How many will do "traditional" fasting this lent?

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My family does what my mom says to do. Usually we have to give up all candy, and sweets, all electronics except computers for school use only, all music, all reading except for religious books, basically all anything fun or extra good unless it is religious or necessary.
We give up meat on Fridays all during the year, we tried doing it on Wednesdays and Fridays to fulfill the scapular, but it became too hard for my dad to plan meals, so we just make an extra effort to pray the rosary each night.

We will probably go to stations each Friday and cut down on snacking also.

In addition to my parents there are six kids:
Me 18 girl
17 girl
15 girl
13 boy
11 boy
7 girl
It is hard for the younger ones to fast, and the Church has always taught that those under 14 do not need to fast even on Good Friday, so certainly a 7 year old who has not even received her first holy communion is exempt. It would be very expencive for my family to plan a meal for the older people and a separate meal for the little kids for 40 days, we probably could not afford it, so it would not be a good thing for my family. Maybe next year when I go to college.
 
This is such a great thread! And kudos to everyone who will be starving the body to feed the soul.

I usually follow the Benedictine/Eastern tradition of no meat, no dairy, no eggs and no alcohol for the 40 day duration. It is EXTREMELY difficult (especially the eggs and dairy part). But it does force one to examine everything that goes into the mouth for the greater glory of God.
 
Winger said:
I will follow the traditional guidelines … fasting all days of lent except Sundays and abstaining on Fridays. I do believe I will add Wed. to that. Hope next year I will be able to do the CFP way! Have not progressed that far yet!
:blessyou:
Winger
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I have never done it that way, But im going to try. But help me, Like give me a typical day. Just a example of a menu for one day. I will take it from there. Or is it just like Ash Wed and Good Friday all 40 Days.
 
Can you share with a candidate from a heathen origin why the Church has relaxed the rules? Is it because we are getting weaker or less trustworthy? Do you know? Was the rigor of the earlier system to teach us a lesson we ahve learned or is it that we can’t handle it anymore, being modern wimps?
 
rinnie said:
I have never done it that way, But im going to try. But help me, Like give me a typical day. Just a example of a menu for one day. I will take it from there. Or is it just like Ash Wed and Good Friday all 40 Days.
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Before Vatican II, one fasted the 40 days of Lent, Sundays and Solemnities excluded. One also abstained every Friday. “Fasting” was defined as one moderate meal a day, plus two collations (snacks) not adding up to the full meal. Snacks to not include meat or fish. Ideally, one should feel hungry, but NOT weakened, debilitated, or otherwise unable to function properly. For those reasons, many catholics were given dispensations, and rightly so

It DOES require some discipline, and lots of planning ahead. And I would NEVER criticize anyone unable to handle it. You need a lot of grace from God.

A typical day might be a breakfast of toast, or cereal, or oatmeal. No meat, fish, or eggs.

Dinner would be the main meal.

Supper would be another snack, perhaps vegies and fruit. Liquids could be consumed all day, like milk, juice, coffee, tea, and so on.

Or you could have a light lunch, and your normal meal in the evening.

The rewards of fasting are hard to pin down, but they do exist. I can fast, even at age 63, but I do so under the watchful eye of my Physician.
 
WOW - you all put me to shame. I just referred to the more rigorous fasting in another post (done by our ancestors) but I was unaware that people did “traditional” fasting…Now, I have to think - but meanwhile, what a wonderful thing to hear - from so many.👍
 
Andruschak said:
Before Vatican II, one fasted the 40 days of Lent, Sundays and Solemnities excluded. One also abstained every Friday. “Fasting” was defined as one moderste meal a day, plus two collations (snacks) not adding up to the full meal. Ideally, one should feel hungry, but weakened, debilitated, or otherwise unable to function properly. For those reasons, many catholics were given dispensations.

It DOES require some discipline, and lots of planning ahead. And I would NEVER criticize anyone able to handle it.
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Thanks im Going to Try. Wow this is going to be a long Lent huh. But just think how many times we will think of Christ. For me especially every time i PASS the frige.
 
strngrnrth said:
Can you share with a candidate from a heathen origin why the Church has relaxed the rules? Is it because we are getting weaker or less trustworthy? Do you know? Was the rigor of the earlier system to teach us a lesson we ahve learned or is it that we can’t handle it anymore, being modern wimps?
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If anything it’s the other way around. I see it as the Church deciding we’re MORE trustworthy. We may not be forced to abstain from meat or other foods, bu we ARE still required to do some form of penance during Lent and other Fridays of the year. So we have to think carefully about what things are most meaningful/most problematic/most difficult for us to give up. For a lot of us this still may be food. For me it’s other things - TV and internet, for example.

