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dochawk
Guest
I know a brother in an order that went on pure bread and water for Lent some time ago.
It did not go well.
He kept to it, and wouldn’t give it up, bu actually gained weight during lent by fasting. . .
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Bishops saying we can eat meat on Lenten fridays due to the COVID-19
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It did not go well.
He kept to it, and wouldn’t give it up, bu actually gained weight during lent by fasting. . .
Emeraldlady
New member
I would assume that the obligation reflects the uncertainty of the grocery market at the moment. I haven’t been able to buy pasta or tinned seafood for 2 weeks. They are considered quarantine staples. I’m ok to be making do with my pantry but my Aunty and her 11 children and 50 plus grandchildren in a remote rural area, know the value of feeding a brood of many members by killing an animal.
It’s just strange times. We’ve got to stop thinking “I’m Ok. You’re OK” and thinking that well I can still cope with the normal religious constraints but it’s not that easy for others in this climate.
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otjm
Guest
You might want to find some different friends.
Fasting is a discipline, and disciplines can be altered or suspended, or terminated. In short, your friend is wrong.
I’m not sure if it’s worldwide, here in the U.S., St. Joseph’s feast day (March 19th) is a solemnity so that dispensation from abstaining from meat on Friday (if it’s also Saint Joseph’s feast day) is automatically granted.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
They’re allowed to do so. Bishops have also dispensed the no meat obligation on St. Patrick’s Day in the USA in the past, which isn’t even a solemnity in USA, just so people can happily eat their corned beef and cabbage.
Getting certain shelf-stable foods like canned tuna has been difficult around here lately, but there is still plenty of stuff to eat if you want to skip the meat. I didn’t check on whether my bishop dispensed the no-meat or not because I planned to just eat cheese and cereal with fruit instead.
Getting certain shelf-stable foods like canned tuna has been difficult around here lately, but there is still plenty of stuff to eat if you want to skip the meat. I didn’t check on whether my bishop dispensed the no-meat or not because I planned to just eat cheese and cereal with fruit instead.
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twf
Guest
The contempt some “traditionalists” show for the bishops, the successors of the apostles, the vicars of Christ, is beyond the pale. “Where the bishop is…there is the Catholic Church.”
Every Friday of the year is a day of penance. The universal law is to abstain from meat on every Friday…Lenten or otherwise. The bishops of each country can and do dispense from this law. In the US, another penance may be substituted for meat abstinence on normal Fridays, but meat abstinence must be observed on the Fridays of Lent. In Canada, another penance may be substituted for both ordinary and Lenten Fridays. In England and Wales, meat abstinence is to be observed on all Fridays throughout the year. It varies.
Meat abstinence and fasting is only universally required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
- St Ignatius, AD 107.
Every Friday of the year is a day of penance. The universal law is to abstain from meat on every Friday…Lenten or otherwise. The bishops of each country can and do dispense from this law. In the US, another penance may be substituted for meat abstinence on normal Fridays, but meat abstinence must be observed on the Fridays of Lent. In Canada, another penance may be substituted for both ordinary and Lenten Fridays. In England and Wales, meat abstinence is to be observed on all Fridays throughout the year. It varies.
Meat abstinence and fasting is only universally required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
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Edmundus1581
Guest
In Australia the requirement for abstinence has also been modified to allow for another penance.
All my life I thought Friday abstinence was mandatory in Lent in Australia, until a couple of years ago someone told me it’s optional and I confidently contradicted them. I looked it up, and found the person was right. The third person in this conversation is a seventy year Catholic who had thought the same as me. It came as news to both of us Friday abstinence in Lent is optional.
However, as you say, where abstinence is optional some form of other form penance must be observed on Fridays.
I suspect the reason so few know of the actual laws is that the clergy never mention them in Mass, probably thinking that most will regard it as unnecessary “legalism” anyway.
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twf
Guest
The bishops of Canada…this is common knowledge for Canadian Catholics. You can consult the CCCB site if you wish.
po18guy
Well-known member
Why does this generation - young to old - seemingly have a problem with the mercy of Christ as expressed through His Bishops?
As an example of God’s mercy, the days of tribulation have been shortened for the sake of the elect. Is this any different? For all we know, this could be the start of it all. We are told only to “watch.”
As an example of God’s mercy, the days of tribulation have been shortened for the sake of the elect. Is this any different? For all we know, this could be the start of it all. We are told only to “watch.”
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pnewton
Guest
That would simply be a matter of opinion, and we all have one. I would suggest that it does not matter. If someone deems it unnecessary, that person can simply abstain from meat and let others tend their own gardens.
I will continue in abstinence regardless of any dispensation, as I had my Lenten meals already planned and purchased before this virus.
I will continue in abstinence regardless of any dispensation, as I had my Lenten meals already planned and purchased before this virus.
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tafan2
Guest
Can we finally get over asking what bishops are allowed to do in response to this pandemic? It us getting really annoying. Can they require communion in the hand? Can they stop public masses? Can they dispense us from nit eating meat?
Does it not seem evident that perhaps the Holy Father us aware of all of these actions? Rome is in Italy after all. So far, to my knowledge, the Vatican has only ruled on exactly what can happen during the Easter Triduum. It seems that they are likely to leave it up to individual bishops to decide what us best in their locations.
