How long do you fast before Communion?

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I know that the current fasting law is one hour, but curious how many people here who attend the TLM fast according to the older law? If so, do you keep the 3 hour or the midnight fast? Why do you do what you do?
 
I fast for about 2 hours to an hour and a half or so unless it’s early morning mass then I would have been fasting from the night before.
The reason I fast a bit longer is because I always end up tasting food in my mouth hours after I’ve eaten it so I want to be sure it’s all gone. I know that’s weird but that’s just me :rolleyes:
 
Pax Christi!

Usually I fast one hour, although sometimes it ends up being an hour and a half or so. Exceptions: when I’m the lector I get to the church earlier, and Easter morning I have no breakfast (I don’t “break fast”!) until after Mass. Then I…

[SIGN]Chow down!![/SIGN]

God bless.
 
I do not fast for more than 1 hour on purpose. It just naturally happens if I attend Mass at or before noon.

If I attend Mass in the evening, the fast may be just one hour.
 
Peace and All Good!!
LisaB said:
I know that the current fasting law is one hour, but curious how many people here who attend the TLM fast according to the older law? If so, do you keep the 3 hour or the midnight fast? Why do you do what you do?
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Normally I keep the fast from midnight. I normally attend Mass at 8am on Sunday. Sometimes I attend Mass at 11am but either way, I have always preferred to keep the fast from Midnight.

:blessyou:
 
I don’t pay particular attention to it. Mass is at 11, and it’s a 35 minute drive. There’s no way I could be less than one hour of fasting before communion. I usually leave the house at 10 am to have about 25 minutes of quiet prayer time in church (in summer, I recite Terce in the lovely little chapel on the monastery grounds), and communion itself is at around noon (Mass lasts about 1:20 to about 1:45 on big solemnities, OF Mass at a monastery). Since I usually eat breakfast at around 8:30 or 9 on Sundays, I guess I’m fasting 3 hours or so anyway. I’m type II diabetic and that’s about as long as I can go. I’ll often have to munch on an apple on the way home as I won’t be having lunch before 1 pm at the earliest due to the drive home.

The Church in her wisdom has decided that 1 hr is enough, even most diabetics can manage that. That’s good enough for me. I remember when the fast was longer, and people passing out before/at/after Mass was common. That is so not necessary! In my case there’s no way, even for an 8 am Mass, that I could go out the door before eating breakfast if I start the fast the previous evening (I’m in bed by 10 pm). Going so long without food actually drives up my blood sugar as my system starts to generate sugar from reserves to keep me going.

We’re not commanded to do anything detrimental to our health. Even the “fast” for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday is not an absolute fast.
 
Peace and All Good!
OraLabora said:
The Church in her wisdom has decided that 1 hr is enough, even most diabetics can manage that. That’s good enough for me. I remember when the fast was longer, and people passing out before/at/after Mass was common. That is so not necessary! In my case there’s no way, even for an 8 am Mass, that I could go out the door before eating breakfast if I start the fast the previous evening (I’m in bed by 10 pm). Going so long without food actually drives up my blood sugar as my system starts to generate sugar from reserves to keep me going.

We’re not commanded to do anything detrimental to our health. Even the “fast” for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday is not an absolute fast.
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:amen:

As always, prudence, and good sense are key, especially when it comes things which could be detrimental to our health.

The Church near me can get incredibly hot during the summer months, even if the doors are left open (the Church is set back away from the road so noise from outside is minimal) and they always remind people to take extra care when attending Masses there at such times because it’s not unusual for people to start feeling very faint during some of the Masses.

:blessyou:
 
It depends. I fast from midnight if the Mass will begin before noon. If it starts after noon, then I reduce the fast to three hours. Due to ongoing (but hopefully temporary) health issues, there’s no way I’d be able to maintain a Communion fast from midnight until 7:15pm.

Since the OP was directed at those “who attend the TLM,” perhaps I should note that I attend EF Mass but quite irregularly, once a month at best. The rest of the time, it’s OF. I go to Mass daily.

I have no reason for fasting as I do other than habit. It would seem strange to me to do otherwise. Though I was born after Vatican II, my mother maintained certain practices from her own childhood so I don’t remember a time when we as a family didn’t start the Communion fast at midnight. Now of course as a kid I would have been asleep long before midnight (or at least in bed but perhaps not actually asleep—heh) so there was no declaration as the clock struck twelve that all food consumption had to stop. But I do remember we never ate breakfast before Mass. This is what I’m used to, and other than the minor change previously mentioned regarding Masses that start after noon there has so far been no reason to alter it.
 
I only fast one hour. My health does not permit anything else. And folks who have significant health issues need not fast at all. Their medical condition actually becomes “their fast.”
 
Only fast one hour before taking Communion or an hour before mass. But given my circumstance (being pregnant), I get hungry faster so I eat.
 
Da Rulz say one hour, so I fast for at least one hour. Sometimes it works out to be a little longer that that. But if I can go for eight hours for an early morning fasting blood draw, I can go one hour for Holy Communion.
 
I’m only 15 and my parents aren’t STRONG Catholics so I only get round to fasting if my parents have cooked dinner before the Mass (I attend evening Mass), so most of the time, I get to just about do 1 hour.

Although, my family (as in grandparents) are Traditionalist Catholics so a 3 hour fast or even a midnight fast sounds more appealing to me
 
Unless I go to a Mass in the evening, I fast from the night before after about 8 PM until I go to Mass the next day. If I was to go to evening Mass, I would probably fast from after I have eaten lunch, then have my dinner afterwards.
 
If I go to Mass any time from 12:30pm and prior then from midnight. If I go to 3pm (time when all EF Masses in my area are) then 3 hours prior to Mass (so 4 to 4.5 hours).

If I do end up eating, I follow the normal 1 hour rule, but I do my best to follow the above.
 
Thank you everyone for.your responses. I asked because I read somewhere (possibly even here, don’t remember) that most Latin Mass goers do at least a 3 hour fast if not from midnight, so was curious if that’s true. I want to do 3 hours but I can’t wake up early enough to eat breakfast 3 hours before Communion. Mass is usually at 11, communion around noon, so 3 hours means I have to be up before 9, noooo! :sleep:
 
LisaB said:
Thank you everyone for.your responses. I asked because I read somewhere (possibly even here, don’t remember) that most Latin Mass goers do at least a 3 hour fast if not from midnight, so was curious if that’s true. I want to do 3 hours but I can’t wake up early enough to eat breakfast 3 hours before Communion. Mass is usually at 11, communion around noon, so 3 hours means I have to be up before 9, noooo! :sleep:
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It’s not binding anymore but the old 3-hr fast was 3-hr before Mass started not when communion was actually distributed.
 
LisaB said:
Thank you everyone for.your responses. I asked because I read somewhere (possibly even here, don’t remember) that most Latin Mass goers do at least a 3 hour fast if not from midnight, so was curious if that’s true. I want to do 3 hours but I can’t wake up early enough to eat breakfast 3 hours before Communion. Mass is usually at 11, communion around noon, so 3 hours means I have to be up before 9, noooo! :sleep:
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So, don’t worry about a 3-hour fast. It sounds like a fast from midnight would be easy enough for you, since you typically don’t wake up early, but go to a late Mass.

I don’t attend a Latin Mass, but I fast from midnight when I can. I’m pregnant right now, so I can’t fast at this point in my life, but after this baby is weaned, I’ll return to it.
 
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