J
jmcrae
Guest
I have fasted from the previous day’s suppertime until after the 5:00 pm Mass, just because I kept thinking I was about to go to Mass, and then something would happen and I didn’t.
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M
mitch2007
Guest
I agree that the issue of Friday penance is a subject much neglected by pastors and faithful alike - MOST people I think will look at you blankly when you ask them about this. They will say Friday abstinence hasn’t been the rule for so many years so yes, of course they eat meat on Friday. Some older folk might still have fish on Friday as a matter of custom, but they won’t (usually) make a point of avoiding meat altogether. If you ask most Catholics about what penance they do, I imagine most will not know WHAT you are talking about. Rare is the priest or bishop who will ever mention the requirement at all, and if they do, it is only in the sense of a suggestion, not a command.
Now I live not in the US, as most people here, but in South Africa. The rule here is VERY vague - Fridays other than Good Friday, the faithful must “abstain from meat, or undertake some other work of penance, such as abstinence from luxury foods, tobacco, alcohol, or perform some other work of piety or charity”…i.e., abstain from meat, or otherwise do SOMETHING of your choice to mark Friday. Now hardly anyone knows about this, and I think very few do anything. COMMON SENSE tells me that the change was a mistake, as it is not a case of something fixed that the faithful MUST give up (like meat) - logically, human nature being as it is, if we feel like meat, we eat it, and choose something arbitrarily to give up, which perhaps we don’t feel like, or will cause us less inconvenience. It is not penitential at all. It takes great spiritual discipline and maturity to STICK to something, regardless, rather than making up a convenient “penance” as we go along. It would make sense if a Bishops Conference of a country where meat is rarely or not eaten, and where, therefore, abstinence from meat is meaningless, to substitute abstinence from a food that is more normally eaten - but this is not done. The rule becomes so vague as to be meaningless except for strong people who stick to one specific form of penance or make sure they do something meaningful.
In fairness to my own local bishop, I must say that he has written a pastoral letter a couple of years ago on the subject, saying that abstinence from meat is the “sacred preference” of the Church, and that we MUST do something to mark Friday. I have even been in one or two churches here which posted this letter in the vestibule of the church for people to read. Nonetheless, I doubt very many people really enter into the spirit of the law, if indeed they know it exists.
As for me, we do not eat meat at home on Friday, but I must confess that I frequently do (at the office, etc), end up taking meat and then having to do something else.
God bless
Mitch
Now I live not in the US, as most people here, but in South Africa. The rule here is VERY vague - Fridays other than Good Friday, the faithful must “abstain from meat, or undertake some other work of penance, such as abstinence from luxury foods, tobacco, alcohol, or perform some other work of piety or charity”…i.e., abstain from meat, or otherwise do SOMETHING of your choice to mark Friday. Now hardly anyone knows about this, and I think very few do anything. COMMON SENSE tells me that the change was a mistake, as it is not a case of something fixed that the faithful MUST give up (like meat) - logically, human nature being as it is, if we feel like meat, we eat it, and choose something arbitrarily to give up, which perhaps we don’t feel like, or will cause us less inconvenience. It is not penitential at all. It takes great spiritual discipline and maturity to STICK to something, regardless, rather than making up a convenient “penance” as we go along. It would make sense if a Bishops Conference of a country where meat is rarely or not eaten, and where, therefore, abstinence from meat is meaningless, to substitute abstinence from a food that is more normally eaten - but this is not done. The rule becomes so vague as to be meaningless except for strong people who stick to one specific form of penance or make sure they do something meaningful.
In fairness to my own local bishop, I must say that he has written a pastoral letter a couple of years ago on the subject, saying that abstinence from meat is the “sacred preference” of the Church, and that we MUST do something to mark Friday. I have even been in one or two churches here which posted this letter in the vestibule of the church for people to read. Nonetheless, I doubt very many people really enter into the spirit of the law, if indeed they know it exists.
As for me, we do not eat meat at home on Friday, but I must confess that I frequently do (at the office, etc), end up taking meat and then having to do something else.
God bless
Mitch
S
Sailor_Kenshin
Guest
Fridays during Lent, always fish (or eggplant parm!). 
Usually fish on other Fridays. In fact Friday has become Traditional Sushi Night around here. Unless there’s a party, or someone takes us out to a steakhouse, and then I always do some other form of penance—at least since crossing the Tiber.
Usually fish on other Fridays. In fact Friday has become Traditional Sushi Night around here. Unless there’s a party, or someone takes us out to a steakhouse, and then I always do some other form of penance—at least since crossing the Tiber.
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