Friday Penance Question Nov 13

[hawksnest23]

Hi there! So I suffer from a lot of scrupulosity and I’m pretty sure this is another one of those cases, but I want to confirm it and maybe these questions will help in the future. So Friday I abstained from meat as a Friday penance, but out of need to catch up on sleep and out of laziness, I slept from 2 in the morning until 1:30 pm. I abstained from meat and also stayed away from sweets just because I felt like it would be kind of against the spirit of things to stuff myself with a bunch of deserts. Often, I break the abstinence at or after midnight and feel fine about that, but since I got up so late I felt like I should probably continue it through. Anyway, shortly after midnight, I bit into a milky way bar and felt like that was kind of against the spirit of the abstinence. I know it’s technically fine because I wasn’t technically abstaining from meat anyway, and it was Saturday technically was well, but still I felt bad. That night (after midnight so technically Saturday morning), I said a Chaplet of Divine Mercy. The following Saturday, I wondered if I should do almost a make-up penance, so I said a Rosary, and today (Sunday), I called a friend whom between we had some tension, and tried to resolve things between us. I know this is odd because it’s like I’m trying to do my Friday penance days later, but what do you guys think? Am I being scrupulous or was this honorable to be kind of doing make-up penances?

Also, I’ve always been confused by this: can your Friday penance substitute be pretty much anything charitable/penitential? Or should that substitute be an act equal to or greater than the act of abstaining from meat?

 

[Mary888]

and today (Sunday), I called a friend whom between we had some tension, and tried to resolve things between us. I know this is odd because it’s like I’m trying to do my Friday penance days later, but what do you guys think?

I think the capacity to makeup with your friend was the result of you keeping your Friday fasting. I would take it as a small sign of encouragement from God.

 

[Lovinglight]

I think youre doing a great job! Dont be to hard on yourself and remember all devotions /penance/ fasting should lead u closer to Our Lord in in a feeling of peace and serenity. If youre anxious about these things and u obsess over them then i would consider scrupulosity could be the cause and i would re-center myself thru contemplative prayer and meditation.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It’s good that you’re trying to make up with your friend, but from what you wrote, you did your Friday penance on Friday.

Maybe talk to a priest about your scruples…

 

[Lovinglight]

Christian meditation

Meditation is a Christian practice of prayer dating back to the early Church. As the Catechism states: “Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking.” By meditating on the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts, spiritual writings, or “the great book of creation,” we come to make our own that which is God’s. "To the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them. It is a question of acting truthfully in order to come into the light: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” (CCC 2705-2706).

Meditation is an essential form of Christian prayer, especially for those who are seeking to answer the vocational question, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s1c3a1.htm

 

[Vico]

… I’ve always been confused by this: can your Friday penance substitute be pretty much anything charitable/penitential? Or should that substitute be an act equal to or greater than the act of abstaining from meat?

So you can understand the reasoning for the change to fast and abstinence made in 1966 (APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION
PAENITEMINI):
http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-v...cuments/hf_p-vi_apc_19660217_paenitemini.html

The Church, however, invites all Christians without distinction to respond to the divine precept of penitence by some voluntary act, apart from the renunciation imposed by the burdens of everyday life.(59)

To recall and urge all the faithful to the observance of the divine precept of penitence, the Apostolic See intends to reorganize penitential discipline with practices more suited to our times. It is up to the bishops – gathered in their episcopal conferences – to establish the norms which, in their pastoral solicitude and prudence, and with the direct knowledge they have of local conditions, they consider the most opportune and efficacious. The following, however is established:

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.

 

[Vico]

…

(continued - APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION PAENITEMINI)

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.

In order that all the faithful, however, may be united in a common celebration of penitence, the Apostolic See intends to establish certain penitential days and seasons(63) chosen among those which in the course of the liturgical year are closer to the paschal mystery of Christ(64) or might be required by the special needs of the ecclesial community.(65)

Therefore, the following is declared and established:

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

2. The prescriptions of ecclesiastical law regarding penitence are totally reorganized according to the following norms:

II. 1. The time of Lent preserves its penitential character. The days of penitence to be observed under obligation throughout the Church are all Fridays and Ash Wednesday, that is to say the first days of “Grande Quaresima” (Great Lent), according to the diversity of the rites. Their substantial observance binds gravely.

2. Apart from the faculties referred to in VI and VIII regarding the manner of fulfilling the precept of penitence on such days, abstinence is to be observed on every Friday which does not fall on a day of obligation, while abstinence and fast is to be observed on Ash Wednesday or, according to the various practices of the rites, on the first day of “Grande Quaresima” (Great Lent) and on Good Friday.