Fasting question

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SuzanneD

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Hi Everyone,
I have been fasting since Ash Wednesday and intended to fast for forty days for Lent.
I did not realize that The Church teaches not to fast on Sundays. Is this correct? Also since my intention was to fast for 40 days for Lent. Which should be my stop date?
I feel like from a heart stand point 40 days would be ok, and that I might be obsessing a little, or I might just be hungry ;)… Any helpful advise? Thanks in advance.
 
I’m impressed! The Church says we fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. You’ve done much more than required already. We give up eating meat on Ash Wednesday and ALL Fridays during Lent. Traditionally most Catholics also add something else as a discipline–giving up sweets, TV, Internet, or adding prayer, good deeds, daily Mass. Of course the list if adding or giving up is endless but you get the picture. Sundays are always a celebration of the Resurrection so many people use it as a “free day” and do not keep their Lenten promises. My parents didn’t give us that option growing up, so I keep them on Sunday as well. I guess you could give up fasting on Palm Sunday (this coming Sunday) and then fast again on Good Friday. I don’t have a calendar handy, but I seem to remember learning in school that Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday is 40 days.
 
SuzanneD said:
Hi Everyone,
I have been fasting since Ash Wednesday and intended to fast for forty days for Lent.
I did not realize that The Church teaches not to fast on Sundays. Is this correct? Also since my intention was to fast for 40 days for Lent. Which should be my stop date?
I feel like from a heart stand point 40 days would be ok, and that I might be obsessing a little, or I might just be hungry ;)… Any helpful advise? Thanks in advance.
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Palm Sunday would be 40 days from Ash Wednesday. It also starts Holy Week. I don’t have the answer about fasting on Sunday but you are to be commended for taking on a very great Lent promise. Good Luck to you.
 
Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is not a part of Lent and the requirements to fast and abstain.
 
According to Fr. Vincent Serpa, Sundays in Lent are part of Lent. Anything that is required of everyone during Lent is still required on that day. However, since additional penance is completely voluntary, one may choose to exclude Sundays from the penance.

Lent ends in the evening on Holy Thursday, just before the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. It actually lasts about 43 days (excluding the final hours of Holy Thursday). The number 40 is a traditional number, not an exact one.

In the evening of Holy Thursday, we enter the Triduum (Three Days), which is a practically season of its own.
 
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