Ash Wednesday Fast

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mary1973
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Mary1973

Guest
Okay, this may sound dumb but I have never understood what is meant by eating only one full meal on a day of fast. Does that mean no food until evening? Can I eat a little at breakfast and a little at lunch and then eat more for dinner? What exactly is a “full meal”?

Let me thank you in advance for your answers and please keep it simple for my simple mind.
 
Firstly it is not just one full meal - it is one full meal AND two smaller meals that together are roughly the same size as a normal meal - that means no snacking between meals either.

And as for what a ‘normal meal’ means - well it’s one of those common sense definitions. Imagine the quantity of food you’d typically eat in a lunch or dinner at home (NOT in a pigout at an all-you-can-eat buffet!). I’d say three courses is OK, preferably two unless you’re very physically active or would feel unwell without it, but not more than one helping of each. Preferably somewhat smaller than your average helping, the aim is to deprive ourselves a little.

For myself because I’ll be at home on Ash Wednesday I’ll eat brunch at 10 am and dinner a bit early - 5pm or so
 
40.png
LilyM:
Firstly it is not just one full meal - it is one full meal AND two smaller meals that together are roughly the same size as a normal meal - that means no snacking between meals either.

And as for what a ‘normal meal’ means - well it’s one of those common sense definitions. Imagine the quantity of food you’d typically eat in a lunch or dinner at home (NOT in a pigout at an all-you-can-eat buffet!). I’d say three courses is OK, preferably two unless you’re very physically active or would feel unwell without it, but not more than one helping of each. Preferably somewhat smaller than your average helping, the aim is to deprive ourselves a little.

For myself because I’ll be at home on Ash Wednesday I’ll eat brunch at 10 am and dinner a bit early - 5pm or so
Click to expand...
Just a point to ponder here. I find that every once in a while, I do a full fast. I eat nothing until dinner. I find that when I get hungry it reminds me to pray. This is weird, but it places me in a state of total adoration for the Lord. If you are not up to it from the beginning, no problem. However, I encourage you to try it at some point.
 
Thanks for the great explanations.

I don’t think I am up to a complete fast when I have to go to work. I may try it when I am home for the day.
 
I basically fast all day at school anyway, so it won’t be much of a problem 😛
 
Last year (after lent), I tried a bread and water fast. I used the low-carb tortillas because I didn’t have any actual bread in the house, but that worked out well because they pack easily! 🙂

I used the fajita sized, and ate about 1/2 of one for breakfast, a full one for lunch, and I went to Mass that evening. When I got home, I was so far beyond hungry that I actually didn’t even eat that evening. Maybe the last tortilla, but that was it.

Now, understand, I love food, and this was the first time I tried such a fast.

My point is this: try, pray, and trust in God. He will give you the graces to go beyond your own goals and rather, to meet his. My goal that day was to fast until dinner. I went beyond that, but not under my own power.

I hope I can do that this lent. Without God, I can’t, that much I know.

As far as the original question goes…just keep things at a minimum. What I often do is eat things such as SlimFast so that I have vitamins I need, but skip between meals and try to keep dinner small as well. If it’s a workout day, or a really active day at work, I may need more. Listen to your body. If you are dehydrated (should not happen…dring a lot of water), or if you get shaky, EAT SOMETHING. It’s a good time to take stock of your diet, that’s for certain. You learn if you snack because your’e really hungry or your’e just accustomed to doing so.

It’s a very wisdom-inducing time of year, isn’t it?
 
Methinks having something like Slimfast/vitamin-enriched drinks or just plain old multivitamin tablets is a very good idea to avoid some of the unpleasant effects of fasting.
 
40.png
LilyM:
Methinks having something like Slimfast/vitamin-enriched drinks or just plain old multivitamin tablets is a very good idea to avoid some of the unpleasant effects of fasting.
Click to expand...
It still isn’t enough, though. It’s not like it’s filling.

I’m not giving up chocolate this year as I’m giving up other things, but I might give it up on Fridays along with meat.

The effects I have from fasting…hunger doesn’t go away with slimfast, but at least I don’t get shaky. And because I often have to literally run around…under and over cars, to and from the printer and fax, etc., I find that I can often balance what I need against what I want.

Believe me, to exist on a shake is a fast, as long as nothing is had with it.

The bread and water fast, though, that worked for me a couple times…I got the shakes on that one. And then I got past them, and I actually wasn’t sick the next couple days. God’s grace.

It used to be that if I so much as skipped a meal, I woudl get the worst stomach aches. Then I would have dinner and it would get worse. When I was a kid I used to miss school for these stomach aches and could barely walk. They usually weren’t associated with Lent, however.

It still happens, but I’ve learned my “cycle”…if I really want to suffer needlessly and get to the point where I need to walk bent over (defeats the purpose of the fast, which is supposed to be private), versus balancing things, feeling hungry, eating minimally, but not getting sick…I’ll take the latter.

The vitamin shakes work. They keep me hungry, but provide nutrition. If I get shaky, I have a Sprite or something. Usually it’s not needed…depends entirely on my activity level throughout the day.

So I guess if you’re being faceicious and implying pretty obviously that the SlimFast shakes are causing me to avoid discomfort, you are way off base. I could go for a worse-tasting nutrition drink, though, if it would make you feel better about it. 😛
 
Whatever you do, make sure you eat something for breakfast. Giving your digestive system nothing to process between dinner one night and lunch the next day is asking for trouble if you do it more than very occasionally. Bowel cancer is one problem that comes to mind.
 
40.png
Mary1973:
Okay, this may sound dumb but I have never understood what is meant by eating only one full meal on a day of fast. Does that mean no food until evening? Can I eat a little at breakfast and a little at lunch and then eat more for dinner? What exactly is a “full meal”?

.
Click to expand...
you got some confusing answers here. Interesting, but not what you asked for. What is prescribed by the Church is two small meals and one full meal, which is a normal (but no-meat) meal you would eat any day, without dessert–main dish, one or two sides, perhaps with a salad or cup of soup. The two small meals together make up a bit less than a full meal. No eating between meals except water, tea, coffee. What you described is correct. No need to fast completely until dinner, that is not our custom.

If you have any medical condition which makes fasting inadvisible or dangerous you are not bound by the fast, which applies to Catholics between 18 and 59 yrs. Eastern rites have their own rules. go by the rules published in your diocese for Lent.
 
40.png
LilyM:
Firstly it is not just one full meal - it is one full meal AND two smaller meals that together are roughly the same size as a normal meal - that means no snacking between meals either.

And as for what a ‘normal meal’ means - well it’s one of those common sense definitions. Imagine the quantity of food you’d typically eat in a lunch or dinner at home (NOT in a pigout at an all-you-can-eat buffet!). I’d say three courses is OK, preferably two unless you’re very physically active or would feel unwell without it, but not more than one helping of each. Preferably somewhat smaller than your average helping, the aim is to deprive ourselves a little.

For myself because I’ll be at home on Ash Wednesday I’ll eat brunch at 10 am and dinner a bit early - 5pm or so
Click to expand...
Are you sure ??? because I always thought it was ONE full meal OR two smaller meals (that do not add up to one full meal)… NOT both.

One full meal and two smaller meals would seem to me like not fasting at all,

Just think we only have to do this on Ash Wedneday and on Good Friday… before Vatican II, folks (over 18) had to fast every day during Lent.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top