Eating Before Mass

[Kendy]

Well, I didn’t hear the alarm and overslept, which does not happen too often. Must be subconscious. Off to work.

Kendy

 

[adrift]

Indeedly doodly - up until the 1950s the fast was from MIDNIGHT the night before Mass.

and the fast was from everything including water

 

[aurora77]

Take a snack to work. I get up a little early, about 5:45, to have breakfast b/f 7 am Mass, then take a snack to work with me to eat about 9-10, depending on when I get hungry. I tend to have blood sugar issues as well, and get really sick if I skip a meal, and this has worked well for me.

 

[ElizabethPH]

ElizabethPH said the fast used to be three hours - I think it was even more than that. I think the practice used to be to fast from the night before!

I remember a 3 hour fast.

 

[ElizabethPH]

ElizabethPH said the fast used to be three hours - I think it was even more than that. I think the practice used to be to fast from the night before!

I seem to remember a 3 hour fast when I was a child in the 50’s. I think they changed that to one hour in the mid 60’s. Before the mid 50’s there was a midnight fast. That’s how I remember it. I could be wrong.

 

[Listener]

Catholic Church rules aren’t nearly as strict as they used to be. When I was a child in the 1950’s, the rule for going to Communion was no food or drink of any kind after midnight. This included water. People would normally go to Communion only during the early Mass. If they went to the later Mass, they would normally skip Communion because they had already eaten breakfast.

During Lent, anyone between the ages of 21 and 59 was supposed to fast every day except Sunday during Lent. This fast was pretty similar to the one we have now for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, although I think you could usually have meat with your main meal. Also, no one could eat meat on any Friday during the year, unless there was a special exemption.

I think that the fast that we have now is almost a no-brainer (it is so easy). While a person with a medical condition could probably get an exemption, I think that it would be really easy to carry a breakfast bar. You could eat it in the car after Mass.

 

[adrift]

When I was a child in the 1950’s, the rule for going to Communion was no food or drink of any kind after midnight.

When I received first communion in 1954, the fast was three hours.

 

[boppaid]

I don’t quite understand WHY you need to fast before communion? God made our bodies to eat. Food is good. Why would food within our bodies make our bodies UNWORTHY for Christ? Food is OF God. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

 

[Pug]

I don’t quite understand WHY you need to fast before communion? God made our bodies to eat. Food is good. Why would food within our bodies make our bodies UNWORTHY for Christ? Food is OF God. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

I find that fasting helps me be ready for communion. It gives me a definite space before mass that is for beginning to prepare, to be aware, to welcome Jesus. Our bodies and our minds work together well. I hate it when I fall asleep and someone wakes me just in time to get to mass. I mean, I’m glad they woke me up! But I feel rushed, and not focused enough on Jesus when I get there. My body was not prepared, you see. Neither was my mind.

Maybe this is a sign of age on my part. I like time to transition from the profane to the sacred. I like to get recollected and not all scattered about here and there. Fasting is a focusing operation, not a scattering one. It is a preparatory and lightening thing.

 

[Jennifer123]

I don’t quite understand WHY you need to fast before communion? God made our bodies to eat. Food is good. Why would food within our bodies make our bodies UNWORTHY for Christ? Food is OF God. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Lots of things are good, made by God for us to enjoy, but one must always practice prudence and wise judgement. God made wine for us to enjoy but we can also overindulge. God made sex for us to enjoy but we all know how it’s misuse and abuse can make us unworthy of Christ in many ways.

We believe the Eucharist to be the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Just philosophically, why would anyone, knowing that their beings were going to be filled and enjoined with that precious gift, want to fill their bodies with anything else right before communion?

The fast directs our attention, directs our senses, to what’s most important, the worship of Our Lord. If we can’t do without food for one hour, then I’m not sure we have much control over our fallen natures in regards to anything anymore IMHO. :twocents:

Maybe you could find yourself only subsisting on the Eucharist like St. Catherine of Sienna! I wouldn’t try it though. SHe had a tough life, but certainly was blessed.

 

[BeeSweet]

Get yourself a box of granola bars, they’re just the same as your bowl of cereal.

I’d like to do daily mass, but my baby son tends to have a meltdown at the hour my church celebrates the weekday mass, it happens to be his naptime. You are blessed that the only concern you have is getting in your breakfast on time.

Nutrigrain bars are good too, and they’ve got those funky cereal and milk bars, and then there’s good old fig newtons, or you could pack an apple and some nuts or a pkt of carnation instant breakfast, or a can of Ensure or Boost, or Slimfast, or you could go thru the drive thru on occasion and get a greasy cheesy sausage egg biscuit…mmmmmm… greeeaaaassssyyy… cheeeeeeesyyyyyyyy… arrrghgahgaghgaauuhhhhhmmmmslobber…

 

[Danielkintz]

I wake up at 5:30 a.m. If I at breakfast any earlier. I would be ready for lunch before 10 a.m. This sucks.

Kendy

Kendy, being a follower of Jesus Christ is not meant to be easy. And by learning to control your appetite it will later, when food is scarce or you are unable to find any, be much easier to control your emotions, thoughts and etc. - Keeping Christ reigning within you.