Eucharistic fast

[reagent6]

My parish has a 7:30 AM Sunday Mass at which I am a regular lector. Usually I do not get out of bed in time to have my coffee within the 1 hour Eucharistic fast, which is a small enough sacrifice.

About a month ago I saw our pastor drinking coffee just before a Mass he was celebrating, then last week another priest rushed in rather late to start putting on his vestments and let us know he lost track of time while drinking his tea. So, are priests excused from the fast, or has someone one made a ruling that coffee and tea are, in fact, just ‘hot water with an attitude’ as I saw once on someone’s coffee cup? Water of course does not break the fast.

I have no interest in making life harder for our diocesan priests or anyone else, but if a cup of coffee is allowed it just might make those 7:30 lector assignments a little easier.

 

[YoungTradCath]

One who is to receive the most Holy Eucharist is to abstain from any food or drink, with the exception only of water and medicine, for at least the period of one hour before Holy Communion" (CIC 919 §1). Elderly people, those who are ill, and their caretakers are excused from the Eucharistic fast (CIC 191 §3). Priests and deacons may not dispense one obligated by the Eucharistic fast unless the bishop has expressly granted such power to them (cf. CIC 89).

From the Code of Canon Law.

Coffee is not just water, therefore it falls outside of that canon. Maybe your priest just forgot. I don’t know. I wouldn’t consider coffee as necessary even if one is sick or elderly. If you see him do it again, perhaps strike up a conversation.

 

[Scoobyshme]

Could be a timing issue. If the Mass is a full hour, and there aren’t many people, it’s conceivable that he could have his coffee, say 15 minutes before Mass, and still be stretch it out to where he gets his hour in. Especially if he has a long homily.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Theoretically, a priest can dispense himself, can’t he?

 

[Joe_5859]

Was it the priest’s second Mass of the day? Canon 919 also says:

§2. A priest who celebrates the Most Holy Eucharist two or three times on the same day can take something before the second or third celebration even if there is less than one hour between them.

 

[Lapey]

One who is to receive the most Holy Eucharist is to abstain from any food or drink, with the exception only of water and medicine, for at least the period of one hour before Holy Communion" (CIC 919 §1). Elderly people, those who are ill, and their caretakers are excused from the Eucharistic fast (CIC 191 §3). Priests and deacons may not dispense one obligated by the Eucharistic fast unless the bishop has expressly granted such power to them (cf. CIC 89).

From the Code of Canon Law.

Coffee is not just water, therefore it falls outside of that canon. Maybe your priest just forgot. I don’t know. I wouldn’t consider coffee as necessary even if one is sick or elderly. If you see him do it again, perhaps strike up a conversation.

As another pointed out, this fast is not an hour before mass starts, it is an hour before the reception of Holy Communion. A Sunday mass generally lasts an hour. So if you or anyone consumes, as I do, coffee on the way to mass an hour will pass before Communion.

 

[I_Thirst]

I’d be cautious about being too legalistic about the one-hour fast, especially when you are judging your neighbor’s adherence to it. Don’t worry about the speck of dust in your priest’s eye, and don’t mark the time when he took his last sip of coffee. Keep your eye on your soul rather than the second hand of your watch.

Perhaps he had celebrated Mass elsewhere, or maybe he just lost track of time? Perhaps he is even doing it (God forbid) to mock the one-hour fast and set a bad example? Or maybe he will be grateful for correction and for the deeper instruction on the one-hour fast?

 

[FrDavid96]

Was it the priest’s second Mass of the day? Canon 919 also says:

§2. A priest who celebrates the Most Holy Eucharist two or three times on the same day can take something before the second or third celebration even if there is less than one hour between them.

Exactly.

Since that canon applies only to priests, most lay people aren’t aware of it.

 

[DL82]

There is also the principle of ‘charity fulfills the law’, which may account for a priest who has a cup of tea or coffee with a parishioner, while offering them counselling for grief or spiritual direction or just companionship, even if it is immediately before saying Mass.

 

[reagent6]

I’d be cautious about being too legalistic about the one-hour fast, especially when you are judging your neighbor’s adherence to it. Don’t worry about the speck of dust in your priest’s eye, and don’t mark the time when he took his last sip of coffee. Keep your eye on your soul rather than the second hand of your watch.

