Confusion about the Hour Fast

[Whitacre_Girl]

My husband and I have to leave 15 minutes prior to the beginning of mass to get there on time and I frequently have to be at the church 45 minutes early for music rehearsals.

Here’s my question:

by the time eucharist rolls around, hubby and I have been in church or on the road for an hour before we partake. Does this satisfy the fast? If so, then how is this even an issue unless people are eating during mass?

Or are you supposed to not eat the hour prior to LEAVING for mass…or are you supposed to be physically hungry for an hour before mass? I just don’t really get it I suppose.

 

[underacloud]

It is an hour before receiving Eucharist. Of course, out of reverence people might choose to fast for even longer. But the technical requirement is one hour prior to receiving.

As you point out, for most people and in most cases this is not a difficult requirement. For a typical Sunday mass, you might receive Eucharist after about 40 minutes, meaning only a 20 minute fast prior to the start of mass. Weekday masses are usually shorter, so a longer fast before the start.

 

[1ke]

The fast is for one hour before receiving the Eucharist.

While many Sunday masses are indeed long enough so that you would meet the fast easily in many parishes, in others it is not. In my old parish, mass was almost an hour and a half, but in my current parish due to the small size and our priest being from another country (and therefore giving a very short homily) mass is typically 40 min on a Sunday and less if the organist isn’t there.

And daily masses are typically only a half hour start to finish, so one would have to make sure not to eat for about 45 minutes before a daily mass starts.

 

[Immaculata90]

+LDM
I would say that it is always best to try and observe the fast before leaving as much as possible, because you never know exactly when you will receive. Of course you can estimate, but you don’t want to be sitting in the pew before receiving Our Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist thinking “Now, did Bertha and I have coffee and rolls at 9:37 or was it 9:45…I’m not sure.”

Of course the rule is only to fast one hour before receiving so you can do as you please. But I believe it is better to be prepared than not be able to receive or be questioning if an hour has passed or not. It will give you more time to spend focusing on Jesus than the doughnut you scarfed down as you walked out the door at home.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

+LDM
I would say that it is always best to try and observe the fast before leaving as much as possible, because you never know exactly when you will receive. Of course you can estimate, but you don’t want to be sitting in the pew before receiving Our Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist thinking “Now, did Bertha and I have coffee and rolls at 9:37 or was it 9:45…I’m not sure.”

Of course the rule is only to fast one hour before receiving so you can do as you please. But I believe it is better to be prepared than not be able to receive or be questioning if an hour has passed or not. It will give you more time to spend focusing on Jesus than the doughnut you scarfed down as you walked out the door at home.

Well, we typically go to evening mass on saturday nights and get dinner afterwards. I’m more wondering for future reference what with kids and such. We always plan (if we have to go in the morning or if I need a snack for whatever reason) on eucharist being halfway through the mass, though it NEVER is, just to be on the safe side.

Do you guys know the theological reasons for the fast? I thought food stayed in your stomach for at least 4 hours, so why not a 4 hour fast?

 

[Immaculata90]

Well, we typically go to evening mass on saturday nights and get dinner afterwards. I’m more wondering for future reference what with kids and such. We always plan (if we have to go in the morning or if I need a snack for whatever reason) on eucharist being halfway through the mass, though it NEVER is, just to be on the safe side.

Do you guys know the theological reasons for the fast? I thought food stayed in your stomach for at least 4 hours, so why not a 4 hour fast?

Reasoning behind the fast:

The most important point regarding this question concerns why we ought to fast. St. Paul reminds us, “Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may be revealed” (2 Cor 4:10). We too are charged to convert our whole lives—body and soul—to the Lord. This conversion process involves doing penance—including bodily mortification like fasting—for our sins and weaknesses, which in turn strengthens and heals us. Pope Paul VI exhorted the faithful in his apostolic constitution “Paenitemini” (1966), “Mortification aims at the liberation of man, who often finds himself, because of concupiscence, almost chained by his own senses. Through ‘corporal fasting’ man regains strength, and the wound inflicted on the dignity of our nature by intemperance is cured by the medicine of a salutary abstinence.”

