J
justbeinfrank
Guest
Just wondering how many people know that Friday penance is still required!
I brought this up with one of my Priests and asked him if he abstained from meat on Fridays. He says he did not and he had a “personal objection” to that sort of practice. He did agree that we should turn our mind to penance on Fridays and on every day (good advice, of course), but meat abstinence, he said, was simply an old custom put in place by a Pope long ago, as a response to an economically troubled European fishing industry.
- Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Friday, even though we hereby terminate the traditional law of abstinence as binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat. We do so in the hope that the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as formerly we did in obedience to Church law.
I believe he might be right about the origin of it, but I would have to give him the great, “So what?” Even if he could demonstrate that meat abstinence was an imprudential decision (which merely stating its origin does not), it is still bound in Heaven.…but meat abstinence, he said, was simply an old custom put in place by a Pope long ago, as a response to an economically troubled European fishing industry.
This is not the first time I’ve ever heard this – Indeed, not even the first time in this forum – But it just smacks of an anti-Catholic polemic.Scotty PGH:
I believe he might be right about the origin of it……but meat abstinence, he said, was simply an old custom put in place by a Pope long ago, as a response to an economically troubled European fishing industry.
I too would like an answer to this question once and for all… since this is one of my husband’s “big beefs” regarding what he calls “The power of the Church”…Oh, BTW, did I forget to tell you that he is a very liberal Catholic and we constantly battle over the Faith … Oh, and I abstain from meat on Friday…or I make some other sacrifice…This is not the first time I’ve ever heard this – Indeed, not even the first time in this forum – But it just smacks of an anti-Catholic polemic.
Which pope?
How long ago?
Ask your priest to be specific, or withdraw the statement.
tee
I pray that we all do penance everyday, given the above definition. However, Friday is especially significance to the Catholic Church as a day of penance because it is the day that Christ was crucified.**PENANCE. **The virtue or disposition of heart by which one repents of one’s own sins and is converted to God. Also the punishment by which one atones for sins committed, either by oneself or by others. And finally the sacrament of penance, where confessed sins committed after baptism are absolved by a priest in the name of God. (Etym. Latin paenitentia, repentance, contrition.)
This is funny! There must have been economic troubles in St. Augustine’s day too.…but meat abstinence, he said, was simply an old custom put in place by a Pope long ago, as a response to an economically troubled European fishing industry.
Maybe he just should have said, “abstinence … is good for the economy.”“Keep the flesh under by fastings and by abstinence from meat and drink” (Letter 211, AD 423)
“For, according to St. Augustine (De oratione et jejunio, sermo ccxxx, de temp.), abstinence purifies the soul, elevates the mind, subordinates the flesh to the spirit, begets a humble and contrite heart, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, extinguishes the fire of lust, and enkindles the true light of chastity.” CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Abstinence
“Obedience is better than sacrifices.” (1 King 15:22)… sort of superfluous because I’m not doing it of my own will but rather out of obedience to the Church?
Me too…I abstain from meat on Fridays. Even though it’s no longer an obligation outside of Lent I do it on my own. I think doing any kind of penance out of free will is the best way.