Perhaps he had celebrated Mass elsewhere, or maybe he just lost track of time? Perhaps he is even doing it (God forbid) to mock the one-hour fast and set a bad example? Or maybe he will be grateful for correction and for the deeper instruction on the one-hour fast?

Worthy points. I guess I asumed that 7:30 AM was the first Mass of the day in both instances. And truly, I was not pointing out a fault so much as looking for a loophole for myself. I would never challenge a priest on such a minor issue- especially after reading about some of the liturgical abuses reported on elsewhere in this website.

As a rule of thumb I asume that communion will begin no sooner than 30 minutes after the Mass starts. When I am acting as lector I get to 7:30 Mass by 7:15 and I guess if I finish my coffee by 7:00 I’ll technically be in the clear. I hope that I am mature enough not to be scandalized by seeing the priest drinking coffee at, say 7:20. .

 

[I_Thirst]

Worthy points. I guess I asumed that 7:30 AM was the first Mass of the day in both instances. And truly, I was not pointing out a fault so much as looking for a loophole for myself. I would never challenge a priest on such a minor issue- especially after reading about some of the liturgical abuses reported on elsewhere in this website.

As a rule of thumb I asume that communion will begin no sooner than 30 minutes after the Mass starts. When I am acting as lector I get to 7:30 Mass by 7:15 and I guess if I finish my coffee by 7:00 I’ll technically be in the clear. I hope that I am mature enough not to be scandalized by seeing the priest drinking coffee at, say 7:20. .

Maybe you could have your coffee one minute after Mass is over? Christ before coffee.

 

[puzzleannie]

About a month ago I saw our pastor drinking coffee just before a Mass he was celebrating, then last week another priest rushed in rather late to start putting on his vestments and let us know he lost track of time while drinking his tea. So, are priests excused from the fast, or has someone one made a ruling that coffee and tea are, in fact, just ‘hot water with an attitude’ as I saw once on someone’s coffee cup? Water of course does not break the fast. .

yes if a priest has more than one Mass and they are too close, and he must eat for health, he may eat. His discipline is different than ours.

 

[ConstantineTG]

yes if a priest has more than one Mass and they are too close, and he must eat for health, he may eat. His discipline is different than ours.

Also there are many other reasons why a priest needs something right before Mass. We are not the morality police. Let us just trust the priest knows what he is doing. If he is not, then he will answer to God, not to us.

 

[FrDavid96]

yes if a priest has more than one Mass and they are too close, and he must eat for health, he may eat. His discipline is different than ours.

And let’s keep in mind that the Eucharistic fast applies to the priest for the first Mass of the day just as it applies to everyone else. After fasting for Mass on Sunday, most people get to go home (or wherever) and have breakfast–or at least they may. Because the priest is obligated to say that next Mass, the Church partly releases him from the fast. We were always taught that this relaxing of the law isn’t intended to completely remove the fast either. Something like a cup of coffee or tea or a slice of toast is fine. The priest still cannot have a full meal–only a little something. That’s why the canon doesn’t say he’s completely released from the fast, only that he is permitted to have something.

 

[ermcma]

In regaurds to the fast, this is what the Church says

The Code of Canon Law sets out the current regulation: “One who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain from any food or drink, with the exception only of water and medicine, for at least the period of one hour before Holy Communion” (Canon 919, par. 1). However, there are exceptions: “Those who are advanced in age or who suffer from any infirmity, as well as those who take care of them, can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have taken something during the previous hour” (par. 3).

There are many meanings and purposes to the practice of fasting before eucharistic reception, among them the need for Catholics to approach the Eucharist in a physically and spiritually concentrated fashion. Fasting also reminds us of the great difference between earthly food, which sustains only perishable life, and the food of the Eucharist, which is the medicine of immortality.

Given what the second paragraph says, I personally don’t try to figure out the exact time, so I can have coffee or anything else on the way to Mass. For me, it is a small sacrafice as compared to what Jesus sacraficed for me to abstain from food and drink one hour before Mass starts. Really, is it that much to do that for Him?