds wimpy. Those who want to find fault seize upon it as ‘an example of the sort of thing they mean’. But, it turns out that the Church has a reason for the one-hour fast. And upon inspection it turns out that many people would in fact be prevented from receiving Communion were the fast longer. But rather than accept this fact and perceive what the Church is doing, some would try to argue that people should change their lives in some substantial way in order to meet the requirements of an earlier pattern. Then they additionally argue that those people just want holiness to be easy-- except that those very people, who receive daily communion with the benefit of the one-hour fast actually turn out to take the faith very seriously.
While frequent confession is definitely good and the Church does encourage it, please remember that Catholics are only required to go to confession once a year. Additionally, they are currently only required to fast for one hour before receiving communion.
But don’t forget, it is also required to abstain from Communion if you are not in a state of grace. Frequent Communion should be balanced with frequent confession because we are all sinners.
Of course one should abstain from Holy Communion if not in a state of grace. That wasn’t my argument at all.
True, but look at all the graces they are missing out on. A little education in the Catechism might be in order, no?