The One Hour Eucharistic Fast

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Ottoviani

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Can someone please tell me why did Pope Paul VI changed the Eucharistic fast from three hours to one?

One hour is not usually enough time for the body to catabolically go into a fast stage.

I understand about those who are are ill and those who need to eat more often [the Church has always taken this into account] but I am referring to generally healthy Catholics.

I could be eating chips just before I walk into Mass and if Fr gives a 30 minute long sermon, I could recieve.

Why even have the one hour rule?

I guess what I am saying is how does a reduction from 3 hours to a mere 1 hour benefit the faith?
 
Unless he specifically said or wrote something when he announced the change, only Pope Paul VI could tell you, and since he is no longer living…
 
Ottoviani said:
Can someone please tell me why did Pope Paul VI changed the Eucharistic fast from three hours to one?

One hour is not usually enough time for the body to catabolically go into a fast stage.

I understand about those who are are ill and those who need to eat more often [the Church has always taken this into account] but I am referring to generally healthy Catholics.

I could be eating chips just before I walk into Mass and if Fr gives a 30 minute long sermon, I could recieve.

Why even have the one hour rule?

I guess what I am saying is how does a reduction from 3 hours to a mere 1 hour benefit the faith?
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On the other hand, we are free to fast longer the one hour so fast as long as you choose. If I have anything before leaving the house on Sunday I’m at about two hours by default, otherwise I’m fasting from the evening before.
 
Bob_Aliano said:
On the other hand, we are free to fast longer the one hour so fast as long as you choose. If I have anything before leaving the house on Sunday I’m at about two hours by default, otherwise I’m fasting from the evening before.
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I am not questioning the fact that one may fast for a longer period of time and I am not questioning the law of the supreme lawgiver on earth.

I am only asking if there was any reason written or oral given by the Holy Father as to why he changed the law.
 
Good grief, the Eucharist was instituted at a MEAL, where everyone was eating and drinking - I can’t believe he didn’t get rid of the silly fast all together.
 
patg said:
Good grief, the Eucharist was instituted at a MEAL, where everyone was eating and drinking - I can’t believe he didn’t get rid of the silly fast all together.
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“Silly” fast? Perhaps this Q&A quoted in bue will help you understand the reason for the “silly” fast, bolding mine.

"Jesus gave the Eucharist after everybody had eaten, so why do Catholics have to fast before Mass?

Full Question

Jesus gave the Eucharist at the end of the Last Supper after he and the apostles had already eaten a meal, so why do Catholics have to fast before Communion?

Answer

First of all, it is not precisely known at what point during the Last Supper that Jesus gave his disciples Communion. For all that is known at this point, it may have been before the ritual Seder meal. But let’s presume for the sake of argument that it was after. The eucharistic fast is a discipline—not a doctrine—of the Church. It is meant to help Catholics prepare for the awesome privilege of receiving Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity. As a discipline, it can be modified or abolished. Indeed, just in the last century, the eucharistic fast was reduced from several hours to just one."…

Entire Q&A here: catholic.com/quickquestions/jesus-gave-the-eucharist-after-everybody-had-eaten-so-why-do-catholics-have-to-fast-b
 
patg said:
Good grief, the Eucharist was instituted at a MEAL, where everyone was eating and drinking - I can’t believe he didn’t get rid of the silly fast all together.
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The Eucharist was primarily instituted by Christ as the unbloody representation of His Sacrifice on Calvary, which He made present in time and space at the Last Supper by applying the Sacrifice of the Cross to the first Mass.

It is primarily a Sacrifice.
The Sacrifice.
It was set in a Passover meal setting, but a Sacrifice can hardly be described primarily as a meal.

The fast was instituted as homage and preparation to recieve the substantial flesh and blood of our Lord.
 
patg said:
Good grief, the Eucharist was instituted at a MEAL, where everyone was eating and drinking - I can’t believe he didn’t get rid of the silly fast all together.
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Are you serious?
 
Ottoviani said:
The Eucharist was primarily instituted by Christ as the unbloody representation of His Sacrifice on Calvary, which He made present in time and space at the Last Supper by applying the Sacrifice of the Cross to the first Mass.

It is primarily a Sacrifice.
The Sacrifice.
It was set in a Passover meal setting, but a Sacrifice can hardly be described primarily as a meal.
It was and is a meal in that Catholics in a state of grace consume Him substantially.

The fast was instituted as homage and preparation to recieve the substantial flesh and blood of our Lord.
Click to expand...
 
patg said:
Good grief, the Eucharist was instituted at a MEAL, where everyone was eating and drinking - I can’t believe he didn’t get rid of the silly fast all together.
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Here is more reading that might help you understand the reasons behind the “silly” fast. Maybe it will help you understand that it isn’t silly at all.