Moreover, the fast before receiving Holy Communion creates a physical hunger and thirst for the Lord, which in turn augments the spiritual hunger and thirst we ought to have. In the Old Testament, fasting prepared individuals to receive the action of God and to be placed in His presence. For instance, Moses (Ex 34:28) fasted 40 days atop Mount Sinai as he received the Ten Commandments. Elijah (I Kings 19:8) fasted 40 days as he walked to Mount Horeb to encounter God. Similarly, Jesus Himself fasted 40 days as he prepared to begin His public ministry (Mt 4:1ff) and encouraged fasting (Mt 6:16-18).

Likewise, this corporal work enhances the spiritual disposition we need to receive Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. In a sense, we fast so as not “to spoil our appetite” but to increase it for the sharing of the Paschal banquet. Jesus said in the Beatitudes, “Blest are they who hunger and thirst for holiness; they shall have their fill” (Mt 5:6). In all, fasting is an exercise of humility, hope and love—essential virtues in preparing ourselves to receive the Holy Eucharist.

from EWTN

I would say just my own little opinion–would be also that most people would be hungry again before all the food in their stomach would be completely digested. And of course, we want what we cant have.

You do make a good point though with the 4 hours idea. In the Triditine Latin Mass (Mass, pre-Vatican II for Roman Catholics), people fasted from midnight before, even longer from what I hear but I can’t remember the exact amount of hours right now. The fast was reduced to 3 hours, and eventually to our current one hour fast we are to observe now. I’ve found most people aren’t even aware of the one hour fast–something I didn’t know about until college. My family always used to eat breakfast before going to 8:00am Mass when I was a child. The fast could easily be longer, but this is what Holy Mother Church has told us so that is the minimum we are to do

 

[I_Thirst]

You do make a good point though with the 4 hours idea. In the Triditine Latin Mass (Mass, pre-Vatican II for Roman Catholics), people fasted from midnight before

This is still the practice of many Eastern Catholics as well as the Orthodox.

I think the current Western practice of one hour invites scrupulosity and all kinds of silliness – we should finish eating at the pizza buffet thirty minutes before Mass because Fr Speedo says a fast Mass!

I think most of keep a stricter fast when getting blood tests for cholesterol than the one we keep for Mass.

 

[garn9173]

I attend Sunday morning Mass at 8:30. I set the alarm for 7:45, enough time to shower & shave, no problems with meeting the minimum of fasting for one hour

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

I attend Sunday morning Mass at 8:30. I set the alarm for 7:45, enough time to shower & shave, no problems with meeting the minimum of fasting for one hour

Yeah, this is what I do when I go to mass in the morning.

See, we always have a “fast” or sorts because we always get dinner right after mass and we like to be hungry so we’re always pretty hungry at mass!

 

[paperwight66]

I think the purpose of the fast is to remind us what we are about to do, and to bring it to mind during that hour that we should be prayerfully preparing ourselves.

i really don’t see that an hour’s fast is going to make us hungry in any way, because surely we go more than an hour between meals? So ‘making us hunger for Communion’ seems unrealistic in that purely physical sense.

i don’t see it as a hardship either, not a real penance at all, except of the will because we are asked to show obedience.

As for fretting over whether we ate at 9.37 or 9.45, and deciding whether to receive or not based on that, I can’t relate to that at all. It’s the intention that matters. Did the person intend to keep the fast or not? If they did, but somehow the time ran away with them, or they were keeping someone company, I don’t see the problem.

I am reminded of a lady who came into the sacristy very distressed, because she had been to visit a sick friend, had made her a cup of tea, and had drunk tea herself while she chatted to enourage her to drink. She was worried that she could not receive Communion becauase she was ten minutes over time. I sometimes wonder whether God grieves over being thought of as such a clock-watching tyrant.

 

[ConstantineTG]

I think the purpose of the fast is to remind us what we are about to do, and to bring it to mind during that hour that we should be prayerfully preparing ourselves.

The purpose of the fast is to remind us that we only need God to live.