M
Margita
Guest
Yet another amusing thread, well, I do need it for sure.
I just would like to add (yet) another perspective:
I am a Hungarian, with a mother who was born and raised in the pre-Vatican II Catholic faith and a Protestant father. There is one thing which brought them to an agreement on the Friday-question: their childhood and youth under Communism. Schools routinely fed children meat on Fridays and there was no escaping it, you couldn’t “opt out”! I even heard stories (and they were true) about principals force-feeding children of deeply religious Catholic families with meat on Fridays, esp. during Lent. It was done in order to deliberately hurt and humiliate them in their religious feelings.
Now even though my father is protestant, he does see the point in abstaining from meat. He had an aunt who would neither eat nor drink on Good Fridays! And the cruelty I described above had its effect on him, only not in the way Communists expected.
So those of you who are wondering which letter of the Canon Law could be interpreted in yet another way, just imagine how you would feel if you were deprived of the freedom to interpret if in the most straightforward, basic way, in the way it has been interpreted by the most people for such a long time. The question is not “why abstain?” but rather “why not abstain when you are free to do it, and it is the simplest way to go about the issue?”
Many who have suffered for the traditions of the Church wouldn’t believe their eyes seeing how this can be a matter of debate. It is so simple… It could be so simple! I was brought up in a free country, thanks God, so I had no issues with this. I was taught to abstain on Lenten Fridays and either not to eat meat or to give up something else or pray more on ordinary Fridays. And it was emphasized that Fridays were days of penance - whatever I chose to give up, I was obliged to examine my conscience more deeply and to pry for forgiveness.
It is all so simple!
BTW, I don’t eat meat very often. But I often find that I just happen to crave it on Fridays! But I do not give in, thinking “I haven’t had it for two weeks, surely I can do something else for penance.” No, to abstain from meat is the clearest, the simplest choice, it ties you to hundreds of years of tradition, why do away with it?
I just would like to add (yet) another perspective:
I am a Hungarian, with a mother who was born and raised in the pre-Vatican II Catholic faith and a Protestant father. There is one thing which brought them to an agreement on the Friday-question: their childhood and youth under Communism. Schools routinely fed children meat on Fridays and there was no escaping it, you couldn’t “opt out”! I even heard stories (and they were true) about principals force-feeding children of deeply religious Catholic families with meat on Fridays, esp. during Lent. It was done in order to deliberately hurt and humiliate them in their religious feelings.
Now even though my father is protestant, he does see the point in abstaining from meat. He had an aunt who would neither eat nor drink on Good Fridays! And the cruelty I described above had its effect on him, only not in the way Communists expected.
So those of you who are wondering which letter of the Canon Law could be interpreted in yet another way, just imagine how you would feel if you were deprived of the freedom to interpret if in the most straightforward, basic way, in the way it has been interpreted by the most people for such a long time. The question is not “why abstain?” but rather “why not abstain when you are free to do it, and it is the simplest way to go about the issue?”
Many who have suffered for the traditions of the Church wouldn’t believe their eyes seeing how this can be a matter of debate. It is so simple… It could be so simple! I was brought up in a free country, thanks God, so I had no issues with this. I was taught to abstain on Lenten Fridays and either not to eat meat or to give up something else or pray more on ordinary Fridays. And it was emphasized that Fridays were days of penance - whatever I chose to give up, I was obliged to examine my conscience more deeply and to pry for forgiveness.
It is all so simple!
BTW, I don’t eat meat very often. But I often find that I just happen to crave it on Fridays! But I do not give in, thinking “I haven’t had it for two weeks, surely I can do something else for penance.” No, to abstain from meat is the clearest, the simplest choice, it ties you to hundreds of years of tradition, why do away with it?
)
Margita you are an inspiration to us all! God bless you and yours! :heaven:
. The whole idea is to do an act of penance of Friday. The whole idea of fasting and abstention during Lent or whenever, is to fast/abstain from sin. As faithful Catholics, we should be willing to do this joyfully and without bickering. After all, look what HE has done for us!