"Why Fast Before Communion?
FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS

…The most important point regarding this question concerns why we ought to fast. St. Paul reminds us, “Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed” (II Cor 4:10). We, too, are charged to convert our whole lives — body and soul — to the Lord. This conversion process involves doing penance — including bodily mortification like fasting — for our sins and weaknesses, which in turn strengthens and heals us. Pope Paul VI exhorted the faithful in his apostolic constitution “Paenitemini” (1966), “Mortification aims at the ‘liberation’ of man, who often finds himself, because of concupiscence, almost chained by his own senses. Through ‘corporal fasting’ man regains strength, and the wound inflicted on the dignity of our nature by intemperance is cured by the medicine of a salutary abstinence.”

Moreover, the fast before receiving holy Communion creates a physical hunger and thirst for the Lord, which in turn augments the spiritual hunger and thirst we ought to have. In the Old Testament, fasting prepared individuals to receive the action of God and to be placed in His presence. For instance, Moses (Ex 34:28) fasted 40 days atop Mount Sinai as he received the Ten Commandments, and Elijah (I Kings 19:8) fasted 40 days as he walked to Mount Horeb to encounter God. Similarly, Jesus Himself fasted 40 days as He prepared to begin His public ministry (Mt 4:1ff) and encouraged fasting (Mt 6:16-18). Likewise, this corporal work enhances the spiritual disposition we need to receive Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. In a sense, we fast so as not “to spoil our appetite” but to increase it for the sharing of the paschal banquet. Jesus said in the beatitudes, “Blest are they who hunger and thirst for holiness; they shall have their fill” (Mt 5:6). In all, fasting is an exercise of humility, hope and love — essential virtues in preparing ourselves to receive the holy Eucharist. "…

Blue excerpt quoted from: catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0223.html
 
"Moreover, the fast before receiving holy Communion creates a physical hunger "

Not the one hour fast.
 
domandcarols said:
Are you serious?
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Absolutely.

I’m sure we can all come up with pious sounding platitudes that make it sound very important. And if it somehow prepares you, go for it.

It’s interesting how often I hear of the many things we can’t do because Jesus didn’t do them or the things we must do because Jesus did them…(the host *has *to contain wheat, the wine *has *to be a certain type (usually a bad type), Jesus was a man so women can’t be priests, ad nauseam…) Here we have something he obviously did at a meal with no restrictions after everybody was so inebriated they couldn’t stay awake in the garden and we pretend that it is somehow a better thing to fast.
 
After receiving communion,how long are we supposed to wait before eating?
 
patg said:
Absolutely.

I’m sure we can all come up with pious sounding platitudes that make it sound very important. And if it somehow prepares you, go for it.

It’s interesting how often I hear of the many things we can’t do because Jesus didn’t do them or the things we must do because Jesus did them…(the host *has *to contain wheat, the wine *has *to be a certain type (usually a bad type), Jesus was a man so women can’t be priests, ad nauseam…) Here we have something he obviously did at a meal with no restrictions after everybody was so inebriated they couldn’t stay awake in the garden and we pretend that it is somehow a better thing to fast.
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Personal interpretation is dangerous. The magisterium was created by the Lord for a reason, to be the teaching authority of the his Church. It is not our place as the faithful to question.

I once questioned many Catholic teachings. Then I decided to educate myself on the whys to these questioned traditions. I read book after book after book. It turns out that if you study scripture you see that the Church has teaching authority that has been excepted since the time of Christ.
 
Ottoviani said:
Can someone please tell me why did Pope Paul VI changed the Eucharistic fast from three hours to one? …

Why even have the one hour rule?

I guess what I am saying is how does a reduction from 3 hours to a mere 1 hour benefit the faith?
Click to expand...
Hello Ottoviani,

According to the note that accompanied the decision, the mitigation was given “in view of the difficulties felt in many countries concerning the Eucharistic fast, the Supreme Pontiff, graciously acceding to the petitions of the bishops…” (Canon Law Digest, vol 6, p. 566) I do not know what those “difficulties” were but I imagine it might have been the continued effects of the War and general poverty (people couldn’t eat whenever they wanted to).

This was a continuation of what Pius XII did in 1957, reducing the fast to 3 hours for basically the same reason. You also have to remember that the dispensation from the fast was reserved to the Holy See: the diocesan bishop could not grant it. So, instead of granting dispensations one by one, the Pope decided it would be more efficient to just reduce the fast to a minimum.

Why keep one hour? To continue to require some mindfulness among the faithful that preparation for Communion is always necessary, both physically and spiritually.

How does it benefit the faith? It makes it easier for people to receive Holy Communion. If they are otherwise properly disposed, the Holy Father wanted to be able to receive. To help do that, he removed this obstacle to their being able to receive this Sacrament.

Thanks for your time.
Dan
 
Franna said:
After receiving communion,how long are we supposed to wait before eating?
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It is advisable to refrain from eating until one has left the nave, though some frown on dining in the narthex.
 
At least we don’t have to do the after midnight til receiving Communion fast like in Pre Vatican II times. My mother and my aunt remember those days where many would go to the earliest Mass possible so they could eat sooner after Mass was done. My mother remembers she had to bring her breakfast to school when going to Catholic school as they had to go to Mass nearly every school day.

The one hour fast does not bother me. Its all I can remember due to my age. I am not sure why some people make a big deal about waiting an hour.
 
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