Chapter IV. Easter Communion

THERE is also a divine precept to receive Holy Communion: ““ Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you shall not have life in you.” + But no special time was assigned by our Lord for the fulfilment of this precept; he left all such matters to be determined by the Church. The Fourth Council of the Lateran, therefore, made the universal law that all the faithful, after coming to years of discretion, should reverently receive the holy Eucharist at least at Easter, unless it be deemed advisable to abstain for a time for some reasonable cause.”

Canon 859 of the new code repeats the words of the Lateran Council and interprets the words “years of discretion ”’ as ‘‘ coming to the use of reason,” so that children ¹ become subject to this law after completing their seventh year. This obligation, as far as it affects those under the age of puberty, falls chiefly on those who have care of them—that is, on their parents, guardians, confessor, teachers, and parish priest (Can. 860).

The Easter Communion should be made during the fortnight from Palm Sunday to Low Sunday, but local Ordinaries can anticipate the time from the fourth Sunday of Lent or prolong it to Trinity Sunday.

The faithful are to be exhorted to fulfil this precept in their own parish church, and if they fulfil it in another parish they should inform their parish priest.

In England the time for fulfilling the Easter duties is still from Ash Wednesday to Low Sunday.

In the United States the time for fulfilling the Easter precept is from the first Sunday in Lent till Trinity Sunday; in Ireland it extends from Ash Wednesday to the octave day of the feast of SS Peter and Paul.

This precept is not fulfilled by a sacrilegious Communion, and if it has not been complied with at the proper time the obligation still remains, and should be discharged as soon as the occasion offers.

Other matters concerning Holy Communion will be treated when we come to the Sacraments (Can. 861).

¹ John vi 54.