This is a basic question

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Thecatholicguy

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How long should I fast after receiving our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament?
 
In the East we fast from midnight until after Liturgy the next morning. In the Latin Church it is an hour before.

ZP
 
You don’t have to fast at all. If we had to, there’d be no donuts after mass! And that’s not coo at all

bokbokBAWK!!!
 
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Dude, what even are you. Only three days here, but you’re the best. Lol
 
From the 2004 Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...doc_20040423_redemptionis-sacramentum_en.html :

" [77.] The celebration of Holy Mass is not to be inserted in any way into the setting of a common meal, nor joined with this kind of banquet. Mass is not to be celebrated without grave necessity on a dinner table[159] nor in a dining room or banquet hall, nor in a room where food is present, nor in a place where the participants during the celebration itself are seated at tables. If out of grave necessity Mass must be celebrated in the same place where eating will later take place, there is to be a clear interval of time between the conclusion of Mass and the beginning of the meal, and ordinary food is not to be set before the faithful during the celebration of Mass."

So there is no set period like the hour before receiving Holy Communion. But it is also wrong to start eating an apple during the Prayer After Communion.
 
i’ve never heard of fasting “after” receiving Communion; normally there is about 10 or 15 minutes left in Mass after the Sacrament

then the drive home

after that; it is chow-time, shipmates… 🙂
 
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I too have never heard of a fast after Communion. It is not required, and while I don’t recommend this, a whole lot of people walk out of church immediately after receiving and I bet some of them go straight to lunch.

I have also seen and sometimes been in the position having to discreetly eat something right after Communion due to blood sugar issues. I once attended a TLM with a lot of kneeling on a day when I had been fasting during the day and as Communion time approached, I had to get off my knees and sit in the pew as I was about to faint. I prayed the whole way up to the Communion rail and back to my seat that I would not keel over, then when I was safely in my seat I ate some candy I had in my purse.

Barring a medical emergency like that, it’s usually considered respectful to stay till the end of Mass which is about 10-15 minutes after Communion…then it’s time for coffee and donuts, or the K of C pancake breakfast, or IHOP or whatever.

I’m pretty sure that in olden days when people had to fast from the midnight before until after Mass, there was even more of a mad dash for the breakfast after Mass.
 
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yes i have blood sugar issues as well. but i know my limits & try to keep my gut as full as it can be within the standard pre-Mass fasting rules

i usually go to the Saturday Vigil & the priests are well aware that some of the folks (like me) may be hungry…
 
I’m a chicken pigeon. I’m not only the best, but I’m super coo too.

bokbokBAWK
 
Ah, digestion! The old-school parochial schoolkid’s question! Which pretty much never matters!

Almost as soon as Communion is consumed, the Host becomes unrecognizable as having the appearance of bread, and ditto for His Blood and the appearance of wine. Things get thoroughly diluted, dissolved, and molecularly taken apart. And since it’s unrecognizable, you know that it’s no longer Jesus. Since this is the rule on other Communion stuff (like dropping consecrated Hosts into a pool of water, or similar what-if questions), it also applies to digestion.

(The only time it really matters is if somebody swallows the Host and coughs it back up immediately in a recognizable form. I suppose it might also matter if one had a serious stomach problem; but one could safely ask God to look after Himself, or just receive Communion from the chalice.)

Of course, if you follow one of the old pious customs like “making a thanksgiving for Communion” for five to fifteen minutes in a pew after Mass, you definitely don’t have to worry about this stuff.

But actually, you never have to worry. Jesus Christ was a pretty good eater, and He knows your need to eat. That’s why there’s no rule, and never has been one (AFAIK).

It was the custom for synagogue meals to start immediately after the service, and what little we know about Early Christian Masses shows that they tended to eat meals together right afterward, too.

So break your fast right after Mass (or even right after Communion, if you have serious reasons), and be happy!

(That said… If a person has serious blood sugar problems, candy would constitute medicine. Even in the old days, medicine did not break the fast.

(Also, anyone sick/frail enough to need medicine during Mass is excused from the Communion fast, anyway.

(It’s meritorious to try not to break the fast and try not to scandalize your pew neighbors, but fainting is not good.)
 
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