Fasting and the Eucharist

[daeve]

only elderly people are excused from the fast?

i don’t ask my wife to fast because she’s pregnant, and she’s part of the choir. so i have her have a heavy breakfast before going to church (we go to 9am mass) because for several times she felt sick during mass and almost fainted on a couple of occassions. i’ve already asked her to stop joining the choir until after the pregnancy but i don’t think she can skip a meal for too long until then.

i know she’s excused from fasting and abstinence during lent, but how about for mass? i can’t really find another way around it, our parish has only two masses on sundays and the other one is in French. and we can’t regularly commit to anticipated mass because we do a lot of things on saturdays

Not to be persnickety, but YOU don’t ask her to fast? Don’t you think that’s up to her?

I get up at 7 or 7:30. I don’t choose to eat before Mass, but if you’re Mass is at 9am, you’re not likely to receive Communion until at least 9:30 or so. There’s plenty of time for breakfast and fasting for 1 hour in that time frame. If she feels up to singing during the pregnancy, she should sing. I worked at an answering service, went to college and taught ballet during my first pregnancy and had very easy time of it, including a quick delivery. A friend of mine taught a gymnastics class ending at 7pm, and her baby was born around midnight. Your wife and her doctor know what’s best for her.

In Lent, she’s not required to fast, but she can still abstain from meat. She won’t sick if she eats grilled cheese and tomato soup or scrambled eggs on Fridays. Is she allergic to fish? There are only 2 days of the year we’re asked to fast, and I think that only the most extreme of circumstances will excuse anyone from those two very small sacrifices.

She can make this work if she wants to, but let her make her own decisions about it. She knows what’s best for her body.

 

[mugrat]

What is considered elderly as far as exemption from the 1 hr Eucharistic fast?

 

[daeve]

I don’t know, and no one has answered in several days. You might try Ask an Apologist.

 

[Scott_D]

Every diabetic is different. I fast from the night before until after Mass. We generally go out for a nice breakfast around 10:30, and the wait doesn’t bother me at all. I’m not scrupulous, but if I have a cough drop or something like that because I’m coughing (a chronic problem for me) I won’t receive Communion. Other people consider a cough drop medicine.

For other diabetics, like my mother, it would have been a big problem. Her glucose was all over the place, dropping over a 100 points in 20 minutes.

Your daughter (if she’s an adult) or you (if she’s not) knows what she needs to do to safeguard her health. If fasting would be a problem for her, she shouldn’t fast. However one hour is not a very long time. If she puts her mind to it, and gets up early enough to eat a little something before that, she should be fine. We can usually find ways to make things work if we that’s what we want.

My daughter is better now, but her sugars are frequently all over the place because she’s growing up.

 

[LilyM]

True, people are exempted if there is a genuine medical reason for their having to eat in the one hour before Communion.

Note that water AND medicines don’t break the fast, as has been stated, cough lollies for an actual cough are fine.

Myself? I’m fortunate I don’t have diabetes or other illness requiring that I eat at certain times.

However, remember also that it’s not a requirement or a right to receive Communion at every Mass, rather a privilege that we should be spiritually as prepared for as possible.

Being that I sometimes go to daily Mass during the week as well as Sunday Mass, I figure that I receive Communion plenty, and possibly wouldn’t receive even if I broke the fast for medical reasons or unwittingly.

 

[Bluefish]

Elsewhere the question was asked whether chewing gum broke the communion fast and the answer was that since it was not nutritious, it did not. I’m curious as to why drinking black coffee or a diet coke would break the fast since they are not nutritious.

As a Catholic, I obey the rules, obedience is absolutely necessary. But I question why it is disrespectful to the Eucharist if one sips coffee, for instance. Why is it then disrespectful to approach the Eucharist? Isn’t it more disrespectful NOT to approach the Eucharist in that situation? Especially if we are mindful of the scorn Jesus heaped on those who followed rules for rule’s sake?

 

[MatthewBerkeley]

If you are making an offering or sacrifice out of respect for the Eucharist, why take shortcuts?
God sees all things and cannot be deceived.
And so we strive to make a perfect fast before receiving communion so that we can prepare better in love for the Sacrament.

God bless