How severe is the Church's law on the 1 hour fast?

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I started teaching at a Catholic school this past Fall and live on the campus of the school & sanctuary. I’m in a situation on Wednesdays and Fridays where I participate in the daily Mass and since there’s no commute between me and the sanctuary, I need to be mindful of the 1 hour fast before communion, which has proven difficult on several occasions. I wake up, busily going about my routine, sipping my coffee or my juice, and then remember halfway through the Mass that I haven’t fasted for an hour. I understand from history that the fast before receiving Christ used to be longer, which almost seems enviable to me because the fast is so short that the act of remembering it, in an odd way, makes it seem harder than if it were allegedly more strict, or at least that’s the demonstrable verdict from me for the past 9 months. I could easily remember a 3 hour fast.

I don’t intentionally break the fast, but it has happened on several occasions where I remembered this and so I didn’t go up, and I have little reason to believe it won’t happen again. I’m the sacristan / multi-purpose right hand guy for the priest, and I altar serve on Fridays. Last Friday I spontaneously remembered in the middle of the daily Mass that I was drinking apple juice just before walking over to get everything prepped, so I didn’t receive, which caused a bit of awkwardness for the priest (the students aren’t present on Fridays though). The priest afterwards explained that absent-mindedly breaking the fast was a venial sin, and that I should receive, especially if I am altar serving. I can understand absent-mindedly breaking the fast and then receiving, but the big dilemma for my conscious was that I consciously remembered about 10 minutes beforehand. Add that to the fact that there is no obligation to receive Eucharist at Mass, it just felt like the practical, failsafe option to abstain. I’m going to have thousands of opportunities to receive over my lifetime, barring any mountain lions or tractor trailers attacking me.

The other thing is, I’ve discovered over the past 12+ months that nothing ever really changes about a person unless you doggedly force the matter. Good intentions by themselves are powerless. People waste decades with a good concept floating around in their mind and nothing ever happens. If I’m going to just wobble up and receive even if I forgot to observe the fast, then how am I ever going to remember? If I imitate a donkey and place a red line over the issue (or any issue), I just might be able to gain the discipline to remember, even though the 1-hour rule raises the difficulty bar.

How should I go about this in the future?
 
TK421 said:
I started teaching at a Catholic school this past Fall and live on the campus of the school & sanctuary. I’m in a situation on Wednesdays and Fridays where I participate in the daily Mass and since there’s no commute between me and the sanctuary, I need to be mindful of the 1 hour fast before communion, which has proven difficult on several occasions. I wake up, busily going about my routine, sipping my coffee or my juice, and then remember halfway through the Mass that I haven’t fasted for an hour. I understand from history that the fast before receiving Christ used to be longer, which almost seems enviable to me because the fast is so short that the act of remembering it, in an odd way, makes it seem harder than if it were allegedly more strict, or at least that’s the demonstrable verdict from me for the past 9 months. I could easily remember a 3 hour fast.

I don’t intentionally break the fast, but it has happened on several occasions where I remembered this and so I didn’t go up, and I have little reason to believe it won’t happen again. I’m the sacristan / multi-purpose right hand guy for the priest, and I altar serve on Fridays. Last Friday I spontaneously remembered in the middle of the daily Mass that I was drinking apple juice just before walking over to get everything prepped, so I didn’t receive, which caused a bit of awkwardness for the priest (the students aren’t present on Fridays though). The priest afterwards explained that absent-mindedly breaking the fast was a venial sin, and that I should receive, especially if I am altar serving. I can understand absent-mindedly breaking the fast and then receiving, but the big dilemma for my conscious was that I consciously remembered about 10 minutes beforehand. Add that to the fact that there is no obligation to receive Eucharist at Mass, it just felt like the practical, failsafe option to abstain. I’m going to have thousands of opportunities to receive over my lifetime, barring any mountain lions or tractor trailers attacking me.

The other thing is, I’ve discovered over the past 12+ months that nothing ever really changes about a person unless you doggedly force the matter. Good intentions by themselves are powerless. People waste decades with a good concept floating around in their mind and nothing ever happens. If I’m going to just wobble up and receive even if I forgot to observe the fast, then how am I ever going to remember? If I imitate a donkey and place a red line over the issue (or any issue), I just might be able to gain the discipline to remember, even though the 1-hour rule raises the difficulty bar.