Guess what? Canon law, the GIRM, and all if our other rules were never written with this scenario in mind.
Does it not seem evident that perhaps the Holy Father us aware of all of these actions? Rome is in Italy after all. So far, to my knowledge, the Vatican has only ruled on exactly what can happen during the Easter Triduum. It seems that they are likely to leave it up to individual bishops to decide what us best in their locations.
Guess what? Canon law, the GIRM, and all if our other rules were never written with this scenario in mind.
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Mrchatsworth
Guest
What we are seeing currently is that any bishop can pretty much do anything. Much like our own government no one is bothering to ask “can” someone do something but rather “will” they.
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jesusmademe
Guest
How is it a sacrifice to not eat meat?
It is easy not to eat meat.
Where is the sacrifice?
I really like the idea of people abstaining from meat but I do not see it as a sacrifice. I see it more like a good tradition.
I can see how it is hard not to eat meat if you are addicted to it but I have never heard of such a thing.
It is easy not to eat meat.
Where is the sacrifice?
I really like the idea of people abstaining from meat but I do not see it as a sacrifice. I see it more like a good tradition.
I can see how it is hard not to eat meat if you are addicted to it but I have never heard of such a thing.
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How do they justify this? Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and there is no question of not being able to obtain non-meat nutritious food. I have been in Loblaws and they have everything imaginable. I was able to find a cake mix I like, that had been discontinued in the US. I smuggled back a stash of it
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Melissa
Guest
Well, I suppose it depends on a point of view. If you take the point of view (as I happen to) that meat is a good food (nutritionally as well as in terms of flavor and overall enjoyment), then giving up that good thing is a sacrifice. It doesn’t have to be horrifically difficult, grit-your-teeth, trial to be a sacrifice–merely that you are giving up something good for the sake of something better (by giving up this small pleasurable good, I put my mind to focus on what Jesus Christ has done for me and the whole world).
And of course, to the question starting the thread, the point is that abstaining from meat is a discipline. Disciplines can be changed by those in authority (and a bishop in his diocese is that authority in that diocese); doctrine and dogma aren’t changeable. On disciplines, I’ve used an analogy from parenting: the bedtime for my child at the age of 2 was 7:30; when they became older, there was a different bedtime–not because it is wrong to set a bedtime of 7:30 for a toddler but because circumstances changed for the child who is now 10 or 15 or whatever age–the point being that as the parent, I had the authority to set the bedtime and change it as I saw fit. (Now, my youngest are 19, so they’re responsible for their own bedtimes–especially my daughter who is now a student heading to become a nurse who currently has a CNA and works at a nursing home with shifts that can end at 11pm or 3am depending on if it’s 8 or 12 hours–and that depends on the needs of her employer).
And of course, to the question starting the thread, the point is that abstaining from meat is a discipline. Disciplines can be changed by those in authority (and a bishop in his diocese is that authority in that diocese); doctrine and dogma aren’t changeable. On disciplines, I’ve used an analogy from parenting: the bedtime for my child at the age of 2 was 7:30; when they became older, there was a different bedtime–not because it is wrong to set a bedtime of 7:30 for a toddler but because circumstances changed for the child who is now 10 or 15 or whatever age–the point being that as the parent, I had the authority to set the bedtime and change it as I saw fit. (Now, my youngest are 19, so they’re responsible for their own bedtimes–especially my daughter who is now a student heading to become a nurse who currently has a CNA and works at a nursing home with shifts that can end at 11pm or 3am depending on if it’s 8 or 12 hours–and that depends on the needs of her employer).
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ConcernedConvert
Guest
What that can quickly begin to look like is classical Protestantism. Each individual bishop and each diocese can have their own differences and changes which begin to make the Universal Church look like several smaller denominations.
Emeraldlady
New member
Australia hasn’t obliged abstaining from meat on the Fridays of Lent apart from Good Friday, for many years as well. I think because it had become a novelty through modern times that no longer captured the spirit of the rule.twf:
How do they justify this? Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and there is no question of not being able to obtain non-meat nutritious food.
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1ke
Guest
Well I was in the hospital last Friday, so I ate what they gave me.
There are many people now who are relying on prepackaged meals and meals coming from various social service agencies. So those people need to eat what they are given. The bishop understands that we may not be in control of what we have on hand, and we may not all be in good health, or we may be reliant on what others provide us.
If you are able to abstain from meat, great do it.
But the bishop is not putting a burden on people to try to maintain a meatless Friday in the face of much uncertainty and food instability.
Remember, a dispensation for abstaining from meat is not a requiremegnt to eat meat. Do whatever you want to do. Others will do what they want to do, or need to do.
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TheLittleLady
Guest
These articles are spreading confusing.
If you only have a big freezer of meat as your only way to feed yourself and your family, if you don’t have eggs or cheese or veg or pasta or rice or beans, you do not have to abstain anyway.
If you only have a big freezer of meat as your only way to feed yourself and your family, if you don’t have eggs or cheese or veg or pasta or rice or beans, you do not have to abstain anyway.
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