Fasting before church (loose ended qustion)

[WhiteDove359]

Are you suposed to fast 1 hour before MASS…or 1 hour before reciveing the EUCHARIST?!? its something I am confused about and Its time I learn it…Ive always thought it was before Mass…

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

It’s one hour before receiving communion:

Can. 919 §1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine.

This is the minimum and someone could observe a longer period of fasting before communion.

 

[johng1654]

My understanding is one hour prior to receiving the Eucharist. However, I strive to meet the one hour before Mass. Not eating before Mass at all does seem to make sense to me. The mornings I get up and go to 6:30AM Mass are special and my stop for coffee and a donut after always helps me to appreciate the early focus on the Eucharistic Lord.

 

[WetCatechumen]

I was raised Protestant. We all ate breakfast before church.

When I first started attending Mass, I started fasting at midnight, before I even knew the rule. It just made sense that if people at Mass received the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, that they would have at least fasted that day before receiving.

It was really strange to me that my Catholic ex-girlfriend would eat breakfast just before Mass (although before an hour before communion).

If I go to a Mass that starts in the afternoon, I generally start fasting three hours before the start of Mass. If I’m going to daily Mass, I try to do three hours before, but sometimes I’ll settle for just the one hour before.

However, the rule is “one hour before receiving Holy Communion”. I would exhort you to follow a midnight fast on Sunday and a three hour fast on weekdays, but do whatever you feel called to.

 

[IrishAm]

I was told recently (and, must admit, it was the first time I had heard it) that the current obligation is to fast for one hour prior to the consecration, not before receiving.

Anyone have something “official” to confirm or negate?

 

[jmcrae]

Are you suposed to fast 1 hour before MASS…or 1 hour before reciveing the EUCHARIST?!? its something I am confused about and Its time I learn it…Ive always thought it was before Mass…

The minimum is one hour before receiving Holy Communion - however, since it is impossible to know how long the Mass will take, and thus, impossible to be able to predict the exact moment when you will be receiving Holy Communion, I find for myself that starting my fast at least one hour before Mass is scheduled to begin relieves me of any kind of temptations to scrupulosity - I don’t have to look at my watch and decide whether to receive, or not, because I already know that I’ve been fasting for more than one hour.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

I was told recently (and, must admit, it was the first time I had heard it) that the current obligation is to fast for one hour prior to the consecration, not before receiving.

Anyone have something “official” to confirm or negate?

I quoted from canon law above. It’s at least one hour before communion.

 

[IrishAm]

I quoted from canon law above. It’s at least one hour before communion.

I saw that, and suppose that where “interpretation” comes into play.

**Can. 919 §1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine.
**

Notice canon law says “before holy communion,” not “before receiving holy communion.” Seems rather less an individual’s moment in time of reception and more a community’s – perhaps the time of the consecration, perhaps when the priest first receives, maybe from the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist part of the Mass.

Not debating, just speculating based on the priest’s comment to me at confession last week.

(And it certainly seems to make it pretty clear I ought not be drinking coffee during that hour . . . )

 

[Phemie]

I saw that, and suppose that where “interpretation” comes into play.

**Can. 919 §1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine.
**

Notice canon law says “before holy communion,” not “before receiving holy communion.” Seems rather less an individual’s moment in time of reception and more a community’s – perhaps the time of the consecration, perhaps when the priest first receives, maybe from the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist part of the Mass.

Not debating, just speculating based on the priest’s comment to me at confession last week.

(And it certainly seems to make it pretty clear I ought not be drinking coffee during that hour . . . )

Good grief, that’s really putting your own spin on what is a very simple rule. There’s no need to fast if you’re not receiving Communion. You have to fast for an hour before you receive Communion, not before someone else does or before consecration.

Now it stands to reason that if you fast for an hour before you leave the house you are guaranteed to meet your required fast before Communion. Eating just before going to Mass might leave you several minutes short of the fast if Mass is shorter than normal.

 

[IrishAm]

Good grief, that’s really putting your own spin on what is a very simple rule. There’s no need to fast if you’re not receiving Communion. You have to fast for an hour before you receive Communion, not before someone else does or before consecration.

Now it stands to reason that if you fast for an hour before you leave the house you are guaranteed to meet your required fast before Communion. Eating just before going to Mass might leave you several minutes short of the fast if Mass is shorter than normal.

I agree, by the way. When I confessed a casualness about fasting (working on the assumption that, given travel time and the fact I always arrive early at Mass meant it was virtually impossible NOT to fast an hour before communion, but realized one fine day that may not always be true during the quick daily mass), Father added that it wasn’t just an hour before receiving, but before. Which, as mentioned, was the first time I ever heard that! Thought maybe I was missing something . . .

