A Different Prospective on Lenten Fridays

[mjf150]

Today, in our local newspaper, in the Life section there was an article about Lent. In the article, the priest from the Catholic Church that I attend said that there are a few misconceptions about Lent. One is the only days that we as Catholics are required to fast (eat one meal) are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. One other misconception is the difference between fasting and abstaining (doing without). Another rule that he said is often misinterpreted is “no meat on Friday’s”. He said that it is more about the sacrafice itself, and not what is being sacraficed. For instance, if you live in an area where you can enjoy an abundance of seafood, like South Louisiana, then it isn’t a sacrafice to forgo the hamburger and instead have the seafood platter or the boiled crawfish. When the rule about no meat on Fridays was established, it was indeed a sacrafice to forgo meat, but now people would be much happier eating lobster rather than having hamburger. We must keep in mind that Lent is about Sacrafice, not what we sacrafice.

 

[Mickey]

mjf150:

Today, in our local newspaper, in the Life section there was an article about Lent. In the article, the priest from the Catholic Church that I attend said that there are a few misconceptions about Lent. One is the only days that we as Catholics are required to fast (eat one meal) are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. One other misconception is the difference between fasting and abstaining (doing without). Another rule that he said is often misinterpreted is “no meat on Friday’s”. He said that it is more about the sacrafice itself, and not what is being sacraficed. For instance, if you live in an area where you can enjoy an abundance of seafood, like South Louisiana, then it isn’t a sacrafice to forgo the hamburger and instead have the seafood platter or the boiled crawfish. When the rule about no meat on Fridays was established, it was indeed a sacrafice to forgo meat, but now people would be much happier eating lobster rather than having hamburger. We must keep in mind that Lent is about Sacrafice, not what we sacrafice.

He is a wise priest!

 

[DJJG]

While it may be true that abstaining from meat may not be much of a sacrifice, while something else may be much more so, one still has to abstain from the meat anyway. To make the sacrifice more meaningfull, abstain from the meat, as per cannon LAW and abstain from whatever else you may wish to.

We do not have the choice to substitute something else for meat, on Fridays durring the lenten season. But it certainly is a good idea to add to our sacrifice.