Lenten Fasting

[Qwikness]

Is fasting “required”? I have a protestant friend who doesn’t have a problem fasting but doesn’t like the term “required.” I guess he thinks we think it is a sin if we don’t?

 

[nickybr38]

Is fasting “required”? I have a protestant friend who doesn’t have a problem fasting but doesn’t like the term “required.” I guess he thinks we think it is a sin if we don’t?

He probably also has a problem with the idea that not attending Mass on Sunday is a sin as well?

Anyway, here is some info I found to answer your question:

“But no one should be scrupulous in this regard; failure to observe individual days of penance is not considered serious.” americancatholic.org/features/lent/faqle9902.asp

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=427528

Bottom line is Christ left His authority to the Church. If the Church says it’s a sin, it is. This is Scriptural (as in, when Christ gives the keys of the kingdom to Peter).

Ask your friend if he would have obeyed Moses. Ask your friend if he would have obeyed Paul.

Just because we have the Bible does not mean God has stopped setting men of authority over us.

And that’s my two cents on that.

 

[OrangeOwl]

Hmm… I guess my original question was misunderstood. I know what the fasting/abstinence requirements are. I didn’t think they were phrased quite right in the church bulletin. I was wondering if I had an obligation to make sure the bulletin was corrected.

 

[Splagchnizomai]

Hmm… I guess my original question was misunderstood. I know what the fasting/abstinence requirements are. I didn’t think they were phrased quite right in the church bulletin. I was wondering if I had an obligation to make sure the bulletin was corrected.

Contact the parish office – or whoever publishes the bulletin in your parish – and let them know about the error. It may be a typo, or it could be something more serious.

 

[OrangeOwl]

Contact the parish office – or whoever publishes the bulletin in your parish – and let them know about the error. It may be a typo, or it could be something more serious.

I did in fact call the parish office and the priest actually picked up. I asked him what he meant by red meat, and he said all meats including pork/chicken. I said that I just thought the language might confuse people who read it and he just gave a non-commital response. I don’t think I had the nerve to ask him to make a correction in the bulletin.

 

[Cristiano]

Capybara and muskrat BBQ tonite!

 

[Splagchnizomai]

I did in fact call the parish office and the priest actually picked up. I asked him what he meant by red meat, and he said all meats including pork/chicken. I said that I just thought the language might confuse people who read it and he just gave a non-commital response. I don’t think I had the nerve to ask him to make a correction in the bulletin.

Sounds like you’ve done what you could do!

 

[CB_Catholic]

I did in fact call the parish office and the priest actually picked up. I asked him what he meant by red meat, and he said all meats including pork/chicken. I said that I just thought the language might confuse people who read it and he just gave a non-commital response. I don’t think I had the nerve to ask him to make a correction in the bulletin.

Well, technically, pork and chicken don’t turn “white” until they are cooked. They are pinkish, so there is red there. Perhaps the priest is detail-oriented.

 

[yellow8yellowM]

I usually abstain from dolphin, even outside of Lent.

Funniest line I’ve heard in a while.

 

[kch86]

Here’s my thing. I frequently go all day without eating much, sometimes waiting for dinner to eat at all. I don’t find the church’s fasting requirements as much of a fast. IMO it should be one meal all day long and no ‘two smaller meals’.

I know exactly what you mean. I naturally eat once or sometimes twice a day, if at all. It depends on the person. The Church specifies the minimum that all people (with exceptions) are bound by. But for me, even one meal all day long is way too easy. On fasting days, I usually eat nothing. And even that seems too easy, so I sometimes go two days.

If you find the Church’s requirements too lax, just do as much as you feel that would require some degree of self-denial on your part. I might abstain from coffee or from smoking on a fasting day as well, for example.