A few questions on Lent and fasting

[river444]

I am leading a Catholic bible study on the topics of Lent and Fasting next Tuesday.These are the things I will try to discuss.
Who is required to fast?
Why do we fast?
On what days are we required to fast?
What does fasting entail?
Why do we abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent?
What is the point of Lent?
Why do we give things up for Lent?

 

[Toni]

river444:

Who is required to fast??

Canon 1251 Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Canon 1252 All persons who have completed their fourteenth year are bound by the law of abstinence; all adults are bound by the law of fast up to the beginning of their sixtieth year. Nevertheless, pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.

river444:

On what days are we required to fast?

Ash Wesnesday, Good Friday are fast and abstinence days.

river444:

What does fasting entail?

Fasting The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th Birthday [Canon 97] to the 59th Birthday * to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. Such fasting is obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The fast is broken by eating between meals and by drinks which could be considered food (milk shakes, but not milk). Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem to be contrary to the spirit of doing penance.
**Those who are excused from fast or abstinence **Besides those outside the age limits, those of unsound mind, the sick, the frail, pregnant or nursing women according to need for meat or nourishment, manual laborers according to need, guests at a meal who cannot excuse themselves without giving great offense or causing enmity and other situations of moral or physical impossibility to observe the penitential discipline.

river444:

Why do we give things up for Lent?

**Prayer, fasting and almsgiving **
The three traditional pillars of Lenten observance are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The key to renewed appropriation
of these practices is to see their link to baptismal renewal.

Prayer: More time given to prayer during Lent should draw us closer to the Lord. We might pray especially for the grace to live out our baptismal promises more fully. We might pray for the elect who will be baptized at Easter and support their conversion journey by our prayer. We might pray for all those who will celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation with us during Lent that they will be truly renewed in their baptismal commitment.

Fasting: Fasting is one of the most ancient practices linked to Lent. In fact, the paschal fast predates Lent as we know it. The early Church fasted intensely for two days before the celebration of the Easter Vigil. This fast was later extended and became a 40-day period of fasting leading up to Easter. Vatican II called us to renew the observance of the ancient paschal fast: “…let the paschal fast be kept sacred. Let it be celebrated everywhere on Good Friday and, where possible, prolonged throughout Holy Saturday, so that the joys of the Sunday of the Resurrection may be attained with uplifted and clear mind” (Liturgy, # 110).

Fasting is more than a means of developing self-control. It is often an aid to prayer, as the pangs of hunger remind us of our hunger for God. The first reading on the Friday after Ash Wednesday points out another important dimension
of fasting. The prophet Isaiah insists that fasting without changing our behavior is not pleasing to God. “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own” (Is 58:6-7).

Fasting should be linked to our concern for those who are forced to fast by their poverty, those who suffer from the
injustices of our economic and political structures, those who
are in need for any reason. Thus fasting, too, is linked to living out our baptismal promises. By our Baptism, we are charged
with the responsibility of showing Christ’s love to the world, especially to those in need. Fasting can help us realize the suffering that so many people in our world experience every day, and it should lead us to greater efforts to alleviate that suffering.*

 

[Toni]

river444:

Why do we abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent?

Abstaining from meat traditionally also linked us to the poor, who could seldom afford meat for their meals. It can do the same today if we remember the purpose of abstinence and embrace it as a spiritual link to those whose diets are sparse and simple. That should be the goal we set for ourselves—a sparse and simple meal. Avoiding meat while eating lobster misses the whole point!
Almsgiving: It should be obvious at this point that almsgiving, the third traditional pillar, is linked to our baptismal commitment in the same way. It is a sign of our care for those in need and an expression of our gratitude for all that God has given to us. Works of charity and the promotion of justice are integral elements of the Christian way of life we began when we were baptized.

river444:

What is the point of Lent?

The 40 days of the season make a religiously significant number. 40 days or years is always the amount of time that it takes to prepare for some great new transformation of the spirit. In the Hebrew scriptures, in one of the two Biblical versions of the flood story, Noah and his family spent 40 days and 40 nights in the ark, while God destroyed the old world and prepared for the new beginning. After Moses freed the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, they wandered for 40 years in the desert, while they prepared themselves to receive God’s gift of their new home, the Promised Land. And in the Christian scripture, John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River and then Jesus retires into the desert where he fasts for 40 days, in order to prepare himself for the new life he is about to begin.

Lent is similarly a period of preparation for a new spiritual change that will come at Easter, so 40 days is appropriate. We prepare for 40 days during Lent so that at Easter, Like Noah, we can have a new beginning, like Moses, a new spiritual home, or like Jesus, a new life. The reason Sundays don’t count has to do with the Christian understanding of every Sunday throughout the year being a mini-Easter. The Lenten reflection on sin and mortality is paused every Sunday for a celebration of God’s love and forgiveness, and then with Monday we return to contemplation of the human reality from which we need God’s love and forgiveness.

river444:

Why do we fast?

Each year at this time the question of fasting arises. Though the Church offers us numerous opportunities for fasting, this practice is especially emphasized and stressed as an important aspect of our Lenten journey towards Great Week and the Pascha of the Lord. Often fasting is referred to as one of the four hinges of a true and faithful lent — together with prayer, almsgiving and confession.