Is it 1hour fast before communion?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dooman
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Yes, it is one hour before Communion.
Canon 919
  1. One who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain from any food or drink, with the exception only of water and medicine, for at least the period of one hour before Holy Communion.
  2. A priest who celebrates the Most Holy Eucharist two or three times on the same day may take something before the second or third celebration even if the period of one hour does not intervene.
  3. Those who are advanced in age or who suffer from any infirmity, as well as those who take care of them, can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have taken something during the previous hour.
 
Yes, but I make a point to make it one hour before Mass/Liturgy. For one thing, you don’t know what the exact time you’ll be receiving Communion. It could be at the 50 minute mark of the Mass, or at the 20 minute mark. And its not that big of a deal if its one hour before the start of Mass.
 
I think that’s the rule, but if it’s Sunday Mass, I try not to eat at all before Mass as a personal devotion. That was the rule in the house growing up and I still keep to it.
 
And I think it’s 15-30 minutes after you receive that you can eat again but I’m not sure. Once mass is over, I would think most of the time has lapsed.
 
And I think it’s 15-30 minutes after you receive that you can eat again but I’m not sure. Once mass is over, I would think most of the time has lapsed.
OK, scratch that. I found this on EWTN Q & A:
Holy Communion
Question from on 12-12-2007:
Hi! Is there a law that says that you must wait 1 hour to eat a meal after receiving Holy Communion? I know you are not to eat 1 hour before. And is it 1 hour before mass or the actual receiving of Holy Communion?
Thank you!

Answer by Robert J. Flummerfelt, J.C.L. on 12-12-2007:
Hi Michelle,
The requirement of law is to abstain from eating anything one hour BEFORE RECEIVING Holy Communion, not an hour before Mass. There is zero requirement to abstain from eating AFTER receiving Holy Communion. Although practically you couldn’t eat until about 10 minutes or so after Mass. And if you are at a Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, often at the very end of the Liturgy you receive in Church mirovannia, or the blessed bread.
My point in saying this, is to underscore that there are zero requirements to abstain from eating AFTER receiving Holy Communion.
Peace and best wishes, Bob
 
What’s more to say? The main points have been made:
  1. The requirement is one hour before communion; only water and medicine are allowed.
  2. Certain people are exempt:
    a. Priests celebrating a second or third mass of the day (and presumably in rapid succession), and
    b. The elderly or ill, and those who care for them.
  3. There is no required fast after receiving communion.
I might add:
4. This is the minimum asked; a person may freely offer more than required. But, if a person’s practice is, say, to fast three hours before Mass, that person can also freely choose not to observe that practice in a given case.
5. A certain common sense is required. I would not feel right chewing gum on the way into Church, and even up until I go up to receive. It seems too close to voluntary eating. On the other hand, if I were brushing my teeth and a scrap of food from between my teeth were dislodged and I swallowed it, I do not think that would break the fast–my intent in brushing my teeth was not eating, but hygiene.
 
I heard an excellent thing sorta on this topic recently:

Fasting and other forms of voluntary self-denial are some of the best ordinary excercises in freedom we experience. Eating your favorite desert isn’t freedom, nor are other forms of indulgences. Those are obediences to our appetites. Only chosing to give up what we want is an excercise of the will over our baser instincts.

The priest on the radio put it better than me… 😉
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top