Midnight Communion Fast

[Seamus_L]

Sunday morning I woke up at about 7am and almost immediately realized, I hadn’t drank or eaten anything after midnight, and so quickly decided I’d do the old midnight communion fast. For some crazy reason, I’d always pictured it being extremely difficult, but when 10:30 mass ended, the first thing I thought of was that it wasn’t difficult at all. It’s sad that everything has to be made so easy nowdays. Be nice if we made at least an official return to the 3 hr fast for starters.

 

[mdgspencer]

No, I remember the after-midnight fast. It wasn’t difficult. I never heard anyone complain about it. Some parishes had “communion breakfasts,” providing breakfast after people went to mass. But still I thought the fast worthwhile, since it did call for at least some little effort.
And I remember that there was no custom of everyone going to communion at the this period, when there was an after-midnight fast. So then the fast didn’t apply to many of the people.

 

[phil19034]

The reason the midnight fast went away was because in some parts of the world, and especially with blue collar workers and farmers, there was a large group of people who ate their last meal of the day at 5pm. If you went to a 10am mass, then that was 17 hours without food. It wasn’t uncommon for some people to pass out. Especially farmers, who used to eat either largest meal of the day at lunch time, with a smaller “supper” around 5. So because of this, very few people received communion weekly.

The Pope felt that it was important for people to receive weekly, unless they were not in a state of Grace, like Catholics did in the 1st and 2nd centuries.

That’s why it was changed to 3 hours and then when that didn’t have the desired affect, changed to 1 hour.

Personally, I think it might be a good idea to try changing it back to 3 hours.

 

[CB_Catholic]

Sunday morning I woke up at about 7am and almost immediately realized, I hadn’t drank or eaten anything after midnight, and so quickly decided I’d do the old midnight communion fast. For some crazy reason, I’d always pictured it being extremely difficult, but when 10:30 mass ended, the first thing I thought of was that it wasn’t difficult at all. It’s sad that everything has to be made so easy nowdays. Be nice if we made at least an official return to the 3 hr fast for starters.

You know, it’s not a good idea to extrapolate your experience on to the rest of us. Some people can go for hours without eating, some have metabolisms that will not permit that. I remember people fainting at Mass, and also the early Masses were very popular because most people could not bear waiting until 10 or 11 to eat. Our parish had Masses as early as 6 in the AM.

 

[Seamus_L]

My “experience” was what the entire church used to do before communion, and it didn’t seem to be problem. Some of the Orthodox have similar practices and I’ve yet to hear a Muslim complain about the Ramadan fast.

 

[Tom_Baum]

Sunday morning I woke up at about 7am and almost immediately realized, I hadn’t drank or eaten anything after midnight, and so quickly decided I’d do the old midnight communion fast. For some crazy reason, I’d always pictured it being extremely difficult, but when 10:30 mass ended, the first thing I thought of was that it wasn’t difficult at all. It’s sad that everything has to be made so easy nowdays. Be nice if we made at least an official return to the 3 hr fast for starters.

Do you really need someone else to tell you what to do?

If you want a 3 hr fast for yourself than do it, if you want a fast from midnight than do it.

 

[Tom_Baum]

People talk about tradition a lot and as far as I know, it says in the bible that after the meal, Jesus took the bread and … and then took the cup and…, seems that the “original” tradition was that communion was right after the “regular” meal.

 

[mdgspencer]

However, I remember the days when people fasted from midnight, and I never heard these stories, nor were they given as a reason for ending the fast at the time when the fast was abrogated. I suspect someone has told you unfounded stories–we all hear some at some time in our lives.
Since the fast was from midnight only, people could eat, even a whole meal, right before midnight, if there had been such a problem in their lives. Blue collar workers, for one, if they were on the night shift, were entitled to a break, when they could eat if they wanted.

The reason the midnight fast went away was because in some parts of the world, and especially with blue collar workers and farmers, there was a large group of people who ate their last meal of the day at 5pm. If you went to a 10am mass, then that was 17 hours without food. It wasn’t uncommon for some people to pass out. Especially farmers, who used to eat either largest meal of the day at lunch time, with a smaller “supper” around 5. So because of this, very few people received communion weekly.

The Pope felt that it was important for people to receive weekly, unless they were not in a state of Grace, like Catholics did in the 1st and 2nd centuries.

That’s why it was changed to 3 hours and then when that didn’t have the desired affect, changed to 1 hour.

Personally, I think it might be a good idea to try changing it back to 3 hours.

 

[His_helpmeet]

My mom remembers the midnight fast requirement. She said they had a number of problems with altar servers fainting.

 

[ringil]

my mother told me that she remembers people- herself included- fainting.

 

[dixieagle]

Sunday morning I woke up at about 7am and almost immediately realized, I hadn’t drank or eaten anything after midnight, and so quickly decided I’d do the old midnight communion fast. For some crazy reason, I’d always pictured it being extremely difficult, but when 10:30 mass ended, the first thing I thought of was that it wasn’t difficult at all. It’s sad that everything has to be made so easy nowdays. Be nice if we made at least an official return to the 3 hr fast for starters.

You may always, of course, do more than what is required. You should not, however, suggest that adhering to current Church law is somehow less than adequate.

 

[phil19034]

However, I remember the days when people fasted from midnight, and I never heard these stories, nor were they given as a reason for ending the fast at the time when the fast was abrogated. I suspect someone has told you unfounded stories–we all hear some at some time in our lives.
Since the fast was from midnight only, people could eat, even a whole meal, right before midnight, if there had been such a problem in their lives. Blue collar workers, for one, if they were on the night shift, were entitled to a break, when they could eat if they wanted.

My Pastor told me this story. He joined High School Seminary before Vatican II and was ordained during Vatican II.

Again, I don’t think this was an issue everywhere, but it was an issue in certain parts of the world. Farmers for example, would not stay up and have a late night snack around 11pm in 1950s Rural America. In Rural America, people ate dinner around 5pm and that was that.

But I know my family members in Spain may have been out walking around the town square at 9 or 10pm, having a light snack. My Aunt is from Spain and to this day, they will walk around the town square around 10 or 11pm and have a light snake of bread and cheese or thinly sliced meat.

I think it simply depended on where you were and what the make up of your parish was.

Finally, even if it was only 5% of Catholics attending Mass, world wide, that’s a pretty big number of people. If we had 5% of Catholic attending Mass passing out, that would be approx 12 million people passing out each weekend. If 1% of Catholics passed out, today that would be 2.4 million people passing out each weekend. Even a half of a precent is till a ton of people.

{I calculated my figures by taking 1.2 Billion Catholics and assuming that only 20% attend Mass worldwide regularly. That makes the number 240 million Catholics}

God Bless.

 

[TxBSonnier]

Fasting from midnight before also only works for those able to attend a morning Mass. My husband is in emergency services and often has to work weekends, so in order for us to attend as a family on those days when he works Sunday morning we will either go to the Saturday night vigil Mass, or go Sunday evening. Making a 9:30am Mass I can often wait until after to eat, but that’s not possible for a 5:30pm Mass.