How much time do you fast to receive Holy Communion?

Hekler · Aug 11, 2021

How much time do your church require?

~Anastasia~ · Aug 11, 2021

Hekler said:
How much time do your church require?

Hello and welcome to CF and to TAW!

To make things simple, our priest advised not to eat or drink after midnight for a morning Divine Liturgy, which would be about 11 hours until receiving communion.

It’s not actually that strict, according to the monasteries. If you were awake at night, I think it’s around 4am.

For an evening Liturgy, we are usually told not to eat after lunch. That usually works out to about 6 hours.

ArmyMatt · Aug 11, 2021

usually from midnight, and you have kept the Wednesday and Friday fasts.

mindfulzen · Aug 11, 2021

Hekler said:
How much time do your church require?

What type of fast? And are you talking about a day or in years?

ArmyMatt · Aug 11, 2021

mindfulzen said:
What type of fast? And are you talking about a day or in years?

to prepare for Holy Communion, it's a strict fast (so, no food or drink) from midnight til you receive.

mindfulzen · Aug 11, 2021

ArmyMatt said:
to prepare for Holy Communion, it's a strict fast (so, no food or drink) from midnight til you receive.

I see. How often is this required done? Is it required? Is it required by God to get to heaven or to be accepted in a community in church? Can you do it at home, or must you go to a church physical? I ask because the orthodox churches closest, is a 3 hours drive, and currently shutdown. And I do not speak the language at that church. Can I do something, or must I drive to a church? Could I do it in a protestant church closer to home?

rusmeister · Aug 11, 2021

mindfulzen said:
I see. How often is this required done? Is it required? Is it required by God to get to heaven or to be accepted in a community in church? Can you do it at home, or must you go to a church physical? I ask because the orthodox churches closest, is a 3 hours drive, and currently shutdown. And I do not speak the language at that church. Can I do something, or must I drive to a church? Could I do it in a protestant church closer to home?

We don’t do legalism in Orthodoxy. On fasting, no one is going to be standing behind you with a timer. You know that God knows whether you are trying to limit and control yourself or not.

On communion, you have to learn what it is, you must do communion physically at a physical church. No, Protestant churches do not serve. St Mary of Egypt went for many years without Holy Communion. Do not despair.

My iPad is old and failing. Sorry for the short answer.

mindfulzen · Aug 11, 2021

rusmeister said:
We don’t do legalism in Orthodoxy. On fasting, no one is going to be standing behind you with a timer. You know that God knows whether you are trying to limit and control yourself or not.

On communion, you have to learn what it is, you must do communion physically at a physical church. No, Protestant churches do not serve. St Mary of Egypt went for many years without Holy Communion. Do not despair.

My iPad is old and failing. Sorry for the short answer.

Exactly, that is what I thought, not required, and not required to do communion. It is personal between me and God. Good to clear that up. What communion could there be, me going to a church and being with a bunch of people who speak another language. None at all. Polish is not a language I can understand anything of.

I do not do fast now, did in the past. I thought it was voulentary to test yourself, show commitment. Not obligated, so I asked because I stopped fasting and heard it as being required. Thank you for clearing it up for me.

rusmeister · Aug 11, 2021

mindfulzen said:
Exactly, that is what I thought, not required, and not required to do communion. It is personal between me and God. Good to clear that up. What communion could there be, me going to a church and being with a bunch of people who speak another language. None at all. Polish is not a language I can understand anything of.

I do not do fast now, did in the past. I thought it was voulentary to test yourself, show commitment. Not obligated, so I asked because I stopped fasting and heard it as being required. Thank you for clearing it up for me.

Hi! I’m not sure you understood me. I did say that you must learn what Communion is, and what fasting is, and why we do them at all. If you think in terms of legalism, you will never understand. If you see what fasting is and why Christ ever recommended it, then you might begin to see it, not as “a requirement”, but as a necessary discipline, like dieting together with working out in order to get fit. You can treat the rules regarding dieting in that case as “not required”, but then you will miss the whole point.

E.C. · Aug 11, 2021

mindfulzen said:
I see. How often is this required done? Is it required? Is it required by God to get to heaven or to be accepted in a community in church? Can you do it at home, or must you go to a church physical? I ask because the orthodox churches closest, is a 3 hours drive, and currently shutdown. And I do not speak the language at that church. Can I do something, or must I drive to a church? Could I do it in a protestant church closer to home?

We fast according to our strengths and circumstances. You get used to it; I've been Orthodox since 2006 and so on Sundays I don't get hungry until the afternoon. While I was working two jobs, one of which was driving for Uber and Lyft into the early morning, I was getting about 2-3 hours of sleep prior to leaving for church and caught a ferry. I usually had a breakfast bagel and coffee on that ferry ride. People who take medications which require it to be taken with food will usually have something small with their meal.

