Eucharistic Fast

Father Ray Blake has an interesting post here, in which he discussed the difficulty of restoring ascetic practices such as the 3 hour Eucharistic Fast against the will, or indefference, of the majority of Catholics.

He writes (my Emphasis):

The problem is that the piety that willing embraced the older fast from midnight, which was reduced under Pius XII to three hours, is no longer there. The Law has to bend, otherwise it is broken. it is only the willing who obey it. Good law has to be easily kept by most people at best because people recognise it as being good or at worst because it is possible to coerce people to keep it. For many reasons I would certainly like to see the restoration of the old fast but how does one make people want to embrace it? The law alone does not suffice. There is a need restore the piety and reverence that gave birth to the law in the first place.


Many seem to think the answer to the Church's problems is more law and strengthening the penalties for breaking the law but laws that are ineffective or imprecise or disobeyed are bad laws. The Church is ultimately rather powerless, what binds us to it is charity, what makes us obey it is willing loving submission or at least a culture where keeping a particular law has become part of the warp and weft of our lives.

Having dismantled centuries of custom and practice it is impossible to restore it merely by diktat. 

Strangely enough,  I would more happily accept a Papal or Episcopal diktat, provided it did not violate my conscience, than one produced by a lay committee staffed by people with that certain smile (I think you know what I mean).