Friday Penance and Alternative Suggestions

[Kindnessmatters]

In my reading this week, I came upon the topic of Friday penance, and the more I read and researched, the less clear it became what we are called to do.

I am getting the general impression we are meant to make a weekly sacrifice every Friday, not only during Lent, except for certain feast days. The usual as I understand this is to abstain from meat and fast to a limited degree…not abstaining from eating but reducing consumption to one standard meal and two snacks which together would not comprise a full meal. It is my understanding our sacrifice can be something other than food. Fasting and abstaining from meat is imprudent for me personally…I have celiac disease and diabetes and am on a low carb (permanent) diet in hopes of reversing the diabetes and losing forty pounds.

So, I would like to make a weekly Friday sacrifice that is not food related. Any suggestions? I can certainly increase my prayer time but since I love my time for prayer, it does not strike me as a sacrifice. I could make it a more demanding exercise day, possibly. I like exercise too but only to a point…another half hour would test me, but I would then have to eat more also due to the diabetes…nothing crazy, but perhaps add a glass of milk.

I would love your thoughts and if you don’t mind sharing, the sacrifices you personally make to be more mindful of Jesus outside of Lent.

I know we can do acts of charity as well, but I feel personal sacrifice and acts of charity work on us and the world in different ways, so wish to do both.

 

[paperwight]

A slight but important correction. We are not called on to fast every Friday in the same way as on Good Friday and Ash Wednesday. You quoted ‘one meal and two others which do not add up to a full meal’’ That is for those two days.

You can fast in that way on ordinary Fridays if you wish (provided you do not harm your health). But you do not have to. Fasting is not the same as abstinence.

 

[Kindnessmatters]

That is what I thought but I have since found several resources stating we should make the sacrifice every Friday but feast days, this the confusion. This included a string on CAF which I now cannot find.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Latin Catholics in USA are called to either abstain from meat on Friday or to do some other penance in its place. We are required to fast, which is what you describe with the meal size, on Good Friday (and Ash Wednesday) only. It is not required that we fast on other Fridays. One choosing to do so is making a personal choice.

Other than the required Good Friday, I typically don’t fast on Fridays unless it’s Ember Week, a Rogation Day, or another private devotion I choose to do. I do abstain from meat on Fridays unless it’s a solemnity or the Bishop has issued a dispensation for a Friday in Lent.

Eastern Catholics and other countries have their own fast and abstinence rules.

As for “sharing the sacrifices I make outside of Lent”, I appreciate that you’re trying to gather information here, but sharing devotional stuff I do runs the risk of being like people who pray on street corners, so I think what I’ve said regarding Friday is sufficient to address your topic.

 

[Vico]

…
I know we can do acts of charity as well, but I feel personal sacrifice and acts of charity work on us and the world in different ways, so wish to do both.

St. Pope Paul VI, from Paenitemini (1966):

In the first place, Holy Mother Church, although it has always observed in a special way abstinence from meat and fasting, nevertheless wants to indicate in the traditional triad of “prayer—fasting—charity” the fundamental means of complying with the divine precepts of penitence. These means were the same throughout the centuries, but in our time there are special reasons whereby, according to the demands of various localities, it is necessary to inculcate some special form of penitence in preference to others.(60) Therefore, where economic well-being is greater, so much more will the witness of asceticism have to be given in order that the sons of the Church may not be involved in the spirit of the “world,”(61) and at the same time the witness of charity will have to be given to the brethren who suffer poverty and hunger beyond any barrier of nation or continent.(62) On the other hand, in countries where the standard of living is lower, it will be more pleasing to God the Father and more useful to the members of the Body of Christ if Christians—while they seek in every way to promote better social justice—offer their suffering in prayer to the Lord in close union with the Cross of Christ.
Therefore, the Church, while preserving—where it can be more readily observed—the custom (observed for many centuries with canonical norms) of practicing penitence also through abstinence from meat and fasting, intends to ratify with its prescriptions other forms of penitence as well, provided that it seems opportune to episcopal conferences to replace the observance of fast and abstinence with exercises of prayer and works of charity.

Therefore, the following is declared and established:

I. 1. By divine law all the faithful are required to do penance.
…

http://www.vatican.va/content/paul-...cuments/hf_p-vi_apc_19660217_paenitemini.html

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I cannot speak for anyone other than myself, but some things I would see as an alternative to Friday abstinence:

• Saying a rosary specifically for the repose of the poor souls (over and above the rosary you say daily anyway, assuming you do)
• Abstinence from something else that satisfies a bodily craving, such as alcohol, nicotine, or caffeine, and offering the slight suffering as a penance
• Putting together some unwanted clothes and taking them to a charity store that helps poor or disabled people
• Buying a bag of food and taking it directly to homeless people
• Go to daily Mass on Friday
• Obtain a plenary indulgence for the poor souls
• Visit the sick, disabled, and elderly who are shut-in
• Volunteer to tutor at a school

There are any number of things you could do.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

except for certain feast days

These “certain feast days” are labeled as Solemnities on the calendar. A Solemnity (on Friday or any other day) is treated like a Sunday; on those days, we celebrate rather than practice penance.

 

[TheLittleLady]

For those of us who are adults, healthy and not incarcerated, forgoing meat on Friday is what I’ve found to be the simplest Friday penance to keep up with.

In my mind, prayer, good works, those are things we are supposed to do anyway, I do not see them as penitential acts. It does me good to say no to a big juicy burger on Friday. Helps me keep my cravings and desires under control, it causes me to suffer just a little bit.

It is also good for my humility, back when I had a corporate job and had to take a pass on the red meat at a corporate event, it was good for me to have to say “no thanks” and eat the potatoes and veggies.

For people who are still minors at home with non-practicing parents, for those who have various illnesses, for those who are not at liberty to choose the amount/type of food they eat (for instance someone in basic training in the military or in a jail), yes find another penance. For the rest of us, really, it is not hard to skip the meat for one day.

 

[Kindnessmatters]

I appreciate that and agree but I am under such dietary restrictions already and am often a guest of others on Fridays, so it would really be a penance for them to come up with even more limiting accomodations for me…and they do insist on accommodating me. It’s for that reason I am seeking an alternative.