Sin to not complete a fast?

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If I vow during my morning prayers to do some kind of fast during the day (a personal, not-required-by-the-Church fast) and do not fulfill it, is it a sin? Semper fidelis.
 
Good question, as I ponder the same… today interestingly enough.
 
First off I’d say that it’s never wise to vow to do things we may not be able to do that we are not required to make a vow to do. In our human weakness we may fail to fast or whatever it is. It is better to say, I desire to do this or that or abstain from this or that with the help of the Holy Spirit. 😉

For a sin to be mortal firstly it must be a grave matter. To be culpable one must know it is a grave matter, and one must deliberately commit sin. I don’t see that in your situation, especially since you aren’t even sure if what you committed yourself to doing/not doing was a grave matter.

If you have any qualms, though, tell your confessor about it and let him advise you.
 
My dear friend

If you deliberately break the vow it’s a serious sin. If you genuinely forget then no sin. Don’t make vows, make promises. This way it won’t be a sin.

May God bless you dear friend:thumbsup:🙂

John
 
In the context of the OP’s question, what’s the difference between a “vow” and a “promise?”

Perhaps it’s best to set up a fast – whether it be food, entertainment, control of the tongue, etc. – as a goal, rather than a promise. You can impose the same pressure/sense of determination upon yourself as a promise or vow without breaking same.

God bless,
Dan
 
Read Mt. 5:33-37. In v. 34, Jesus says, “do not swear at all”.
If you really think about it, who are we to make a promise? Are we God, that
we can make our promise come true? God, only, can make a promise, because
He, only, has the power to make it come true. Jesus says in v. 37 that anything
beyond saying “yes” and “no” is from the evil one…
 
danonwaveland said:
In the context of the OP’s question, what’s the difference between a “vow” and a “promise?”

Perhaps it’s best to set up a fast – whether it be food, entertainment, control of the tongue, etc. – as a goal, rather than a promise. You can impose the same pressure/sense of determination upon yourself as a promise or vow without breaking same.

God bless,
Dan
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My dear friend

Some defintions

VOW. A free, deliberate promise made to God to do something that is good and that is more pleasing to God than its omission would be. The one vowing must realize that a special sin is committed by violating the promise. A vow binds under pain of sin (grave or slight) according to the intention of the one taking the vow. If one vows with regard to grave matter, one is presumed to intend to bind oneself under pain of serious sin. Vows enhance the moral value of human actions on several counts. They unite the soul to God by a new bond of religion, and so the acts included under the vow become also acts of religion. Hence they are more meritorious. By taking a vow, a person surrenders to God the moral freedom of acting otherwise, like the one who not only gives at times the fruit of the tree, but gives up the tree itself. And vows forestall human weakness, since they do not leave matters to the indecision or caprice of the moment. Their very purpose is to invoke divine grace to sustain one’s resolution until the vow expires or, in the case of perpetual vows, even until death. (Etym. Latin vovere, to pledge, promise.)

**PROMISE. **A declaration telling God or another person that one will or will not do something. A promise made to God is equivalently a vow, and it binds in conscience according to the gravity of the promise and the intention to obligate oneself under pain of sin. Promises made to people must be kept, and they oblige in justice or charity, with more or less seriousness depending on one’s ability to fulfill a promise and the harm caused to another by not keeping one’s word.

A promise as in the OP would not have been a mortal sin in this case.

May God bless us all abundantly

John
 
I think I should have used the word ‘promise’ rather than ‘vow’ in my original post. Thanks for the replies.
 
If it is bothering you, then I would say confess it. It isn’t going to hurt you to confess it. 😛
 
theladyiscrazy said:
If it is bothering you, then I would say confess it. It isn’t going to hurt you to confess it. 😛
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And if you do, could you tell us what the priest said?

Incidentally, when we say in the act of Contrition that we ‘will not sin again’, is that a vow or a promise?
 
Since it is not Lent, then you are fasting beyond what the Church requires - which is great if you do more good than the Church requires! But also recognize that since you are going above and beyond what the Church requires, you are now in the arena of personal devotion. As such, you are making a simple promise, not an official vow. It is not a sin to break your voluntary fast before you wanted to. It is a lesser good but it is not a sin.

This goes for much anything else you may decide to sacrifice but then renege on later. It is still potentially valuable penance for the time you gave it up, but would have been (probably much) greater had you succeeded to the end.

A similar question was asked to an official Apologist on this site:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=321087&highlight=sin+to+break+fast
 
Well, I’m back from confession (which I had to do anyway) and Mass. I did confess that I “was going to fast yesterday, but I did not fulfill that promise that I made to God.” This fasting episode also made me realize that since I am in Ukraine and not the United States (I’m American) that abstinence from meat on Fridays is a requirement, not recommendation like in the US, and that although I normally abstain from meat on Fridays there have been a few times I haven’t since I’ve been here. I confessed that too. Both venial sins, but I confessed them with a couple of more serious sins. The priest emphasized that fasting and prayer do bring us closer to the heart of Christ, relating it to today’s (meaning Saturday evening/Sunday) gospel reading - “work for the bread that endures for eternal life”, and Christ saying “I am the bread of life.” He said we should certainly fast if possible along with prayer, but if situations don’t allow for a fast from food, to do a spiritual fast, to fast in our hearts and spend extra time in prayer. Not bad for a Ukrainian priest who doesn’t get a lot of practice speaking in English.
 
He also said to pray to Jesus, the bread of life, for the strength to fast from food.
 
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