“As for fasting...it USED to be three hours, now it’s only an hour before Holy Communion. Also, we are allowed to drink water right up to the very moment of receiving the Eucharist.
We DO this because we are instructed to do so.”
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Cloudmountain. Why are we being instructed to fast prior to receiving Holy Communion?
See:
Eucharistic discipline
Chapter AND verse are quoted from 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.
Prayers before and after communion
Roman Catholic practice
Sufficient spiritual preparation must be made by each Roman Catholic prior to receiving Holy Communion. A Catholic in a state of mortal sin should first make a sacramental confession: otherwise that person commits a sacrilege. A sacrilege is the unworthy treatment of sacred things. Deliberate and irreverent treatment of the Eucharist is the worst of all sacrileges, as this quote from the Council of Trent shows:
"As of all the sacred mysteries ...none can compare with the ...Eucharist, so likewise for no crime is there heavier punishment to be feared from God than for the unholy or irreligious use by the faithful of that which...contains the very Author and Source of holiness." (De Euch., v.i).
The above applies to both Latin and Eastern rite Catholics.
In addition, they abstain from food and drink (except water and medicine) for at least one hour before receiving, and believe truly in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The discipline for Eastern Catholics generally requires a longer period of fasting and some Latin Catholics observe the earlier (pre-1955) discipline of fasting from the previous midnight.
These prayers express humility and the communicants' sense of unworthiness for the gift they are about to receive. The post-Communion prayers are often read aloud by a reader or a member of the congregation after the liturgy and during the veneration of the cross, these prayers of thanksgiving expressing the communicants' joy at having received the holy mysteries "for the healing of soul and body."
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