Is a Friday penance required?

[Alexander_Roman]

Never mind if it’s obligated or compelled; if it leads you Higher, make it a priority! People very often become focused on whether something is ‘required’, when it is required by morality. Surely, simply because something is not required does not mean one must do the opposite of it. In this case, what if a priest is not required to take a vow of poverty… should he abandon Christ’s teachings of holy poverty? Do it even if it isn’t required, but only if it brings you closer to glorifying God!

AMEN!

 

[Holly3278]

I am really confused now. I went to Confession yesterday and confessed to not obeying the Friday fast. Well, the priest told me that in the United States, it is not required that one fast on all Fridays. I am really confused now!

 

[Trinity117]

I have a hard time understanding how that happens. I’m 32 years old, not Catholic and have never been, but I’ve known since my childhood that Catholics didn’t eat meat of Fridays but ate fish instead. A Catholic friend of mine at work, who is non-practicing, still has a tuna fish sandwich for lunch every Friday because he grew up eating fish on Fridays. If the family practices abstinence then it doesn’t matter whether or not it is taught at school.

Have many Catholic families completely abandoned the practice of abstinence? If so how and when did that happen?

In Christ
Joe

An excellent point about the families, Joe, thank you! I realize I am ahem and older person, but I remember my mom making fish EVERY Friday, even when we were way younger than 14 years old. The basics of any religion should be taught at home. I teach CCD at our church and I am constantly amazed by the “drive-bys” who drop their child off at the door and pick them up at the same place, never exiting the vehicle, never paricipating in any CCD activities perhaps not even attend Mass regularly. These children don’t say grace, know the sign of the cross let alone any prayers (I teach a very young grade) and apparently get no familial support or teaching.

 

[josephdaniel29]

I am really confused now. I went to Confession yesterday and confessed to not obeying the Friday fast. Well, the priest told me that in the United States, it is not required that one fast on all Fridays. I am really confused now!

I’m going to repeat what has been said a couple of times so far. Whether or not it is actually required, it is most definitely beneficial and traditional. There’s no reason why you can’t join your Catholic brothers and sisters across the world and across the centuries in abstaining on Fridays. You don’t have to fall into the minimalism of only doing what is technically required that seems to be so prevalent in some parts of the Church today.

In Christ
Joe

 

[jmcrae]

I am really confused now. I went to Confession yesterday and confessed to not obeying the Friday fast. Well, the priest told me that in the United States, it is not required that one fast on all Fridays. I am really confused now!

He’s right - fasting (refraining from all food) is only required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

We also fast (refrain from all food, and all drink except for water) for one hour before receiving Holy Communion.

What you meant to confess was that you didn’t do any Friday penance - totally different concept.

Your Friday penance can be to abstain from warm-blooded meat (but not from all food, as in a fast - you can eat as many fruits and vegetables and as much bread as is good for you, and you can also eat cold-blooded meat such as fish) - or else you can choose to do extra prayers, or go to Confession, or go to Adoration, or do some volunteer hours in a soup kitchen, or what ever you choose.

 

[Mark1970]

Just for information, the following is taken from A Simple Prayer Book, published by the Catholic Truth Society in England and Wales.

Fasting and Abstinence are binding throughout the Church on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday only.

In England and Wales and in Scotland, whilst abstinence is not of obligation on other Fridays, these are days on which self-denial shouuld be practiced. The form of self-denial, to be offered in union with Our Lord’s suffering and death on the Cross, is left to the free choice of each individual.

I believe this doesn’t conform to the practice in the USA, where fasting from meat is still observed on the Fridays of Lent. The above information has been confirmed by the secretary of my bishop and also by a document on the website of the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales. So we should do something as a penance of Fridays, even if it’s not abstain from meat. I’ve been advised by various priests that alternatives to abstinence could be attending Mass, praying the Stations of the Cross in church, praying the Rosary, acts of charity, and so on.

