lenten sacrifice

[sue_kazak]

Hi
My daughter just came back from her confirmation retreat and said that she was told that Catholics are allowed to have what they gave up for lent on Sundays. We have heard that before but always told her it was not true. Is it true or not?
Thanks for the help,
Sue

 

[James0235]

It’s true. Sundays are days of Resurrection and not fasting.

If you look at the calendar and add up all of the days of Lent you will get 46 - 6 weeks of seven days plus Ash Wednesday and the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday following it bot before the first Sunday of Lent.

Now, if you subtract the 6 Sundays you will get the 40 days of Lent on which we should be practicing fasts and abstinence.

James

 

[PhilotheaZ]

Beyond what the Church requires (no meat on Fridays, fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday), what you give up during Lent is voluntary, so you can approach it any way you choose.

Sundays are less “penitential” and more “joyful” than other days of the week because of the Resurrection, so some people relax their self-imposed penances on Sunday. On the other hand, getting very self-indulgent even on Sunday is probably not in the spirit of the season.

You can always ask yourself, “Would God want me to eat this candy bar right now?”

 

[PhilotheaZ]

If you look at the calendar and add up all of the days of Lent you will get 46 - 6 weeks of seven days plus Ash Wednesday and the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday following it bot before the first Sunday of Lent.

Now, if you subtract the 6 Sundays you will get the 40 days of Lent on which we should be practicing fasts and abstinence.

The number 40 is symbolic (and approximate), not the result of a mathematical formula, although people have come up with several different ways (like the one you propose) to come up with 40.

Holy Thursday evening, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are not part of Lent; the Triduum is its own season, which begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. (That does not mean that you should end your Lenten fast on Holy Thursday!)

 

[maryjk]

Beyond what the Church requires (no meat on Fridays, fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday), what you give up during Lent is voluntary, so you can approach it any way you choose.

Sundays are less “penitential” and more “joyful” than other days of the week because of the Resurrection, so some people relax their self-imposed penances on Sunday. On the other hand, getting very self-indulgent even on Sunday is probably not in the spirit of the season.

You can always ask yourself, “Would God want me to eat this candy bar right now?”

Which is what I told my Sunday School kids. I gave them both sides of it, and told them, go with what Mom and Dad say. I don’t want to get between the children and the parents. Ouch.

 

[tamccrackine]

A friend of mine, who’s intellect I value very much, told me that the Sunday’s during Lent are feast days, therefore we don’t observe our self imposed abstinence rules (like if we gave up chocolate during Lent, then we can have chocolate on Sundays).

I’ve honestly never heard of this. To me, a “feast day” are days like Feast of the Immaculate Conception and such days as those.

Can anyone help out?

 

[James0235]

A friend of mine, who’s intellect I value very much, told me that the Sunday’s during Lent are feast days, therefore we don’t observe our self imposed abstinence rules (like if we gave up chocolate during Lent, then we can have chocolate on Sundays).

I’ve honestly never heard of this. To me, a “feast day” are days like Feast of the Immaculate Conception and such days as those.

Can anyone help out?

Sundays are feast days. It is a day to celebrate the Resurrection. Sunday is to the week what Easter is to the year.

Gregory the Great had this to say on the subject of fasting in Lent:

"There are, from this day (the first Sunday of Lent) to the joyous feast of Easter, six weeks, that is, forty-two days. As we do not fast on the six Sundays, there are but thirty-six fasting days…which we offer to God as the tithe of our year."

(Pope St. Gregory the Great, Sixteenth Homily on the Gospels, cited by Abbot Gueranger in Volume 4 of The Liturgical Year, emphasis mine)

Since the time of Gregory Lent has been lengthened with the addition of Ash Wednesday and the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday which follow. This adds up to 46 actual days but only 40 if we do not count the Sundays.

As was correctly pointed out in a similar thread in the Roman Rite we are only held to fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and to abstinence from meat on the Fridays of Lent (actually all Fridays of the year but that is another topic). Anything above and beyond this is optional. But, it is very, very much keeping with the traditions of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church not to fast or abstain from things on the Sundays of Lent.

James

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

A friend of mine, who’s intellect I value very much, told me that the Sunday’s during Lent are feast days, therefore we don’t observe our self imposed abstinence rules (like if we gave up chocolate during Lent, then we can have chocolate on Sundays).

I think the key is “self imposed.” You set the rules.

For me personally, when I choose to do something during Lent I do it through all of Lent. But I guess the question is, why are you doing what you’re doing?

If you see it as some kind of punishment, then you probably want to avoid it on Sundays. If you see it as a means of conversion, a way of turning toward God and becoming more of who God wants you to be, then why wouldn’t you want to do that on Sundays as well?

 

[James0235]

Holy Thursday evening, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are not part of Lent; the Triduum is its own season, which begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. (That does not mean that you should end your Lenten fast on Holy Thursday!)

Prior to 1970 (and again in many parishes today in the Extraordinary Form) The Triduum was definitely distinct from Lent but still considered a part of it. Actually it fell in Passiontide which was almost a subset of Lent consisting of the last two weeks.

You are right that, with the exception of Ash Wed and Good Fri, any fasting one chooses is voluntary. And one could certainly keep a fast or abstain on Sunday. But, it is keeping with the traditions of the Roman Rite not to do so on the Sundays of Lent.

God bless,

James