 

[jmcrae]

I saw that, and suppose that where “interpretation” comes into play.

**Can. 919 §1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine.
**

Notice canon law says “before holy communion,” not “before receiving holy communion.” Seems rather less an individual’s moment in time of reception and more a community’s – perhaps the time of the consecration, perhaps when the priest first receives, maybe from the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist part of the Mass.

Not debating, just speculating based on the priest’s comment to me at confession last week.

(And it certainly seems to make it pretty clear I ought not be drinking coffee during that hour . . . )

Or eating candy, including gum, although I have heard people excuse themselves by claiming that candy and gum are “medicine” or else “not really food.”

Obviously, that’s between them and God, but my own conscience doesn’t allow for such things, and I always try to teach kids not to eat candy or gum in Church.

The Church allows us to drink water at any time, if we are feeling dry, and it seems obvious to me that the intent of the law of fasting is to give us the gift of self-discipline to not just unthinkingly put things into our mouths all the time.

 

[Apryl]

I saw that, and suppose that where “interpretation” comes into play.

**Can. 919 §1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine.
**

Notice canon law says “before holy communion,” not “before receiving holy communion.” Seems rather less an individual’s moment in time of reception and more a community’s – perhaps the time of the consecration, perhaps when the priest first receives, maybe from the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist part of the Mass.

Not debating, just speculating based on the priest’s comment to me at confession last week.

(And it certainly seems to make it pretty clear I ought not be drinking coffee during that hour . . . )

It says “communion from food”

However, your take is MORE stringent, and would not put you in offense of The Law. Just like those of us who fast for an hour before Mass.

The only problem I see is what happens if you instruct someone else, the learn of the actual rule, and we’re back to Adam & Eve

 

[Apryl]

Or eating candy, including gum, although I have heard people excuse themselves by claiming that candy and gum are “medicine” or else “not really food.”

Obviously, that’s between them and God, but my own conscience doesn’t allow for such things, and I always try to teach kids not to eat candy or gum in Church.

The Church allows us to drink water at any time, if we are feeling dry, and it seems obvious to me that the intent of the law of fasting is to give us the gift of self-discipline to not just unthinkingly put things into our mouths all the time.

That whole gum chewing, candy eating, drinking from the water bottle thing makes my flesh crawl!

C’mon, people: MASS IS ONLY AN HOUR LONG. The fact that you ‘need’ to chew gum, eat candy, and drink from a water bottle shows, IMO, a tremendous amount of disrespect

For those who ‘need’ it because their throat is dry, or because they take medication… what did you do 20 years ago before they had bottled water so accessible? You sat there, and you sucked on your tongue, and you would bear with it until you got out of Mass… simple as that. OR, you would get up and LEAVE the church proper to go to the foyer or the rest room and get that ‘needed’ sip of water.

Babies need some crackers or something. If you are old enough to have received the Sacrament of First Holy Communion, you are too old, too mature, too whatever to eat anything OTHER than the sacrament during Mass.

Yes, I do know that there are extenuating circumstances. But do you really run across those? And does that come up every week? and for 30 people in the church?

I really (REALLY) believe that one of the things that keeps people from coming back to church is NOT that there are rules and regulations or that their feelings are hurt, but rather, than the rules and regulations which made the experience of Mass so special and Holy and Spiritual are knocked to the side, and so many treat church like the corner grocery store. If you need that grocery store, please, go to the store! If you want Mass, if you want Catholic Mass, then come, experience that and all that it entails, and then go. When you come back next week, we can do it again. If you want, we can even do it a time or two during the week, if that would help

 

[JosephdeMaistre]

I fast, as my 1962 Roman Missal suggests, from midnight to the Mass.

That way, I don’t have to think about whether or not I ate an hour before the Eucharist or an hour before Mass It’s easy!

 

[choy]

think of it this way, there’s no set time within a mass when concecration or the eucharist begins. it would depend how short or long the mass goes before it gets to those parts. so regardless what the actual rule is, isn’t a good practice to fast 1 hour before the start of mass?

 

[Cristiano]

I obey the rule of fasting 1 hour before I receive communion. Strangely in my case that implies a fast from the night before. I did not really plan it that way but it is the way it works out.

I think that if a person is really calculating the minutes before breakfast and communion, then the person has a problem with priorities.

 

[ProVobis]

Are you suposed to fast 1 hour before MASS…or 1 hour before reciveing the EUCHARIST?!?

No and yes. And you don’t need to receive the Eucharist, only the priest does. However you do have to make your Easter duty, which is receiving once a year.