Does your friday penance have to be the same every week?

[Kathrin]

I don’t eat meat anyways, but somehow I feel it would be kind of “cheap” for me to just say I fulfill my penance this way… because it doesn’t feel like a penance to me… So on non-Lenten Fridays, I usually do something like not use extra mustard (I love to put mustard on stuff )) )… but then sometimes I forget and remember later in the day, or sometimes I feel like doing something else instead. I have often wondered how ok that is?

Kathrin

 

[thistle]

I don’t eat meat anyways, but somehow I feel it would be kind of “cheap” for me to just say I fulfill my penance this way… because it doesn’t feel like a penance to me… So on non-Lenten Fridays, I usually do something like not use extra mustard (I love to put mustard on stuff )) )… but then sometimes I forget and remember later in the day, or sometimes I feel like doing something else instead. I have often wondered how ok that is?

Kathrin

It doesn’t have to be the same but I find it easier toi remember to do Friday penance if I stick to the same one. By the way there is nothing cheap about fulfilling your penance by abstaining from meat on Fridyas. Personally I feel it is the most appropriate penance.

 

[puzzleannie]

since the Friday penance is not specified except during Lent, obviously it does not have to be the same every week. it is also not necessary to justify your choice of penance with third parties.

 

[Kathrin]

So again, it is what is in the heart that counts. Something that helps us remember that Friday is the day our Lord has suffered… Kind of connects us to Him.
And not to get stuck on technicalities or make too much of a science out of it…

kathrin

 

[thistle]

So again, it is what is in the heart that counts. Something that helps us remember that Friday is the day our Lord has suffered… Kind of connects us to Him.
And not to get stuck on technicalities or make too much of a science out of it…

kathrin

CCC 1438 The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).

 

[LilyM]

I don’t eat meat anyways, but somehow I feel it would be kind of “cheap” for me to just say I fulfill my penance this way… because it doesn’t feel like a penance to me… So on non-Lenten Fridays, I usually do something like not use extra mustard (I love to put mustard on stuff )) )… but then sometimes I forget and remember later in the day, or sometimes I feel like doing something else instead. I have often wondered how ok that is?

Kathrin

It’s fine, as long as you don’t end up doing nothing through indecision :yup:

As for not eating meat - it actually has a very deep significance. When we abstain from flesh and blood on Fridays it’s because on that day Christ gave up His flesh and blood for us. One reason why seafood is OK - cold blooded!

It’s got a really good kinda symmetry to it, no?

 

[Kathrin]

Sometimes I also pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary on Fridays. (I did it on the Fridays of Lent too). Is that called a penance too?

 

[LilyM]

Sometimes I also pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary on Fridays. (I did it on the Fridays of Lent too). Is that called a penance too?

Yes - any additonal prayer or good works is fine as your Friday ‘penance’.

 

[Crepusculum]

I too do not eat meat the rest of the week and so feel like its cheating to call it penance when it happens to be a friday. So instead, I give up caffeine (which I also accidentally forget sometimes ). I hadn’t thought of mixing it up and choosing something else, but agree with the previous posters when they say it’s harder to remember to do something that changes - I might try it sometime though, but would have to search myself to see if my desire to ring the changes that week was just an indirect desire to have caffeine on penance day.

 

[dulcissima]

When I first became a Catholic, I was never told that we were supposed to sacrifice something on Friday, just that it had changed to being only during Lent that we had to abstain from eating meat on Fridays. When I finally did learn that we were supposed to have some type of a sacrifice, it seemed hard to come up with something meaningful and harder still to remember to do it. I hated that I was failing on this. Finally January 1, 2007 I made my new year’s resolution to abstain from meat on Friday year round. It really has made a difference in my remembering the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.