Lenten promise change

[khuffy]

Hey all, can i switch my lenten promise sort of? it used to be i can only play videogames on saturday and sunday, but this sunday is ridonculously packed so i wouldnt be able to play videogames. could i decide to change it so that i play the videogames on friday and not sunday

 

[promethius]

Hey all, can i switch my lenten promise sort of? it used to be i can only play videogames on saturday and sunday, but this sunday is ridonculously packed so i wouldnt be able to play videogames. could i decide to change it so that i play the videogames on friday and not sunday

First, the only exception to a lenten promise is Sundays. You don’t build in additional caveats. A Lenten sacrifice is to be offered on all days with the exception of Sunday, since Sundays are feast days and fasting is not allowed on feast days.

Your initial “promise” is not sufficient to meet the standards required of the faithful.

In keeping with that note, it’s not just something that can be changed. You are SUPPOSED to go without, with the notable exception of Sunday. This does not mean that a feast day ENTITLES you to partake of whatever you are abstaining from, and that you get a free card to trade Sunday as a feast day for another day of the week if you happen to be busy on a particular Sunday.

Lenten sacrifices are SUPPOSED to be uncomfortable. They are SACRIFICES and ABSTINANCE from a particular thing which is enjoyable. I suggest you use this week to focus even more on the fasting that Christ went through and NOT compromise on your chosen abstinance.

 

[Maureen1125]

I am so tired of this “Sunday” argument. A Lenten penance is NOT FASTING!!! It does not fall under that rule. Seriously people…we are talking about a matter of 6 extra days. Is you love for Jesus and his sacrifice of his very life for us so weak that you can’t manage 6 extra days of self-denial?

 

[tee_eff_em]

Seriously people…giving up something for Lent is a personal practice and is not binding under pain of sin nor in any way other than…personally.

tee

 

[GEddie]

Please, somebody, ask a priest about this, as I have heard that Lenten penances DO rise to the level of sin when broken.

I will research the matter myself.

ICXC NIKA.

 

[Maureen1125]

GEddie is absolutely correct. There is no “rule” about Lenten Sacrifices, it is simply a custom that no one really knows when or how it was begun.

A custom that developed later was to also give up something a person “enjoyed” receiving or doing for the duration of Lent. Although it is not required or part of any rule, many Christians today will also choose to give up something during the Lenten period.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent

Aside from these minimum penitential requirements Catholics are encouraged to impose some personal penance on themselves at other times. It could be modeled after abstinence and fasting. A person could, for example, multiply the number of days they abstain. Some people give up meat entirely for religious motives (as opposed to those who give it up for health or other motives). Some religious orders, as a penance, never eat meat. Similarly, one could multiply the number of days that one fasted. The early Church had a practice of a Wednesday and Saturday fast. This fast could be the same as the Church’s law (one main meal and two smaller ones) or stricter, even bread and water. Such freely chosen fasting could also consist in giving up something one enjoys - candy, soft drinks, smoking, that cocktail before supper, and so on. This is left to the individual.
ewtn.com/faith/lent/fast.htm

 

[wjp984]

If you are Roman Catholic, then the only things you will be held accountable for under penalty of mortal sin are the fast requirements on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and also the abstinance of meat on other Fridays in Lent.

Everything else is a personal choice that you are free to modify if you so please. However, please do remember the reasons for the initial sacrifice.

Some people give up something for all of Lent, Sundays included
Some people allow themselves the item on Sundays.
There is no rule that you have to do either.

Personally, I now follow the allow myself the item on Sunday rule, but this is only because I found out about this allowance a few years ago during a retreat with my Newman Center that was during Lent. I indulged in the item I gave up then that Sunday and I generally have done so ever since for items I give up.

When I was a teen I played video games regularly and I think I tried giving it up once. I did not know about the Sunday rule and when I bought a new game that I had been loooking forward to coming out for several months, I had friends play it just so I could at least see what it was like, while waiting those last few days (It came out during Holy Week)

My point is that there are no rules for this except your own so that you can grow spiritually. Sometimes I give in and I realize just how spiritually weak I am when I can’t even go so many days without something. And I will make all sorts of rationalizations of why it alright to do something that I originally planned on giving up but it it still a rationalization.