On the Fourth Precept of the Church: To Receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist within Paschal Time

I say 1st. § 1. Every faithful person of either sex, after he has arrived at the years of discretion, that is, at the use of reason, must once in the year, at least at Easter, receive the sacrament of the Eucharist, unless perchance, by the counsel of his own priest, for some reasonable cause, he has judged that he must abstain for a time from receiving it (Can. 859).

Moreover, for this region the Holy See has already benignly consented that, unless it is restricted by each Bishop, the time of Paschal communion be computed from the first Sunday of Lent inclusively to the Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity likewise inclusively. - Cf. Conc. Plen. Balt. II, n. 257.

I say 2nd. § 2. Paschal communion is to be made from Palm Sunday to Low Sunday; but it is lawful for local Ordinaries, if the circumstances of persons and places so require, also to anticipate this time for all their faithful, but not before the fourth Sunday of Lent, or to prorogue it, but not beyond the feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

§ 3. The faithful are to be urged that each satisfy this precept in his own parish; and those who shall have satisfied it in another parish should take care to inform their own pastor concerning the fulfilled precept.

§ 4. The precept of Paschal communion still presses, if anyone has not fulfilled it in the prescribed time, for whatever cause (Can. 859).¹

¹ Cf. Addenda, p. 1141, n. 105.

Question 1. Is he who omitted to communicate during Paschal time still held, when he can, to communicate?

Response. Affirmatively; for thus says canon 859 § 4.

Question 2. Is he bound to communion who, when Paschal time has not yet begun, foresees that he will be impeded?

Response. It is greatly controverted; but it seems that it must be denied. Nevertheless, with that time now begun, you are held to satisfy this obligation as soon as possible if you foresee an impediment; indeed you are held to remove even grave impediments, because that precept is also divine and of grave moment. Cf. St. Alphonsus, de Sacram. Euchar., n. 298.

Question 3. Does he sin gravely who defers communion to the first or second day after Paschal time has elapsed?

Response. Affirmatively, of itself; and the reason is that, although a delay of this kind can seem small in itself, it is nevertheless sufficiently notable in comparison with the duration of Paschal time according to the common law. But since among us this time, from Apostolic indult, has been extended to almost one hundred days, a delay of one or two days certainly must not be considered notable.