MERGED: Chewing ice/one hour fast

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Wryman

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Simple question: Is chewing ice drinking water (allowed today) or eating? I KNOW it sounds silly but I would like to know.
Yeah, I know, chewing ice is bad for your teeth.
 
Wryman said:
Simple question: Is chewing ice drinking water (allowed today) or eating? I KNOW it sounds silly but I would like to know.
Yeah, I know, chewing ice is bad for your teeth.
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Water is water, whether it’s frozen or liquid.
 
A priest I trust wholeheadedly has told me that liquids do not break a Lenten fast (although, if more than water, they do break a Communion fast).

Since ice will be liquid seconds after entering your body, ISTM there is no issue there.

ICXC NIKA
 
I have a question about the one hour fast before communion. First, it is an hour before communion, not the start of Mass, correct? Second, I ate a meal about an hour before communion and may have had food particles in my mouth when I received communion. I gargled with water two to three times before hand in an effort to clear out these food particles. Did I break the fast? Also, I may have swallowed some toothpaste before hand, by accident. Did that break the fast? My priest says no to both these but I am not so sure.
 
ChristIsTheWay said:
I have a question about the one hour fast before communion. First, it is an hour before communion, not the start of Mass, correct? Second, I ate a meal about an hour before communion and may have had food particles in my mouth when I received communion. I gargled with water two to three times before hand in an effort to clear out these food particles. Did I break the fast? Also, I may have swallowed some toothpaste before hand, by accident. Did that break the fast? My priest says no to both these but I am not so sure.
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Listen to your priest. He is there to guide you - especially with questions of scruples like this.
 
ChristIsTheWay said:
I have a question about the one hour fast before communion. First, it is an hour before communion, not the start of Mass, correct?
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Yes, an hour before Communion.
Second, I ate a meal about an hour before communion and may have had food particles in my mouth when I received communion. I gargled with water two to three times before hand in an effort to clear out these food particles. Did I break the fast? Also, I may have swallowed some toothpaste before hand, by accident. Did that break the fast? My priest says no to both these but I am not so sure.
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The rule requires abstention from “food and drink.” Toothpaste is not food; therefore inadvertently swallowing some does not break the fast. The same would apply to, for instance, an insect that flies into your mouth, blood from a cut on your mouth, phlegm that you hack up, etc. Not food or drink.

A tougher case is the following: after having eaten some roast beef, you have a big piece of beef stuck between two of your teeth. Eventually you work it free with your tongue. Instead of spitting it out, you choose to swallow it. My own view would be that this would amount to a violation of the letter, but not of the spirit or the intent, of the rule. But your case is different. All you know is that you “may have had” unspecified “food particles” in your mouth. Well sure, so might we all. If they are not identifiable, you have no option to spit them out, and frankly you don’t even know that they exist, then I have to say that your priest is right that there was certainly no violation of the rule whatsoever.
 
aspirant said:
“Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem contrary to the spirit of doing penance.”

Maybe not. In earlier days, monks consumed beer to keep up their strength during fasts. 😉
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My moral theology handbook says the same thing. However, juices and milk do break the fast.
 
I read in some theology manual that “many people are not aware that the fast obligation admits of lightness of matter,” in other words, you don’t have to worry about that piece of bacon that works its way out from between your teeth in the middle of the Sanctus.
 
aspirant said:
“Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem contrary to the spirit of doing penance.”

Maybe not. In earlier days, monks consumed beer to keep up their strength during fasts. 😉
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Wasn’t it also more sanitary than water back in the day?
 
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