Fasting communion, Fr. Stoskopf taught, was an essential obligation. There was no question that the rule, well established from the earliest days, had the authority of the Universal Church. There was ample evidence that the rule was unquestioned and observed without exception from the days of the early Church to the Reformation. Even after that date, leading bishops of the Restoration period spoke of the practice as a "Catholic custom."

The reasons for fasting communion were clear. In the first place, it was doing something for God, in St. Augustine's words, "in honor of so great a sacrament." Further, fasting reminded us that the sacrament was a gift of God to our whole nature. Receiving communion was a physical as well as mental action in a sense in which prayer was not. It was fitting that the bodily organism, as well as the mind and spirit, should have its proper preparation. Fasting communion assisted us to guard against a casual, careless, or perfunctory attitude toward performance of the most holy act which we could undertake.

Mr. Emil Mallick, a former parishioner, recalled that as an acolyte at the Ascension in the 1930s he served Fr. Stoskopf at early weekday Mass. Seriously heeding the rector's injunction to fast, however, on two occasions he lost consciousness, knocking over the Sanctus gong while falling to the floor of the sanctuary. Each time, revived by a Sister of St. Anne and the rector, he continued to serve the Mass.

[The Order of St. Anne was founded in 1910 by the Rev. Frederick Cecil Powell, a member of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, at Arlington Heights, Massachusetts. The Convent of St. Anne in Chicago was established in 1921 in response to a call from the rector and vestry for sisters to do missionary work in the parish. For eight years the sisters lived in the second floor of the parish house and used the chapel of the church for their daily offices. Following the purchase by the parish of property immediately south of the church in 1927, the sisters were moved to the convent at 1125 N. LaSalle Avenue which they currently occupy. Since 1957 the convent's principal source of financial support has come from a bequest provided by the estate of Miss Alice Stoskopf, sister of the Rev. William Brewster Stoskopf.]

Fr. Stoskopf placed emphasis on reverent attendance at Mass. He noted that no one has properly heard Mass who has not been present and attentive from the time the priest begins his preparation at the foot of the altar until after the Last Gospel he retires from the sanctuary. People who live far from the church, as many do, should give care and forethought to arriving on time. If one were unavoidably late, he should enter the church noiselessly, slipping into the rear pew near the door. If one arrived during the Consecration, he should wait outside, kneeling in the vestibule until the priest raised his voice.

Mental attention and presence were most important. In most books of devotions, there were helps to the proper use of those silent moments in the great action going on at the altar. Comments, whispering, and particularly laughing were highly inappropriate. "What must our Lord think of that," wrote the rector, "and how must his holy angels, present and adoring at every Mass, resent it."

Young members of the parish, in particular, occasionally needed to be reminded that a reverential attitude was required not only while Mass was celebrated, but at all times in the House of God, particularly in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Mr. Mallick, who also served as assistant organist, one late afternoon amused himself and several choirboys by singing verses of "Pop Goes the Weasel" while accompanying himself on the church organ. Young Mallick was surprised by the sudden, unexpected appearance of the rector, who sternly rebuked him and refused Mallick access to the organ for an entire month.

Also important, Fr. Stoskopf taught, was the proper method by which communion was received. Some persons had the habit of keeping their heads bowed over at the moment the priest was trying to communicate them. This made it difficult for him to see the lips in administering the chalice. The difficulty was particularly great in the case of women and girls with hats that came down over the forehead. Each communicant should kneel with the head held in an upright position.

To receive the Sacred Body, if the custom was to receive it upon the palm of the hand, the right hand should be placed over the left forming a cross, a practice which Cyril of Jerusalem taught long ago. Those who received on the tongue should not protrude the tongue beyond the lips, but open the mouth sufficiently wide for the priest to place the host upon it.

Fr. Stoskopf urged laymen present at the offering of the Holy Sacrifice to make responses clearly and devoutly. "Responses are very significant things and very important things in the sacred liturgy. They are significant of the fact that what is done at the Altar is no merely personal action on the part of the Priest himself, but that it is a corporate act representative of the whole Church, the mystical body of Christ."