Don’t let meatless Fridays be just a seafood splurge

[phil19034]

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Real fasting isn’t just restricting food choices, it must also include cleansing the heart of all selfishness and making room in one’s life for those in need and those who have sinned and need healing, Pope Francis said…

catholicphilly.com/2015/02/think-tank/catholic-spirituality/pope-dont-let-meatless-fridays-be-selfish-soulless-seafood-splurge/

 

[boar2roar]

How hard is it to not eat something the two solitary days of the year that we can’t?

 

[saintjohnxxiii]

How hard is it to not eat something the two solitary days of the year that we can’t?

I think you are mixing fasting with abstinence from meat. As it stands here in Canada the only 2 days for fasting is Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Meatless Fridays are for all Fridays except when a Solemnity occurs on it.

 

[Bonnie]

This has been a popular subject for a long time. Here is one of my favorite poems by Robert Herrick - note the second verse!

To Keep a True Lent

Is this a Fast, to keep
The Larder lean,
And clean
From fat of veals and sheep?

Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish?

Is it to fast an hour,
Or ragg’d to go,
Or show
A downcast look and sour?

No; 'tis a Fast to dole
Thy sheaf of wheat
And meat,
Unto the hungry soul.

It is to fast from strife,
From old debate
And hate;
To circumcise thy life.

To show a heart grief-rent;
To starve thy sin,
Not bin;
And that’s to keep thy Lent.

 

[DaveBj]

It was mac’n’cheese for me Wednesday and today. If I do have a fishy Friday, it will probably be at Micky D’s; we don’t have a Red Lobster here.

 

[Phemie]

I think you are mixing fasting with abstinence from meat. As it stands here in Canada the only 2 days for fasting is Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Meatless Fridays are for all Fridays except when a Solemnity occurs on it.

While I’m aware that Archbishop Prendergast had imposed meatless Fridays during Lent for the Archdiocese of Ottawa, I’ve not found any document showing that the CCCB has changed its decree on fast and abstinence for the country. The documents I’ve found still say that you can substitute other good works or penance for abstinence on Fridays and doesn’t limit that to Fridays outside Lent.

That said, I strive to abstain on Lenten Fridays. It’s fairly easy to do.