Q. Does coffee violate the Eucharistic fast?
A. Fine question, thanks for asking it. The Church asks us to abstain from all food and drink one hour from receiving the Eucharist in Canon 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.
The fast allows us to identify with and enter into the sacrifice Jesus offered for us on the Cross. The one-hour fast is doable for just about everyone. The fast is one hour before Communion, and not before Mass.
Older readers remember when they had to fast from the midnight before receiving the Eucharist. I believe that is why many Catholics got married in the morning so that they could have the strength to celebrate a wedding Mass and then celebrate with a meal and reception afterward.
In 1953 and again in 1957 Pope Pius XII reduced the fast to three hours prior to Communion.
1964 Pope Paul VI further reduced the fast to one hour including all food and drink, allowing water and medicine at any time.
Therefore, coffee violates the fast, as does chewing gum.
A reminder too, we should not approach the Eucharist if we are not in the state of grace. We should be sacramentally reconciled first. Thanks for the question.
This question was answered by Father Kenneth Borowiak, pastor of St. Michael Parish in Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
