Bulletin Q&A Article, published 10-15-23:
Regarding fasting one hour prior to Mass, I have always found it a bit confusing.. Does the one hour fast prior to Holy Communion mean one hour from the start of Mass, or one hour prior to Communion?
When I was a child, the rule on fasting before Holy Communion was three hours. I attended a Catholic school and often went to Mass before school started. One night I fell asleep while chewing gum. When I woke up in the morning with the gum still in my mouth, I decided that I would not be able to receive the Eucharist that day. It was first time that I didn’t receive the Eucharist at Mass since I had made my First Communion. In hindsight, I was being overly scrupulous. At that point, there was no flavor or anything else left in the wad of gum that I could have ingested, but I wasn’t taking any chances. The good nuns had taught me a solid respect for the Eucharist and for following rules.
Pope Pius XII explains the reason for fasting in his 1953 Apostolic Constitution Christus Dominus: “Abstinence from food and drink is in accord with that supreme reverence we owe to the supreme majesty of Jesus Christ when we are going to receive Him hidden under the veils of the Eucharist. And moreover, when we receive His precious Body and Blood before we take any food, we show clearly that this is the first and loftiest nourishment by which our soul is fed and its holiness increased. Hence the same St. Augustine gives this warning: ‘It has pleased the Holy Ghost that, to honor so great a Sacrament, the Lord’s Body should enter the mouth of the Christian before other food.’” (https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius12/p12chdom.htm)
But what is the required fast prior receiving Communion? Originally, there was a complete fast, including water from midnight onward. In Christus Dominus, Pius XII relaxed the fast so that water and medicine were no longer part of the fast, and also offered various exceptions especially for priests who had multiple Masses throughout the day and into the evening. Later, in 1957, Pius relaxed the rules in his Motu Proprio Sacram Communiomem: “Priests and faithful, before Holy Mass or Holy Communion respectively, must abstain for three hours from solid foods and alcoholic liquids, for one hour from non- alcoholic liquids. Water does not break the fast.” Here we can see a distinction between the priests and the laity. Priests fasted for three hours before Mass, the lay faithful for three hours before Communion.
Our fasting rules were relaxed further by Pope Paul VI in 1964 as part of Vatican II when he stated: “In view of the difficulties felt in many countries concerning the Eucharistic fast, the Supreme Pontiff, graciously acceding to the petitions of the Bishops, grants that the fast from solid foods be reduced to one hour before Communion, for both priests and the faithful. In this grant is also included the use of alcoholic drinks, observing, however, due moderation.” This is the current position embodied in Canon Law:
- Can. 919 §1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine.
- §2. A priest who celebrates the Most Holy Eucharist two or three times on the same day can take something before the second or third celebration even if there is less than one hour between them.
- §3. The elderly, the infirm, and those who care for them can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have eaten something within the preceding hour.
Our current fasting rules are not very onerous. At a weekday Mass, Holy Communion is typically distributed about 20 minutes after the beginning of Mass, and on Sunday 40 minutes can be expected. Some live only a short distance from church and other have a lengthy drive. We need to be conscientious of the one-hour fast, and not eat or drink, including black coffee, as we prepare for Mass at home and as we travel to church.