That all said, yes, fasting is encouraged, but there's no fasting police in Orthodoxy. If you don't fast, that's between you, God, and your local priest. If you do fast, that's between you, God, and your local priest.

ArmyMatt · Aug 11, 2021

mindfulzen said:
I see. How often is this required done? Is it required? Is it required by God to get to heaven or to be accepted in a community in church? Can you do it at home, or must you go to a church physical? I ask because the orthodox churches closest, is a 3 hours drive, and currently shutdown. And I do not speak the language at that church. Can I do something, or must I drive to a church? Could I do it in a protestant church closer to home?

fasting is not an option for us. however, how it's done is between a person and his priest. we never just decide to fast or not to fast on our own, but always with spiritual guidance.

mindfulzen · Aug 11, 2021

rusmeister said:
Hi! I’m not sure you understood me. I did say that you must learn what Communion is, and what fasting is, and why we do them at all. If you think in terms of legalism, you will never understand. If you see what fasting is and why Christ ever recommended it, then you might begin to see it, not as “a requirement”, but as a necessary discipline, like dieting together with working out in order to get fit. You can treat the rules regarding dieting in that case as “not required”, but then you will miss the whole point.

I do not have communion, I am the only person I know who has faith. So it is all very new to me, trying to learn

mindfulzen · Aug 11, 2021

E.C. said:
We fast according to our strengths and circumstances. You get used to it; I've been Orthodox since 2006 and so on Sundays I don't get hungry until the afternoon. While I was working two jobs, one of which was driving for Uber and Lyft into the early morning, I was getting about 2-3 hours of sleep prior to leaving for church and caught a ferry. I usually had a breakfast bagel and coffee on that ferry ride. People who take medications which require it to be taken with food will usually have something small with their meal.

That all said, yes, fasting is encouraged, but there's no fasting police in Orthodoxy. If you don't fast, that's between you, God, and your local priest. If you do fast, that's between you, God, and your local priest.

fasting is not as problem for me. I did it for almost 10 years, once a week for health, I am just asking spiritual purpose and requirements., because I am clueless on faith,b since I have not heard of it growing up.

I see no purpose for it now, so why should I do it? All very clear for me, I give my trust, no need for it right? Can eat as normal and be healthy? It is between me and God, as I understood it. Sorry about steelmanning you, but I want clear answers.

mindfulzen · Aug 11, 2021

ArmyMatt said:
fasting is not an option for us. however, how it's done is between a person and his priest. we never just decide to fast or not to fast on our own, but always with spiritual guidance.

Then I do not fast, I have no priest.

ArmyMatt · Aug 11, 2021

mindfulzen said:
Then I do not fast, I have no priest.

so, if you want to fast, talk to that closest priest.

Andrei D · Aug 11, 2021

I was thinking of that in a different thread... In my tradition we have a very unusual (it seems) practice in that we are encouraged to take Communion, well, not very frequently. Most people only partake during the year's Fasts so ~4 times a year. So they've already been fasting for some time.

The minimum I've heard is 3 days of fasting and additional prayer and no food and no water from midnight. More often is 1 week of fasting and additional prayer and no food/water from bedtime.

~Anastasia~ · Aug 12, 2021

Andrei D said:
I was thinking of that in a different thread... In my tradition we have a very unusual (it seems) practice in that we are encouraged to take Communion, well, not very frequently. Most people only partake during the year's Fasts so ~4 times a year. So they've already been fasting for some time.

The minimum I've heard is 3 days of fasting and additional prayer and no food and no water from midnight. More often is 1 week of fasting and additional prayer and no food/water from bedtime.

The older people in our community told me that when they were growing up, they only had the chance to receive maybe 2-3 times a year. They would fast for a week in preparation.

The priests had a bit of trouble convincing them it was allowed and beneficial to receive often. We offer at least weekly. So fasting for a week wasn’t possible, obviously. It was a change in their minds. But the reason for so rare to receive was due to the country being under oppression, not our tradition.

E.C. · Aug 12, 2021

mindfulzen said:
fasting is not as problem for me. I did it for almost 10 years, once a week for health, I am just asking spiritual purpose and requirements., because I am clueless on faith,b since I have not heard of it growing up.

I see no purpose for it now, so why should I do it? All very clear for me, I give my trust, no need for it right? Can eat as normal and be healthy? It is between me and God, as I understood it. Sorry about steelmanning you, but I want clear answers.

No need to apologize; you're actually one of the more polite visitors to this subforum we've had in a while. That's always appreciated.

ArmyMatt · Aug 12, 2021

E.C. said:
No need to apologize; you're actually one of the more polite visitors to this subforum we've had in a while. That's always appreciated.

agreed

How much time do you fast to receive Holy Communion?

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