Are we to abstain from meat on March 19, 2010?

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March 19, 2010 is a Friday during Lent and Fridays in Lent are normally days of abstinence from meat. However, it is also the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and according to Canon Law …
  • **Can. 1250 - **The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every 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.
… Therefore, am I correct in understanding that we are not obligated to abstain from meat on March 19, 2010?
 
Sir_Knight said:
March 19, 2010 is a Friday during Lent and Fridays in Lent are normally days of abstinence from meat. However, it is also the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and according to Canon Law …
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You have answered your own question.
Sir_Knight said:
  • **Can. 1250 - **The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every 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,
Code: 
unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday
. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

… Therefore, am I correct in understanding that we are not obligated to abstain from meat on March 19, 2010?
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Yes, your understanding is correct.

tee
 
No, you are reading it incorrectly!!! :eek:

Just kidding. 😉 You and tee are correct. We do not have to abstain from meat on that day. I just felt like chiming in. 🙂
 
I just got a bright idea… I’m either going out for sushi or crab legs that day. 🙂
 
Would there be anything improper about fasting and abstaining from meat on that day, or on Sundays for that matter?
 
We’re still going to the Parish Fish Fry-- Yum-Yum!!!

Besides we already paid for all 6 Friday Fish Fry’s so we are going…😃
 
Digitonomy said:
Would there be anything improper about fasting and abstaining from meat on that day, or on Sundays for that matter?
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St. Joseph commands you to gorge yourself on his feast day! 😉

Okay, I’ll be serious. 😛

It is a Solemnity. You should do something to celebrate that. It doesn’t mean you have to eat meat or consume large quantities of food. But we should celebrate.
 
Joannm said:
If you of of Italian origin you would not want to fast on St. Joseph’s day. It’s pastry time!
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🙂 I may not be Italian, but when it’s the feast day of he of whom I am the namesake, “pastry time” is an understatement! 😉
 
Joannm said:
If you of of Italian origin you would not want to fast on St. Joseph’s day. It’s pastry time!
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Popping in…🙂

.I’m Italian-Sicilian American. Part of our cultural heritage is to prepare a St. Joseph table. It’s a table with various dishes, that was meant to be shared with the poor. But part of the tradition was that the dishes were meatless. Pasta con le sarde e finocchio was one of the dishes. It’s pasta with sardines and fennel.

I wonder why meatless, even though it was a feast? I assume that avoiding meat would be cultural? Maybe the same reason we eat fish Christmas Eve?
 
Mary_Gail_36 said:
Popping in…🙂

.I’m Italian-Sicilian American. Part of our cultural heritage is to prepare a St. Joseph table. It’s a table with various dishes, that was meant to be shared with the poor. But part of the tradition was that the dishes were meatless. Pasta con le sarde e finocchio was one of the dishes. It’s pasta with sardines and fennel.

I wonder why meatless, even though it was a feast? I assume that avoiding meat would be cultural? Maybe the same reason we eat fish Christmas Eve?
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Well, traditionally people did not eat meat at all during Lent. It was probably considered impractical to prepare a dish for the poor (or anyone else for that matter) that would have to be consumed on a single day. I would think you’d want to prepare foods that the poor could save to consume later in the week.

(Christmas Eve was also a meatless day.)
 
Mary_Gail_36 said:
Popping in…🙂

.I’m Italian-Sicilian American. Part of our cultural heritage is to prepare a St. Joseph table. It’s a table with various dishes, that was meant to be shared with the poor. But part of the tradition was that the dishes were meatless. Pasta con le sarde e finocchio was one of the dishes. It’s pasta with sardines and fennel.

I wonder why meatless, even though it was a feast? I assume that avoiding meat would be cultural? Maybe the same reason we eat fish Christmas Eve?
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A lot of Chicago folks, Italian or not, agree with you. No meat on St. Joseph’s Day works out just fine; now, on St. Patrick’s Day, that’s another story . . . :irish3:
 
IrishAm said:
A lot of Chicago folks, Italian or not, agree with you. No meat on St. Joseph’s Day works out just fine; now, on St. Patrick’s Day, that’s another story . . . :irish3:
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St. Patrick’s day without meat would be fine by me.

Now, St. Patrick’s day without beer… THAT would be a tragedy! 😃
 
My grandmother told me getting married on St. Joseph’s feast meant he’d help make my husband a good husband and father. Sigh. I can celebrate with fish. There’s a restaurant here that named most of it’s menu items after the schools in town. The whitefish sandwich is named after Ursuline Academy, my alma mater. Maybe we can make a special trip over there on that day. It never occurred to me that March 19 would be the kind feast that would get you a bye on the no-meat on Friday rule. Other than my fellow Italians, I wonder how many people even know it’s his feast day???

I wish I could remember the name of the bakery on 86th Street in Bensonhurst Brooklyn where I got the St. Joseph cakes. They were delish! Royal Angelo down at 25th Avenue was good, but this was a few blocks closer to Dyker Heights. They were truly masterpieces of fat and calories. NO PLACE in St. Louis has anything like them.
 
I have 3 catholic calendars hanging on the wall in my apartment. two calendars have fishes on only the Fridays of Lent and Ash Wednesday including St. Joseph. The other calendar is the liturgical calendar from LTP and has fishes on all the Fridays of Ordinary Time and Advent except the Sacred Heart and Transfiguration and then all the days of Lent except Sundays, St. Joseph and Annunciation. We get lucky two years in a row, Annunciation will be on a Friday next year.
 
Digitonomy said:
Would there be anything improper about fasting and abstaining from meat on that day, or on Sundays for that matter?
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You can be a vegetarian any time you like, and no one is going to force food upon you that you don’t feel like eating. Still, in modern times one generally one sticks to prayer and almsgiving on Sundays and solemnities, and refrains from penance and abstinence, in honor of the nature of the day.

Having said that, the traditional foods for the Feast of St. Joseph are festive but meatless: pasta with breadcrumbs (because of the sawdust that would have covered the holy carpenter’s floor), minestrone, seafood, Sfinge di San Giuseppe (a particular sort of cream puff), and fava beans. Fava beans are a lucky food for St. Joseph’s feast day. So if you were to go meatless but festive, there isn’t anything wrong with that, either.

Oh, and wear red–I’m told it is preferably the “royal purple” shade worn by cardinals–and give food to the needy.
 
My religious calendar from our parish has a fish on that day. My Passionist desk calendar also has a fish on the 19th with “Friday of Abstinence” written under “Joseph, Husband of Mary”.🙂
To be on the safe side and yet keep it festive; I’d suggest really great seafood on the menu for that day. One of the recipies I’ve been using for fish days is angel hair pasta with olive oil, anchovies and cracked red pepper. I love it! Then there’s salmon, shrimp, pizza, pasta,…oh dear, I’m getting hungry! 👍
 
RosalieM said:
To be on the safe side…
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It is OK to decide not to eat meat, the traditional foods for the solemnity are meatless, but there is no question of “safety”. Under current rules, it is entirely allowed to eat meat on this solemnity (which as far as I know always falls during Lent or the Triduum, since the equinox used to reckon Easter is two or three days later) To the best of my knowledge, no bishops encouraged the faithful to do otherwise, either.

As far as I know, the only exception would be if a solemnity were to fall during Holy Week, in which case it is transferred to the previous Saturday. As to celebration, solemnities are also superceded by Sundays of Lent, and must be transferred to the Saturday before. If the solemnity were not to have been transferred for some reason, then it would not be celebrated. When it is observed, though, meat is currently allowed, even if it falls on a day that would otherwise be a day of fasting and/or abstinence.
 
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