Eucharistic fasting for TLM

  • Thread starter Thread starter Super_Grover
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Super_Grover

Guest
Canon law requires a fast of at least one hour. Prior to 1964, and when the TLM was the Mass, it was fasting from midnight the night before.

I would assume (although I understand I might be wrong) that the canon law requirement of fasting for one hour applies even if attending TLM.

Does anyone know differently?

I will agree in advance that there may be benefits to fasting longer than required. My question is what is REQUIRED.
 
Super_Grover said:
Canon law requires a fast of at least one hour. Prior to 1964, and when the TLM was the Mass, it was fasting from midnight the night before.

I would assume (although I understand I might be wrong) that the canon law requirement of fasting for one hour applies even if attending TLM.

Does anyone know differently?

I will agree in advance that there may be benefits to fasting longer than required. My question is what is REQUIRED.
Click to expand...
This is correct. The canon law is the canon law – you can’t opt (or be forced) into an earlier version of the Code. Likewise fasts for things like the Rogation Days are optional; even if you go to a mass under the 1962 Missal, you are still bound only by the 1983 Code as amended.
 
Super_Grover said:
Canon law requires a fast of at least one hour. Prior to 1964, and when the TLM was the Mass, it was fasting from midnight the night before.

I would assume (although I understand I might be wrong) that the canon law requirement of fasting for one hour applies even if attending TLM.

Does anyone know differently?

I will agree in advance that there may be benefits to fasting longer than required. My question is what is REQUIRED.
Click to expand...
The one-hour minimum fast is for communion, not the Mass, either form.

Just a little correction, the fast prior to 64 was 3-hrs minimum before Mass started. Sometime in the 50’s the fast requirement had been changed from midnight to 3 hrs.
 
Considering the High Mass takes about an hour and a half, the new code essentially eliminates fasting. 🤷
 
Super_Grover said:
Canon law requires a fast of at least one hour. Prior to 1964, and when the TLM was the Mass, it was fasting from midnight the night before.

I would assume (although I understand I might be wrong) that the canon law requirement of fasting for one hour applies even if attending TLM.

**Does anyone know differently?
**
I will agree in advance that there may be benefits to fasting longer than required. My question is what is REQUIRED.
Click to expand...
Our priest teaches the concept of fasting in the classic Catholic sense. Fasting is a disciplining of the flesh and a spiritual necessity. The Faithful practice it as a means of humbling one’s pride, atoning for sin, and defending against the carnal excesses that separate us from God. Through hunger, we learn to master our unruly carnal appetites.

When done properly, fasting, like physical conditioning, will produce discomfort. The benefit is the strengthening of oneself against the temptations of Satan and the Modern world. It is in fact a gift - given to us by our Holy Church - like a free health club membership. It is ultimately up to us to use it or lose it.

With full knowledge of the one-hour rule of cannon law, our TLM community is encouraged to begin our Eucharistic fast before midnight if we wish to receive Holy Communion at 7am Sunday High Mass.

I have heard no complaints.
.
 
mick321 said:
Our priest teaches the concept of fasting in the classic Catholic sense. Fasting is a disciplining of the flesh and a spiritual necessity. The Faithful practice it as a means of humbling one’s pride, atoning for sin, and defending against the carnal excesses that separate us from God. Through hunger, we learn to master our unruly carnal appetites.

When done properly, fasting, like physical conditioning, will produce discomfort. The benefit is the strengthening of oneself against the temptations of Satan and the Modern world. It is in fact a gift - given to us by our Holy Church - like a free health club membership. It is ultimately up to us to use it or lose it.

With full knowledge of the one-hour rule of cannon law, our TLM community is encouraged to begin our Eucharistic fast before midnight if we wish to receive Holy Communion at 7am Sunday High Mass.

I have heard no complaints.
.
Click to expand...
Well, a few years ago I went to a mass (I think it was 8am) and woke up too late to have breakfast beforehand. So perforce I did fast from midnight the night before.

It was sweltering hot and I got sick and dizzy from dehydration and/or low blood sugar while at Mass, which wouldn’t have happened if I’d eaten and drunk. So I certainly would’ve complained about midnight fasting.

And I imagine others must’ve done while it was the rule, otherwise it wouldn’t have been changed to 3 hours. 🤷
 
Super_Grover said:
Canon law requires a fast of at least one hour. Prior to 1964, and when the TLM was the Mass, it was fasting from midnight the night before.

I would assume (although I understand I might be wrong) that the canon law requirement of fasting for one hour applies even if attending TLM.

Does anyone know differently?

I will agree in advance that there may be benefits to fasting longer than required. My question is what is REQUIRED.
Click to expand...
As ProVobis correctly pointed out, the “midnight fast” rule was changed in the 1950s and reduced to 3 hours. That was again changed and reduced to one hour. So, what is “required” is the one hour fast according to the norms of law. A person is, of course, free, to observe either the “3 hour fast” or the “midnight fast” if he so chooses.
 
I’m relieved to find out that my memory hasn’t gone “south”. Yep, I remember now about the fasting.
 
LilyM said:
Well, a few years ago I went to a mass (I think it was 8am) and woke up too late to have breakfast beforehand. So perforce I did fast from midnight the night before.

It was sweltering hot and I got sick and dizzy from dehydration and/or low blood sugar while at Mass, which wouldn’t have happened if I’d eaten and drunk. So I certainly would’ve complained about midnight fasting.

And I imagine others must’ve done while it was the rule, otherwise it wouldn’t have been changed to 3 hours. 🤷
Click to expand...
***Good to hear that you made it through unscathed.

Keep up the good work.

Benedictus Deus!***
 
Thanks everyone, and thanks for explaining the history of the transition from midnight the night before to three hours to one hour fast rule. I was born after V2 and never knew about three hour rule.
 
LilyM said:
It was sweltering hot and I got sick and dizzy from dehydration and/or low blood sugar while at Mass, which wouldn’t have happened if I’d eaten and drunk. So I certainly would’ve complained about midnight fasting.

And I imagine others must’ve done while it was the rule, otherwise it wouldn’t have been changed to 3 hours. 🤷
Click to expand...
I don’t know if they complained for that reason. 🙂 But much fewer went to communion back then and the rule was changed to 3 hrs to allow more to go to communion, especially when more Masses were said later in the morning. Even then in the late 50’s I would say only about 100-150 of a gallery-filled, standing-room-only crowd in my parish normally received communion even when it wasn’t hot.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top