A few days ago, Dr. Ed Peters proposes extending the Eucharistic fast to 3 hours before the beginning of Mass, instead of the present day 1 hour before receiving the Eucharist. He outlines his proposal and the reasons for it at his canon law blog In the Light of the Law. You can download his full article on the topic from a link in that post.
Father Z notes, at What Does the Prayer Really Say?, that Dr. Peters has a longer view regarding what the Mass is, what the Church's law is for, and what we receive at Mass. (There are many comments posted there.)
Of course, anyone can voluntarily fast more than one hour without it being mandatory. That could be a fast for 3 hours before Mass or a fast from midnight until Mass, done for personal piety. That could be a good thing for those who do not have difficulties of age or health that would prevent it. Yet, I think that there is much more that we can do, either with or without lengthening the time of the fast, to deepen our Eucharistic prayer and our awareness of an encounter with Christ who is present in the Eucharist.
Even with the shorter one-hour fast before the Eucharist, I think most of us could make some progress by practicing that fast more consciously in an attitude of prayer and worship. For those who by age or physical health are not able to follow a longer fast, a greater awareness of giving up things other than food in order to focus the mind on God's presence for an hour might accomplish as much as extending the one-hour fast to three hours before Mass.
Scripture several times describes a combination of prayer and fasting in seeking God's presence and action. In Daniel 9:3, Daniel says, "Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes." Psalm 51:17-19 says, "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. . . . then wilt thou delight in right sacrifices." Tobit 12:8 says, "Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold." The prophetess Anna, in Luke 2:37, is described in this Jewish sense of prayer and fasting in the Temple: "She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day." The Apostles also followed a practice of fasting in combination with prayer. Acts 14:23 tells us that when they appointed elders for the churches, "with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed."
We could perhaps make much progress by practicing the Eucharistic fast with a consciousness that it is an aspect of prayerful worship with a "broken and contrite heart" in prayer.
There are several articles and posts on the internet, besides the recent ones mentioned above, that highlight the reasons for the Eucharistic fast in a way that would encourage a more prayerful fasting.
Father William Saunders, dean of the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College in Alexandria, Virginia, wrote an article in the Arlington Catholic Herald about the reasons for fasting before the Eucharist. In it, he mentioned that, "St. Paul reminds us, 'Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed' (II Cor 4:10). We, too, are charged to convert our whole lives — body and soul — to the Lord." "Moreover," he wrote, "the fast before receiving holy Communion creates a physical hunger and thirst for the Lord, which in turn augments the spiritual hunger and thirst we ought to have."
From an ecumenical standpoint, a longer, prayer-centered fast might also be undertaken with a desire for Christian unity, as the Orthodox Church still follows a fast from the night before Mass. An article on the website of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in St. Paul Minnesota describes the fast before the Eucharist as abstaining from "unnecessary foods and entertainments which serve to complicate or control our lives." The orthodox priest who wrote that article, Father John Matusiak, also encouraged fasting from "other activities or things which would distract you from reflecting on the meaning of the Eucharist and the changes you hope to accomplish in your life."
Taylor Marshall had a post a couple of years ago at Canterbury Tales in which he mentioned the three reasons St. Thomas saw for fasting before the Eucharist. Among these was "to give us to understand that Christ, Who is the reality of this sacrament, and His charity, ought to be first of all established in our hearts."
"Fasting is the soul of prayer," according to Father Jonas Abib, founder of Cancao Nova, in a short article published on Catholic Online a few years ago.
It could make a great difference to simply remember that the fast before the Eucharist should focus our attention on the Eucharist and its meaning. Fasting from the social conversations that sometimes go on in the pews immediately before Mass, leaving that time for prayer and meditation, could put the fast itself in a proper perspective and remind us of the Mass as a prayer that entails an encounter with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. There is plenty of time for social conversation after Mass.
The music played in our cars on the way to Mass -- or silence, turning off the radio -- might also contribute to our awareness of a prayerful hunger for the Lord. Conversation in our cars -- or silence -- surely does so to. It would accomplish much, I think, to simply follow a habitual awareness of the Eucharist each morning before Mass, even if only the one-hour fast is followed in our eating.
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