Friday Abstinence

[JimG]

Boy, I’m glad I found this thread… I have been abstaining from meat on Friday’s since I’ve become Catholic. But it’s just a habit now. I really think I better find another form of penance since the other is a habit. I know good habits can be good but if it takes away the thought of it as a penance then I need to either add a penance or do another penance all together.

God Bless,
stveronica3

Of course, any virtue is simply a habit of doing a good thing. So there’s nothing wrong with good habits. The reason many of us have stuck with the habit of Friday abstinence is that it is a habit, and a habit traditionally approved by the Church as a penitential practice. We just don’t have to obsess about it anymore.

But certainly the Church encourages us to do more in the way of personal penances. (As long as we don’t obsess about them or start confessing as sins the breaking of our personal penances!)

 

[bobzills]

It took quite a few paragraphs to finally get to the actual answer to the question, and even then, the answer was buried in one sentence within paragraph 25.

No wonder people are confused. Whatever happened to the virtue of clarity?

Please tell me if this is wrong:

1. It is not a sin to eat meat on Fridays (except for special days of abstinence).
2. It is recommended that you do some sort of penance or charitable work on Friday, but this recommendation does not bind under pain of sin.

 

[mommyof4]

Please tell me if this is wrong:

1. It is not a sin to eat meat on Fridays (except for special days of abstinence).
2. It is recommended that you do some sort of penance or charitable work on Friday, but this recommendation does not bind under pain of sin.

You’re right.

 

[JimG]

Please tell me if this is wrong:

1. It is not a sin to eat meat on Fridays (except for special days of abstinence).
2. It is recommended that you do some sort of penance or charitable work on Friday, but this recommendation does not bind under pain of sin.

That’s right, and also concise. Man, you’ll never be hired as a USCCB staff writer.

 

[DixitDominus]

Please tell me if this is wrong:

1. It is not a sin to eat meat on Fridays (except for special days of abstinence).
2. It is recommended that you do some sort of penance or charitable work on Friday, but this recommendation does not bind under pain of sin.

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Can. 1253 The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast.

There is a grave obligation to abstain from meat on Fridays, and according to the Code, the conference of bishops can replace this with something else, but it may not abolish it. Therefore, the obligation to carry out some form of penance in a country where abstinence is not required is of the same gravity as the abstinence would be. The USCCBs decree should be interpreted in light of Canon Law.

 

[JimG]

Well, at the risk of getting into more verbiage, I’ll quote from post No.5, which was quoting a Jimmy Akin analysis of the relevant texts:

“As a result, there appears to be no legal obligation in the United States to practice penance on Friday, but Friday remains a day on which the bishops have urged all to do penance and, in particular, recommended the continued practice of abstinence.”

…

"It would have been a crushing rejoinder to their potential critics if the bishops had said something like “Though we have terminated the obligation to abstain, the faithful are nevertheless bound to perform a penance of their choice on Fridays and thus the Catholic practice of Friday penance remains in place even though the form the penance takes is now left to the determination of the individual.”

“*The fact that the bishops don’t say this or anything remotely like it indicates that it was not the bishops’ intent to create an alternative obligation. *”

…

“Thus we conclude that the American bishops have exercised their competence, later acknowledged by canon 1253 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, to “determine more precisely” the observance of abstinence by restricting the obligation to do it to a few days a year (Ash Wednesday, the non-solemnity Fridays of Lent, and Good Friday—the last being part of the Triduum rather than Lent) and by recommending the continued practice of abstinence and other penances on other Fridays.”

“In doing so, they did not completely eliminate the legal obligation to do penance on Fridays. They restricted the legal obligation to certain Fridays of the year and replaced it with an exhortation to penance on the remaining Fridays.”

“When one reads canons 1251 and 1253, it is not obvious that this would be within their competence to do, since the canons speak primarily in terms of the national conference substituting penances. But canon 1253 also says that “the conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as” substituting penances. This means that its ability to “determine more precisely” the observance of abstinence is not limited to substituting something else for it.”

“Ultimately, the Code means what Rome says it means, and Rome confirmed On Penance and Abstinence, thus making it the law for Latin Catholics in the United States.”

