Would you say this broke the communion fast?

[Kathrin]

I went to a communion service this afternoon. I know we are to fast one hour before communion. A little earlier (more than an hour before the service)I had had some coffee, and on the way to the service I realized I was licking my lips, and there may still have been a taste of coffee on them.

Somebody here said it doesn’t break the fast if it’s something from between your teeth, because eating is defined by putting something INTO your nouth. My lips are outside of my mouth though…

I asked the lady who was leading the service and she said it was ok, as said other people who were there. So I decided to take communion. Do you think I did the tright thing?

Kathrin

 

[Newbie2]

Yes, you did the right thing.

Don’t worry about it.

I’ve forgotton and eaten somthing before communion, but I still go. If it’s not a purposeful break of the fast, I’m sure the Almighty will take it into consideration.

 

[Lee_M]

Yes, you did the right thing.

Don’t worry about it.

I’ve forgotton and eaten somthing before communion, but I still go. If it’s not a purposeful break of the fast, I’m sure the Almighty will take it into consideration.

You should not go if you know you messed up and ate less than an hour before communion. We don’t have to receive every week. I’m sure the Almighty wants us to follow the rules that laid are laid down by his Church.

 

[Lee_M]

I went to a communion service this afternoon. I know we are to fast one hour before communion. A little earlier (more than an hour before the service)I had had some coffee, and on the way to the service I realized I was licking my lips, and there may still have been a taste of coffee on them.

Somebody here said it doesn’t break the fast if it’s something from between your teeth, because eating is defined by putting something INTO your nouth. My lips are outside of my mouth though…

I asked the lady who was leading the service and she said it was ok, as said other people who were there. So I decided to take communion. Do you think I did the tright thing?

Kathrin

I believe you’re fine. If you took a drink from the cup, it would be diffferent, but remnants from your lips shouldn’t matter.

 

[forever_always]

Yes, you did the right thing.

Don’t worry about it.

I’ve forgotton and eaten somthing before communion, but I still go. If it’s not a purposeful break of the fast, I’m sure the Almighty will take it into consideration.

If you know that you have eaten, then you probably shouldnt recieve communion =\ Even if it is an accident, it still happened…

 

[hilde_the_dog]

Acciden t is an accident several priest have told me. Question of greater (name removed by moderator)ortance is did you willfully choose to violate a rule of the church?

 

[forever_always]

I went to a communion service this afternoon. I know we are to fast one hour before communion. A little earlier (more than an hour before the service)I had had some coffee, and on the way to the service I realized I was licking my lips, and there may still have been a taste of coffee on them.

Somebody here said it doesn’t break the fast if it’s something from between your teeth, because eating is defined by putting something INTO your nouth. My lips are outside of my mouth though…

I asked the lady who was leading the service and she said it was ok, as said other people who were there. So I decided to take communion. Do you think I did the tright thing?

Kathrin

I think you did the right thing because you didn’t drink from a cup or put anything into your mouth =] You just licked your lips!

 

[baltobetsy]

Eating or drinking means just that. If you did not introduce something to eat or drink into your mouth in the usual manner of eating or drinking, you did not break the fast. Things caught in your teeth or remaining on your lips are not eaten or drunk in the normal manner, are they? They were at the time they were originally eaten, but that was before the fast began. You are fine.

Betsy

 

[Frosty]

Eating or drinking means just that. If you did not introduce something to eat or drink into your mouth in the usual manner of eating or drinking, you did not break the fast. Things caught in your teeth or remaining on your lips are not eaten or drunk in the normal manner, are they? They were at the time they were originally eaten, but that was before the fast began. You are fine.

Betsy

Exactly! I can’t understand how some people get so caught up in legalism and minutia. When I made my First Communion back in the 1950’s, the midnight fast was still in effect. The nuns had taught us that we could not eat or drink anything after midnight and all us kids took that strictly to heart. There was a problem though. My Mother insisted that I brush my teeth when I got up in the morning. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t stop a bit of toothpaste or water from going down my throat! I went for several weeks without receiving Communion because I believed that I had broken the fast. It didn’t matter that my parents told me not to worry, I was adament about it. Finally, the Sister who was the school principal noticed that I was not going up with the rest of the family for Communion. She called me into her office and asked what the problem was. She smiled and said that I was being too scrupulous and swallowing a bit of water or toothpaste didn’t mean that I was breaking the fast at all. She talked to me for quite awhile about the meaning of the Eucharist and how God was making of Himself a gift to us in it. To refuse that gift because of a tiny swallow was more of a slap in the face to God than than not receiving because of any inadvertant or minute infraction of a man-made law.
She must have spoken to the Pastor afterwards because the next day he came into the classroom and repeated to the whole class just what Sister had told me. Of course we were not told to disregard the rules in place for fasting before Communion but not to be overly obsessive about relatively unimportant issues such as swallowing toothpaste or adult women licking their lips when they were wearing lipstick.

 

[Lee_M]

Acciden t is an accident several priest have told me. Question of greater (name removed by moderator)ortance is did you willfully choose to violate a rule of the church?

If you ate something within less than an hour and you realized it before you received communion, than you are willfully violating the rule of the Church. If you ate something and didn’t pay attention to it being within an hour and received the communion ignorantly, than you wouldn’t have willfully violated the rule of the Church.

You are not to receive communion if you have not fasted for at least an hour.

 

[Newbie2]

You should not go if you know you messed up and ate less than an hour before communion. We don’t have to receive every week. I’m sure the Almighty wants us to follow the rules that laid are laid down by his Church.

Then the question becomes who was right, Jesus or the Pharisees?

I guess that I didn’t explain my previous post correctly; what I meant was that not watching the clock, I have on occasion slipped up and realized it later, not purposefully breaking the fast.