Alternate Penance on Fridays

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Hey all. I’ve noticed that rules of Friday penance are pretty vague. So I can avoid being scrupulous, I’d like to get a gauge on what people here do instead as an alternative form of penance. So for all of you who choose not to abstain from meat on Friday, what do you do?
 
I heard a priest on EWTN say, quoting a saint, that meditation on the Lord’s Passion is better than fasting the whole year on bread and water.

If you are scrupulous, you may need to keep this pretty brief. I don’t know.
 
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kanyewest said:
Hey all. I’ve noticed that rules of Friday penance are pretty vague. So I can avoid being scrupulous, I’d like to get a gauge on what people here do instead as an alternative form of penance. So for all of you who choose not to abstain from meat on Friday, what do you do?
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An extra decade of the Rosary would be one alternative.
 
Well if one does not normally pray the rosary, praying it would probably be a good penance itself
 
Is it a requirement to do something? Or just recommended? I do nothing special.
 
PatK63 said:
Is it a requirement to do something? Or just recommended? I do nothing special.
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Every Friday outside Lent you are REQUIRED to do penance. Either you do not eat meat or you do an alternative penance.
 
I don’t read that as a requirement. We urge. We suggest…
 
PatK63 said:
I don’t read that as a requirement. We urge. We suggest…
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You are wrong. It is an obligation.

Can. 1249 All Christ’s faithful are obliged by divine law, each in his or her own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined together in a certain common practice of penance, days of penance are prescribed. On these days the faithful are in a special manner to devote themselves to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity, and to deny themselves, by fulfilling their obligations more faithfully and especially by observing the fast and abstinence which the following canons prescribe.

Can. 1250 The days and times of penance for the universal Church are each Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
 
I do nothing more than what I already do daily. I pray Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. For Fridays, I already have a virtual intention to offer at least one of my Offices as my Friday penance. I am not bound to the Office, so it’s something I can offer as penance.

I feel no need to add more. The fact that it’s part of my daily routine makes no difference.
 
Not to hijack or anything, but could going to confession on Fridays be considered an alternate penance?
 
Abstain from meat. That is the tradition, what Catholics are doing for centuries.
 
I stay off caf and phone games most Fridays. As I’m here posting, you can be assured that meat is off the menu today.
 
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