 

[thistle]

I am really confused now. I went to Confession yesterday and confessed to not obeying the Friday fast. Well, the priest told me that in the United States, it is not required that one fast on all Fridays. I am really confused now!

In the first place you are confusing fasting and abstinance. Abstaining from meat or anything else is not fasting. Fasting and abstaining are two different things.
Fasting is reducing your food and drink intake from your normal daily intake. On the two fasting days you may have one normal meal plus two small meals which together cannot exceed one normal meal.
Abstaining from meat simply means not eating meat. It does not mean eating less.

Fasting is required only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting is not required on any other day (apart from the one hour fast prior to Communion).
Abstaining from meat is required on Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays of Lent.

Abstaining from meat on Fridays throughout the year is recommended but is NOT a requirement.

 

[Vico]

I am really confused now. I went to Confession yesterday and confessed to not obeying the Friday fast. Well, the priest told me that in the United States, it is not required that one fast on all Fridays. I am really confused now!

Post #19 has the USA abstinance and fasting rules for the Latin Church.

1. obliged: abstain from the eating of meat on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays during the season of Lent
2. recommended: abstain from eating of meat on all Fridays of the year.
3. obliged: fast on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday
4. recommended: self-imposed observance of fasting on all weekdays of Lent

 

[jmcrae]

Abstaining from meat on Fridays throughout the year is recommended but is NOT a requirement.

As long as you do a penance of some kind. Penance is required on every Friday of the year, but your penance doesn’t have to be abstinence from meat on the Fridays outside of Lent - it can be something else, such as special prayers, or good deeds.

 

[thistle]

As long as you do a penance of some kind. Penance is required on every Friday of the year, but your penance doesn’t have to be abstinence from meat on the Fridays outside of Lent - it can be something else, such as special prayers, or good deeds.

I agree. Normally I choose not to eat meat on Fridays but if I forget I do some additional prayers.
Although like you I think the Friday penance is a requirement many US forum members here say it is not a requirement, meaning it is not a grave sin not to do a penance on Fridays.

 

[Aramis]

Hey everyone. I have heard that some people fast from meat on all Fridays of the year since Friday is a day of penance. Well, I was just wondering, is this required?

Some form of penitential practice is still required. In the US, it is not required to be “meatless fridays,” but meatless fridays is the default one.

Other commonly approved ones include saying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, spending time in Adoration, or a friday prayer group.

One that several Dominican Friars used to subject themselves to was “Friar John’s Gumbo”… which was made by Friar John from the leftovers of the prior week, was quite spicy, and was literally anything still fit to eat in the fridge. Parish staff also got fed the Gumbo if they were still there at dinner time.

 

[Robert_Burns]

Hey everyone. I have heard that some people fast from meat on all Fridays of the year since Friday is a day of penance. Well, I was just wondering, is this required?

Whether you abstain from Meat on Friday or not a Penance has always been required.

 

[Vico]

Whether you abstain from Meat on Friday or not a Penance has always been required.

In the USA, the practice of penance on every Friday (for the Latin Church) is not obligatory anymore, rather voluntary. The change dates back to November 18, 1966 norms of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCBB) on penitential observance for the Liturgical Year, which continue in force since they are law and are not contrary to the 1983 code of canon law (see CIC canon 6). That the norms state voluntary penance (rather than obligatory) was shown in the NCCB document in 1983, The Challenge of Peace:
298. As a tangible sign of our need and desire to do penance we, for the cause of peace, commit ourselves to fast and abstinence on each Friday of the year. We call upon our people voluntarily to do penance on Friday by eating less food and by abstaining from meat. This return to a traditional practice of penance, once well observed in the U.S. Church, should be accompanied by works of charity and service toward our neighbors. Every Friday should be a day significantly devoted to prayer, penance, and almsgiving for peace.

usccb.org/sdwp/international/TheChallengeofPeace.pdf

 

[jmcrae]