If properly done, these penances help us much more in our spiritual growth by making us concentrate on those areas where we really have issues.

It’s also about the potential to add different practices (increase your amount of prayer, do extra charity work, things like that) rather than simply being about giving up. In fact we’re encouraged to BOTH give up the harmful things AND take up those that are spiritually helpful to fill the gap left by the harmful things/activities.

It’s a win-win situation, assuming it’s properly done.
 
Genesis315 said:
Black fast anyone?

:getholy:
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Genesis315 are you doing the black fast? I just read about it. God forgive me but im going for a big glass of wine. If im going to do without i must enjoy it for my last 2 eves. This put giving up something like a walk in the park. One more thing, do you give up something in addition to the Black Fast. And have you ever did it and made it?
 
Would a bagel work for one of the collations, or is that too much?
 
lucybeebee said:
Would a bagel work for one of the collations, or is that too much?
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A bagel would be just fine, as compared to your average dinner of soup and/or salad, entree with vegetables, and an optional desert. And it would even be OK to put cream cheese on the bagel.😃
 
…weakened, debilitated, or otherwise unable to function properly. For those reasons, many catholics were given dispensations
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This makes a lot of sense to me, considering we may be responsible for the health and safety of others . . .along with our professional duties these days . . .
 
Excuse me but the laws of fast and abstinence are different:
Fast begins at 21 and ends at age 60.
Abstinence begins at age 7 and has no cut off age.

I know that some moderns want to move the age of fast to 18 because of the new code of canon law. They want to move the laws of abstinence up to 14.

I am way over 60 so only have abstinence to follow. I am a vegetarian so I do not have to think about it either.
 
James_Miller said:
Excuse me but the laws of fast and abstinence are different:
Fast begins at 21 and ends at age 60.
Abstinence begins at age 7 and has no cut off age.

I know that some moderns want to move the age of fast to 18 because of the new code of canon law. They want to move the laws of abstinence up to 14.

I am way over 60 so only have abstinence to follow. I am a vegetarian so I do not have to think about it either.
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Just popping in and popping out.

For the puzzled, James Miller is referencing canon 1254 of the 1917 code above. In that code, the law of abstinence bound those who had completed their seventh year, and the law of fasting bound those who had completed their 21 year up to the beginning of their sixtieth.

The law currently in force is found in canon 1252 of the present code, as promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1983. It reads:

"All persons who have completed their fourteenth year are bound by the law of abstinence; all adults are bound by the law of fast up to the beginning of their sixtieth year. Nevertheless, pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance. "

Canon 97 §1 of the present code identifies that a person who has completed the eighteenth year of age is an adult.

So as you can see, the present code moves the age of fasting down rather than up. It also does call for educating minors not bound by the law of fast and abstinence in an authentic sense of penance.

Of course, a person is certainly free to observe fasting and abstinence even when not required to do so, and even at times when it is not required. The fact that the law may set a minimum standard in a penitential practice should not be construed to discourage additional effort when possible.

As well, the fact that the obligation to do penance is a matter of divine law should be kept in mind (c. 1249 of the 1983 code).

That part of the obligation was not treated in the former code explicitly but is very directly stated in the present code in canon 1249. That canon also mentions special devotion to prayer, works of piety and charity, and self denial while fulfilling their own obligations more faithful, and especially by observing fast and abstinence according to the canons.

All of those are forms of penance and should not be neglected in practice or in the education of minors.
 
LilyM said:
We may not be forced to abstain from meat or other foods, bu we ARE still required to do some form of penance during Lent and other Fridays of the year.

It’s a win-win situation, assuming it’s properly done.
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Not quite:). Would it be fair to say that any act of self-mortification of our choosing is as worthy, and involves as much of a sacrifice as one not of our choosing? No.

This has less to do with whether one is more or less trustworthy, than it does with the simple fact that, in the last 40 years, Catholics have become increasingly less-well catechised, and Ecclesiology is nearly absent from any Catholic education. Simply: less is demanded of Catholics than in years past. The Bishops have simply responded to the cultural impulse, and the results speak volumes.
 
“A bagel would be just fine, as compared to your average dinner of soup and/or salad, entree with vegetables, and an optional dessert.”

Is that an average dinner? Only if you’re going out, I’d say. My average dinner is just some kind of entree, like a burrito or noodles or a yogurt. Vegetables and fruit are a luxury, soup is a luxury, salad is a luxury, and so is dessert.

This is why Lent or a diet forces me to eat more. 🙂
 
I won’t eat meat at all during Lent as well as no bread which is more of a penance for me then no meat. I try to have just the one meal. With the small snacks in between.
 
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