How should I go about this in the future?
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Ask the priest. Could it be possible for him to give you a dispensation?
 
Yes, perhaps it is possible for the priest to give a dispensation from the fast. I am not sure. But I think you did the right thing. For the priest to say that absent-mindedly breaking the fast is a venial sin, and then recommend that you commit a venial sin seems rather odd.

It’s been a long time since I was an altar server, but it was never taken for granted that the servers would receive. Some positive action had to be taken, such as stepping forward for communion. If a server did not take positive action to receive, the priest would not give communion and would not question the matter. I’m not sure how it is done today.
 
Could you set a timer on your phone? I use mine sometimes because I forget all sorts of things pretty often. It could go off to remind you to start to fast.
 
It took us a year to learn to abstain from meat on Fridays. We would forget it was Friday, or forget we were abstaining. But now we are pretty good at it, altho now I am also giving up chocolate on Fridays, I find I have to learn that separately!

Carry on and eventually you will get the hang of it 🙂 Tell your priest that you are trying to avoid committing venial sins as much as possible also. He should be happy about that rather than urging you to overlook this!

(I second the alarm idea.)
 
Can you start abstaining the night before? So when you get up in the morning, you will have no food or drink until after mass? You can write a little note and leave it by the sink and fridge to remind you.
 
I think you did the right thing and I like the suggestions already given.

I just thought I’d point out that I think the reason the priest said it was venial was because you did not remember the fast and then consume the food. Instead you ate, realized you shouldn’t have and that was that.

Remember mortal sin requires free choice.

I think you should do some form of self discipline though to help form a new habit like you were saying. Set a timer, don’t receive, fast longer, or something else to help you.
 
Water and medicine are the only permitted exceptions to the one-hour fast. And yes, it was originally longer. In the Eastern Rites, it’s still the accepted practice that those receiving the Eucharist fast for the entire day, from the time they wake up in the morning until the Eucharist itself. Although it should be noted that in the Eastern Rites communion is received much less often than than in the Western Rite.

As for your question, I think the real answer to it is philosophical in nature; whether the infusion of grace from receiving a sacrament can trump the killing of grace of a venial sin, which does not actually kill grace but simply harms it. And that’s a question that I think not even a professor of moral philosophy could answer, much less a parish priest and persons on an internet forum.
 
BlossomingFaith said:
Could you set a timer on your phone? I use mine sometimes because I forget all sorts of things pretty often. It could go off to remind you to start to fast.
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Yes, this is an excellent idea. You could also leave a note somewhere for yourself the night before so you see it in the morning.
 
From Mark 14:22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” (RSVCE).

While I’m not suggesting fasting is not a good discipline, it would appear to be a rule (law) of man.
 
ChurchSoldier said:
From Mark 14:22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” (RSVCE).

While I’m not suggesting fasting is not a good discipline,** it would appear to be a rule (law) of man**.
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You are quite wrong! Jesus told the Apostles “What you bind on earth is bound in Heaven.” That means that, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, any laws the Apostles and their successors make are NOT laws of man.
 
One time we were having a bake sale right after school and also daily Mass right after school. I stupidly and absent-mindedly took a bite of a brownie from the bake sale right before Mass, but then realized- “oh wait, I need to observe the one-hour fast!” I stopped eating and asked my priest if it was okay because it was an accident, and he said that yes there is no issue. So therefore, I would say that just forgetting about the fast and eating something within the hour is no sin at all. And don’t worry about remembering afterwards- it’s what you are conscious of at the TIME of the sin that counts.

However, for you, it seems to be a pretty habitual forgetfulness. You know that you have Mass every Wednesday and Friday morning, so either wake up earlier to have breakfast, or wait until after Mass to eat. Write yourself a note or something so that you can remember, and just go from there!

May God bless you and guide you along the path of holiness! 🙂
 
ChurchSoldier said:
From Mark 14:22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” (RSVCE).

While I’m not suggesting fasting is not a good discipline, it would appear to be a rule (law) of man.
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You are missing something from your reasoning - they were in the middle of an established Jewish ritual, it was not an evening meal that Jesus and his disciples were eating, but a part of the religious service. And this bread and wine were part of that ritual. But delightfully Jesus added himself to the ritual, when suddenly the standard bread and wine were now his body and blood.