In the USA, the practice of penance on every Friday (for the Latin Church) is not obligatory anymore, rather recommended (voluntary). The change dates back to November 18, 1966 norms of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCBB) on penitential observance for the Liturgical Year, which continue in force since they are law and are not contrary to the 1983 code of canon law (see CIC canon 6). That the norms state voluntary penance on most Fridays of the year was shown in the NCCB document in 1983, The Challenge of Peace:
298. As a tangible sign of our need and desire to do penance we, for the cause of peace, commit ourselves to fast and abstinence on each Friday of the year. We call upon our people voluntarily to do penance on Friday by eating less food and by abstaining from meat. This return to a traditional practice of penance, once well observed in the U.S. Church, should be accompanied by works of charity and service toward our neighbors. Every Friday should be a day significantly devoted to prayer, penance, and almsgiving for peace.

usccb.org/sdwp/international/TheChallengeofPeace.pdf

Right - it is not required that your Friday penance outside of Lent be less food and abstinence from meat (this is recommended, but not required); it could be something else, such as special prayers or good deeds.

 

[Robert_Burns]

In the USA, the practice of penance on every Friday (for the Latin Church) is not obligatory anymore, rather voluntary. The change dates back to November 18, 1966 norms of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCBB) on penitential observance for the Liturgical Year, which continue in force since they are law and are not contrary to the 1983 code of canon law (see CIC canon 6). That the norms state voluntary penance (rather than obligatory) was shown in the NCCB document in 1983, The Challenge of Peace:
298. As a tangible sign of our need and desire to do penance we, for the cause of peace, commit ourselves to fast and abstinence on each Friday of the year. We call upon our people voluntarily to do penance on Friday by eating less food and by abstaining from meat. This return to a traditional practice of penance, once well observed in the U.S. Church, should be accompanied by works of charity and service toward our neighbors. Every Friday should be a day significantly devoted to prayer, penance, and almsgiving for peace.

usccb.org/sdwp/international/TheChallengeofPeace.pdf

And when you write: “This return to a traditional practice of penance, once well observed in the U.S. Church, should be accompanied by works of charity and service toward our neighbors. Every Friday should be a day significantly devoted to prayer, penance, and almsgiving for peace.” is to replace the original Penance of Fasting from Meat. If then it is your position that Catholics can “voluntarily” decide that they do not have to devote any significance to Friday then the penance is effectively gutted. Its the same as saying - “Catholics should go to Mass but if they dont”

You show me a Catholic that believes this way and I’ll show you a Cafeteria Catholic who does as he or she pleases. Thanks to Adam all Men have a propensity to Sin. The Church requires penace during Lent for the same reason - if it didnt - few would. So read carefully what the Bishops are saying and if in the end you can agree that the message they are teaching is that it is OK not to do Penance - then you are reading it in a far different way than I am.

 

[Vico]

Right - it is not required that your Friday penance outside of Lent be less food and abstinence from meat (this is recommended, but not required); it could be something else, such as special prayers or good deeds.

… If then it is your position that Catholics can “voluntarily” decide that they do not have to devote any significance to Friday then the penance is effectively gutted. Its the same as saying - “Catholics should go to Mass but if they dont”…

Not my position at all.

The way that Mr. Colin B. Donovan, STL (Licentiate in Sacred Theology), phrased it (for the USA not for Canada) is:

“On the Fridays outside of Lent the U.S. bishops conference obtained the permission of the Holy See for Catholics in the US to substitute a penitential, or even a charitable, practice of their own choosing. Since this was not stated as binding under pain of sin, not to do so on a single occasion would not in itself be sinful. However, since penance is a divine command, the general refusal to do penance is certainly gravely sinful. For most people the easiest way to consistently fulfill this command is the traditional one, to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year which are not liturgical solemnities. When solemnities, such as the Annunciation, Assumption, All Saints etc. fall on a Friday, we neither abstain or fast.”

ewtn.com/faith/lent/fast.htm