 

[bluerose]

What if a Holy Day of Obligation (like tomorrow, the Feast of the Assumption) falls on a Friday? Is the obligation to abstain or perform some penance removed? Wasn’t this done during Lent when St. Patrick’s Day or St. Joseph’s Feast day fell on a Friday (not that either are Holy Days of Obligation here in the States)?

 

[DebChris]

What if a Holy Day of Obligation (like tomorrow, the Feast of the Assumption) falls on a Friday? Is the obligation to abstain or perform some penance removed? Wasn’t this done during Lent when St. Patrick’s Day or St. Joseph’s Feast day fell on a Friday (not that either are Holy Days of Obligation here in the States)?

There is a story in which St. Francis was asked this question. Christmas fell on Friday. He responded that it would be sinful to treat the day in which our Saviour was born as a day of mourning.
I don’t have the reference and this is as close as I can come to answering the question.
During the time of St. Francis, it was common to fast on both Wednesday and Friday. This was something that I didn’t understand since the rosary has developed where we say the Glorious Mysteries on Wednesday.
During Lent, I read (again I don’t have the source available) that the Jews were divided into different sects. Some celebrated Passover on Tuesday and others later. Today we celebrate Holy Thursday, but there is traditional reference to Jesus having been arrested on Tuesday. Tuesday night may actually have been when he was arrested. He celebrated the Passover meal. He had to be taken down from the cross before Passover. Consider all the places he was taken. It is unlikely this could have been done in one day. It is more likely took three days.
Back to the OP. Many Catholics maintain abstinence as a form of discipline. This was true for both Mother Theresa and Pope John Paul II. I try, but do not become guilt ridden if I fail in the practice.
When we read Scripture, we read about the early Christians being admonished against eating meat sacrificed to the false gods of the Romans. Meat was associated with this false worship.
As I recently read (I think it was in the church bulletin) fish was considered food for the poor while meat was reserved for the rich.

 

[yesukristus]

“What if a Holy Day of Obligation (like tomorrow, the Feast of the Assumption) falls on a Friday? Is the obligation to abstain or perform some penance removed? Wasn’t this done during Lent when St. Patrick’s Day or St. Joseph’s Feast day fell on a Friday (not that either are Holy Days of Obligation here in the States)”

Taken from Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Fasting_and_abstinence_in_the_Roman_Catholic_Church):

Current practice of fast and abstinence is regulated by Canons 1250-1253. They specify that all Fridays throughout the year, and the time of Lent are penitential times throughout the entire Church. All persons who have completed their fourteenth year are bound by the law of abstinence on all Fridays unless they are solemnities. All adults are bound by law to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday until the beginning of their sixtieth year.
Under Canon 1253, the local norms for fasting and abstinence are determined by each episcopal conference. The current regulations concerning Lenten fasting and abstinence for Roman Catholics in the United States generally are as follows (“Penitential”).
* Abstinence from all meat is to be observed by all Roman Catholics 14 years old and older on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays of Lent.
* Fasting is to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday by all Roman Catholics who are 18 years of age but not yet 59.
For Roman Catholics whose health or ability to work would be negatively affected by fasting and/or abstinence, the regulations above don’t apply. If a Friday in Lent coincides with a solemnity (such as March 19 or March 25), the abstinence is not required. The bishop of a diocese can modify these rules for Roman Catholics in his diocese; for example, it is not uncommon for a bishop of a diocese in the United States to give dispensations from the normal Lenten regulations if St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) falls on a Friday during Lent.
Since the Fridays outside Lent are specified as penitential days by universal church law, but abstinence is not specified by the US bishops, it is left to the individual Roman Catholic to chose the form this penance takes. Pastoral teachings have urged voluntary fasting during Lent and voluntary abstinence on the other Fridays of the year. From time to time the leadership of the church has considered restoring obligatory abstinence on all Fridays, not just those of Lent. However, the policy in the United States has not been changed.

So no, if a solemnity (like the Feast of Assumption) falls on a Friday, then no need to fast or abstain on that day.

 

[cathopologist]

We (myself, wife and son) usually abstain from eating red meat on Fridays. We do so out of respect for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

 

[Gene_Church]

I get great joy from Friday sacrifice. It helps me to remember why I am here.