Your logic would also require you to say that the ruling of Peter and James at the first Jerusalem Council was a “rule (law) of man” about abstaining from meat offered to idols, since it was men who told the Gentiles not to eat meat from pagan sacrificed animals. But this is not so, for Catholics - we regard our Pope with equal status to Peter and our Bishops as James, and are obedient to their rulings as the Gentiles were obedient to Peter and James in observing their rule as a rule from God. As an Anglican, you are perhaps not at home with obedience to a living person as if he were actually sent by Jesus to you.
 
Errham said:
And that’s a question that I think not even a professor of moral philosophy could answer, much less a parish priest and persons on an internet forum.
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Why not? It’s common knowledge that the Holy Eucharist removes venial sin.

YK421: Some have mentioned that you lacked knowledge of breaking the fast, i.e., when you started eating, you simply forget you would be receiving Communion within an hour. But of course, you do seem to remember that you haven’t fasted for an hour **before **you receive. I would think that, under those conditions, receiving anyway would be rather improper.

I quite agree with where you seem to be heading in your thinking: don’t receive if you haven’t fasted. Receiving frequent Communion seems a bit pointless if one is receiving unworthily, after all.
 
InNomineDomini said:
Why not? It’s common knowledge that the Holy Eucharist removes venial sin.
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As does an act of imperfect contrition. However, neither remits the punishment due to the venial sin.
JimG said:
Yes, perhaps it is possible for the priest to give a dispensation from the fast. I am not sure. But I think you did the right thing. For the priest to say that absent-mindedly breaking the fast is a venial sin, and then recommend that you commit a venial sin seems rather odd.
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Very odd. If one accepts the fast as a required discipline and not a moral issue per se, one would think any priest or bishop of the church has the power to allow dispensation from the fast and/or the obligation to attend Mass, for that matter. But that’s only my opinion.
 
A dispensation would seem inappropriate, even if it were possible, since this odd issue is rooted in the fact that the 1 hour fast is so lax that it makes it easily forgettable, not in it incurring any hardship on me. There are 0.00 pangs of hunger or thirst in observing a 1 hour fast, which leaves the only oddball mortification to be the heroic act of remembering it 😛

The Wednesday Mass lasts for about an hour, so unless I’m still finishing my cup of coffee before marching my kids over, it isn’t possible to break it, although I have abstained in this situation before. Daily Masses are closer to 30 minutes, so there is a significant window to remember. I crawl out of bed 25 minutes before Mass and walk next door to set things up about 15 minutes beforehand, and I might have leftover herbal tea on the nightstand that I wash down, or absently stop in the kitchen to have a small drink or morsel. I’m the type of person that tends to eat and drink small portions throughout the day; a cup of earthy tea here, a granola bar there, a grapefruit there, etc., so it’s a hard habit to curb.

Just a month ago I rolled out of bed, grabbed a 1/3rd empty teacup from the nightstand, and put it to my mouth before spitting it out as I spontaneously remembered in that instant that I was going to Mass in a little bit. Exciting stuff I tell you.

Thank you for your thoughts on the subject.
 
Richard_White said:
So therefore, I would say that just forgetting about the fast and eating something within the hour is no sin at all. And don’t worry about remembering afterwards- it’s what you are conscious of at the TIME of the sin that counts.
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Well, it is not a sin to simply eat something one hour before the Eucharist is distributed. What is sinful is when someone receives without a one hour fast; so if one knows that he/she has not fasted I would argue that they should not receive.
 
TK421 said:
Just a month ago I rolled out of bed, grabbed a 1/3rd empty teacup from the nightstand, and put it to my mouth before spitting it out as I spontaneously remembered in that instant that I was going to Mass in a little bit.
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When people spit something out, it is extremely rare, perhaps impossible, that they will spit out 100%. As a rule there will be a certain residue left in the mouth. So you would be breaking a fast if one was applicable during that period. Although it would not be something that you wanted to do, in reality, the fast was broken.
 
***If you have a phone or a watch with an alarm on it, just set it for about 45 minutes before daily mass; about 30 minutes before Sunday mass. ***👍
 
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