Would This Break the One Hour Fast?

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Need some help in determinig what breaks the fast before recieving the Eucharist, or see if I’m being scrupulous again.

If someone eats 2 hours before Mass, brushes teeth and all but unknowingly retains small pieces or particles of food in their mouths and swallows them right before Mass, would it break the fast?

(kind of weird) If someone umm…burps or ‘throws up a little’ and small bits of…food come up and are swallowed back (before Mass), would that break the fast?

Any links about the one hour fast would be great.
 
Try your Scrupulous Anonymous links for documentation. I remember reading one of their publications that indicated that the fast is only broken by food that is put into the mouth in the normal manner of eating. The last time you did that was two hours before Communion, so you are fine.

Betsy
 
AsI recall, the strictest rules I have seen required an item to pass between the lips to qualify as eating. [As I recall it involved a nose bleed. The blood was food if it ran down the lip and into the mouth, but not if it ran down in back into the throat.]

That type of rigorous definition went away long ago. Food is now something you ingest in the normal manner of eating or drinking as at a meal; what you would normally refer to as eating or drinking.
 
I would just play it by ear and be honest; I think the rule of thumb about passing into/through the mouth is on target, but if you really want to be safe you’re free to remove the particles from your mouth rather than swallow them, in which case the challenge is finding a socially acceptable way of doing so.😉

All that, though, is just to justify relating a detail from the old manuals. I’ve never read one for myself, but a professor once read a section on the distinctions involved in the communion fast (fascinating - they thought of all sorts of situations) and one of them has always stuck with me:

If you get your stomach pumped, you have not broken the fast. UNLESS!, that is, the pump/tube was greased with some sort of animal fat or vegetable oil, in which case you have. So even removing the contents of your stomach could break the communion fast!
 
IF we were cows, chewing your cud might. But I do not think that getting that last little piece of meat stuck between your teeth is going to send you to Hell. (It is really hard not to collapse in laughter as I type this; the images I have in mid are, well, indescribable.)
 
I remember an old Catholic instruction book my grandmother had, filled with what we’d call “FAQ’s” these days.

One of the questions that always stuck with me was from some poor guy who wondered: “If my gums bleed and I swallow the blood, does that break the fast?”

Guess they had problems back then with both scrupulosity AND bad dental hygiene! :eek: 😃
 
Actually, according to a little known declaration by the CDF from the late 90’s, anything that goes into our mouth from without, or down our throat from within, counts as food and we are not to receive the Eucharist under pain of mortal sin. The document specifically points out that we must not swallow our spit during Mass, and that it is appropriate that Churches should have “Sacred Spittoons” installed in all the pews.

(Note: Everything I said above is a joke, albeit a very poor one. Please forgive me, but that’s the best I can do 👍 )
 
Honestly, I didn’t mean to mock your scrupulosity.

You didn’t consume any food if you just swallow what is stuck in your teeth. By “consuming food” before Mass, we mean just what you would normally call food. So even if you are chewing your finger nails and swallow them, although this is a bad habit and should be stopped, fingernails aren’t food unless you’re truly starving.

If the alternative is to stick your finger in your mouth and clean it out during Mass, please don’t hold my hand during the Our Father, or shake it during the sign of peace 😃 Just give me a “holy wave”
 
Joe_Kelley said:
AsI recall, the strictest rules I have seen required an item to pass between the lips to qualify as eating. [As I recall it involved a nose bleed. The blood was food if it ran down the lip and into the mouth, but not if it ran down in back into the throat.] .
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So indigestion or gastric reflux is okay?

😃
 
IF we were cows, chewing your cud might.

If we were cows, we couldn’t go to Communion.
 
ABostonCatholic said:
So even if you are chewing your finger nails and swallow them, although this is a bad habit and should be stopped, fingernails aren’t food unless you’re truly starving.
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theistgal said:
“If my gums bleed and I swallow the blood, does that break the fast?”
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I know there are old manuals that would have said both of those things break the fast. What strikes people today as “scrupulous” would have struck people 70 years ago as “taking things seriously.” There was just a far different culture of sin and reverence. On the one hand, there was sometimes such a strong fear of irreverent reception that this kept otherwise well-disposed people from the grace of the sacrament. That’s bad. On the other hand, though, people were far more aware and convinced of the reality of the Blessed Sacrament than are many today, and this led them to take its reception very seriously. That’s good. Today we say “just be reasonable, things shouldn’t be that strict.” Back then they said “something this important should take some effort.” We need to find a happy medium between the two thought worlds that allows us to approach the Sacrament more regularly while still maintaining a very healthy “fear of the Lord.”
 
Andreas_Hofer said:
I know there are old manuals that would have said both of those things break the fast. What strikes people today as “scrupulous” would have struck people 70 years ago as “taking things seriously.” There was just a far different culture of sin and reverence. On the one hand, there was sometimes such a strong fear of irreverent reception that this kept otherwise well-disposed people from the grace of the sacrament. That’s bad. On the other hand, though, people were far more aware and convinced of the reality of the Blessed Sacrament than are many today, and this led them to take its reception very seriously. That’s good. Today we say “just be reasonable, things shouldn’t be that strict.” Back then they said “something this important should take some effort.” We need to find a happy medium between the two thought worlds that allows us to approach the Sacrament more regularly while still maintaining a very healthy “fear of the Lord.”
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Isn’t it possible to have a scrupulous culture, or at least a scrupulous publisher?
 
Joe_Kelley said:
AsI recall, the strictest rules I have seen required an item to pass between the lips to qualify as eating. [As I recall it involved a nose bleed. The blood was food if it ran down the lip and into the mouth, but not if it ran down in back into the throat.]

That type of rigorous definition went away long ago. Food is now something you ingest in the normal manner of eating or drinking as at a meal; what you would normally refer to as eating or drinking.
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When did it go away?
 
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