His Holiness Pope Shenouda III speaks about the necessity for the priest to fast when performing the sacraments, with clarification of some practical and necessary exceptions.

General Rule

• The priest should perform all the sacraments while fasting, because the rite of fasting is part of the fitness of the sacrament and its service.

Exceptions and Practical Notes

• Baptism must be before the Divine Liturgy and not after it, because the priest may wash the chalice and drink water during the Liturgy and thus lose his fast. Therefore it is preferable to perform baptisms early in the morning before the Liturgy.

• Communion to the sick: it is not permissible for the priest to take the reserve (the consecrated species) and then drink water and go to give communion to the sick; the communion to the sick must be given while the priest is fasting. Patients who take medicines are an exceptional case, but the priest is not considered an exceptional case in this regard.

• The anointing (al-andil) and the rites related to it should be done while the priest is fasting, preferably early in the morning.

• Baptism with chrism and ordination (the sacrament of priesthood) also must be done while the priest is fasting.

Marriage and Confession

• Historically the spouses used to fast before marriage to prepare to receive the sacrament, and there was a short fasting period after the morning incense. Today, given parties and modern customs, some cannot fast, so the marriage may be done when the bride and groom have broken their fast, and the priest may break fast with them — this is an exception of necessity.

• The sacrament of confession is not denied when the penitent needs to return to the bosom of the Church; the priest should not use his fasting status as an obstacle to confession in cases of necessity.

Service Organization and Oversight

• Those who deliver the altar vessels and the monks handing over duties must be supervised to ensure no mistakes; a meeting will be held to correct wrong practices.

• The aim is to preserve the fasting rite for priests when possible, and to consider emergency cases as limited exceptions not to be generalized.

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