How to do a 40-Day Fast

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Muzhik

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I’m planning on doing a 40-Day Fast to help my daughter through some problems. I’m planning on doing the typical Catholic fast (one full meal, two smaller meals that don’t add up to a full meal, nothing between meals) but I do have a question: I was always taught not to fast on Sunday (Mark 2:19 “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.")

So I’m asking for (name removed by moderator)ut: should I plan on a fast of 40 contiguous days or plan on a calendar that excludes Sunday from fasting?
 
Catholics are generally not supposed to fast on Sundays or holy days of obligation. The way I have seen this handled for Nineveh 90, which requires a sustained “fasting” from certain things (not all food but some food) for 90 days, is to allow people one Sunday treat. Like you can have one beer, or one dessert. The other 6 days you’re supposed to have no alcohol and no dessert with bread and juice fast 3 days of the week.
 
Well, I’m a type-2 diabetic, so the bread-and-juice thing wouldn’t work for me. I’ll see if I can find something else to abstain from on Sundays, and just make sure not to overindulge in food on that day.
 
Yes, a lot of people on medical diets use a different fast for the Nineveh fast days. I can’t do more than 2 days bread diet a week myself so I do something else on the 3rd day and other people use diet plans developed by their doctors.
 
Pleas speak to your medical professional, given you have type 2 Diabetes, prior to beginning a fast.
We do not fast on Feast Days either. Seek the direction of your Priest, or a Monk if associated with a Monastery.

Your daughter is in my prayers.
 
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Eating lentils, beans and peas instead of meat might help. The Eastern part of the Church fast in a different way so that might be better for you if you are doing it for a longer time period than the traditional Western “one full meal/day”.
 
HeDa said:
Eating lentils, beans and peas instead of meat might help.
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I’m over the age of required abstinence from flesh meat, but I’ll see what I can do to work those into my plan. (Sidenote: anytime someone says the word “lentils” I think of alfalfa sprouts and other stringy … veggie things.)
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Catholics are generally not supposed to fast on Sundays or holy days of obligation.
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Since when? The fast before communion on Sunday is actually a sort of mini fast - it used to be even longer (I remember having to fast for 3 hours).
 
You’re confusing the meaning of the word “fast”. People in this thread are talking about the “fast day” fast (like for Ash Wednesday or Good Friday) or other type of penitential fast that lasts all day long, not the shorter fast before receiving Holy Communion.

Here’s Father Grondin, a CAF apologist, addressing Sunday fasting. Hopefully this will make it more clear.

 
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Sunbreak said:
it used to be even longer (I remember having to fast for 3 hours).
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You’re a young’un. My dad would talk about how the fast lasted from midnight on Saturday night. When my Dad went to parties that lasted past midnight, he used to tell the host that if he had anything to eat or drink after midnight, he’d turn into a pumpkin.

The priest who started Boys Town had worked in a parish serving the Broadway district in New York, and was saddened by all the stories he heard about the people who worked in the theaters who didn’t go to Mass because they might not get home until 2 or 3AM and just couldn’t get up in time for any of the Masses. So he sought and got permission to hold a Mass that started at 12:15 AM Sunday morning. People would show up from the theaters, sometimes still in makeup, in order to start going to Mass again.
 
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