Let's say...

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What if it was a Friday in Lent, and a friend of yours kindly buys you something to eat which is meat. You plum forget it’s Lent and start eating. Halfway through, while chewing you suddenly realize it’s Lent. Are you allowed to finish what’s in your mouth or should you discretely spit it out?
 
I say finish the bite; then resume your Friday abstinence. Catholics are obsessive enough without thinking about this kind of question.
 
Since it’s Lent, I would just finish that bite, and don’t finish the rest of the meat. If it weren’t Lent, I would’ve finished all of the meat, and offered something else up instead. 🙂
 
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Stylus:
What if it was a Friday in Lent, and a friend of yours kindly buys you something to eat which is meat. You plum forget it’s Lent and start eating. Halfway through, while chewing you suddenly realize it’s Lent. Are you allowed to finish what’s in your mouth or should you discretely spit it out?
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The first part would not qualify as a grave sin since it lacks willful intent. However upon remembering the abstinence requirement you should complete the bit and stop eating the meat.

I agree that subsituting some other abstinence would be appropriate.

:whistle:
 
For someone who grew up starving, or has experienced hunger, it would be very hard to throw the food away. Waste not, want not. As the slang goes, it hurts my Scotch soul. If you are already reheating the item, it must be eaten then or tossed.

To answer your question, I’d chew the food in my mouth and swallow it.
 
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Stylus:
What if it was a Friday in Lent, and a friend of yours kindly buys you something to eat which is meat. You plum forget it’s Lent and start eating. Halfway through, while chewing you suddenly realize it’s Lent. Are you allowed to finish what’s in your mouth or should you discretely spit it out?
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Finish the bite.
 
I would say finish the meal gracefully and make up for it with some other penance for the day. Yes, God expects us to be obedient to the Church’s precepts, but he also created us and knows our weaknesses and some of those weaknesses are forgetfulness. I agree with the other poster about the willful intent. I think sometimes we get so caught up in the rules that we forget the purpose of them and that is penance. Have we become modern day pharisees? I can remember when abstaining was required every Friday of the year, not just Lent. So this is a matter of discipline, custom and obedience.
 
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joshua1:
I can remember when abstaining was required every Friday of the year, not just Lent. So this is a matter of discipline, custom and obedience.
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**Isn’t it still a requirement for us to abstain from meat every Friday, even if it’s not Lent? :confused: If not, I’ve been “missing out” on delicious hamburgers (not that I would stop this practice if I found out it wasn’t required)!! :eek: **
 
Firebug said:
**Isn’t it still a requirement for us to abstain from meat every Friday, even if it’s not Lent? :confused: If not, I’ve been “missing out” on delicious hamburgers (not that I would stop this practice if I found out it wasn’t required)!! :eek: **
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I dont want to mislead anyone so all the experts out there need to chime in. IF I understand it, fridays are STILL days of penance throughout the year, but it can be other forms of penance instead of abstinence of meat. THe meat rule only applies to lent. Cmon guys, help me out with the technicalities.
 
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joshua1:
fridays are STILL days of penance throughout the year, but it can be other forms of penance instead of abstinence of meat. THe meat rule only applies to lent.
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This is the case in the USA for Latin-rite Catholics. From canon law:

Canon 1253 It is for the conference of bishops to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.

The easiest way would be to do abstinence from meat all the Fridays of the year, but you can substitute something else outside lent.
 
Reminds me of a quandary I recently faced. I had just finished confession, and was walking down the hall to the Parish room, and coming the other way was a woman in her 60s. She had a low-cut dress and I could see on her bosom – her wrinkled and spotted bosom – a tattoo of cute little devil.

Should I have turned around and gone back into the confessional?
 
vern humphrey:
Should I have turned around and gone back into the confessional?
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Did you do a mortal sin then? Also, what about the incident still bothers you now, that you recall it?
 
vern humphrey:
Reminds me of a quandary I recently faced. I had just finished confession, and was walking down the hall to the Parish room, and coming the other way was a woman in her 60s. She had a low-cut dress and I could see on her bosom – her wrinkled and spotted bosom – a tattoo of cute little devil.

Should I have turned around and gone back into the confessional?
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Nah, you should have grabbed her and dunked her in the holy water font.
 
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Trelow:
Nah, you should have grabbed her and dunked her in the holy water font.
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If only I had had the presence of mind.

Of course, our fonts are small, and she weighed about 300 lbs.
 
Saying to yourself “forget charity! I have to follow this rule!” is NOT the way to go. Finish the bite- definitely. If you are at a restaurant and can take it home without making it too obvious that your friend ordered something wrong, then do so (just finish the fries or something). If you know your friend won’t be offended if you put the food in a box and save it for later, do so. If you know they will be offended, finish the meal, and try to be more mindful next time of what day it is, so that maybe this mistake won’t happen again. It is not a mortal sin to eat meat on a Friday during lent if you forget- or you forget and cannot save your food for later- at least not without being uncharitable to others. It is a mortal sin when you say to yourself “this rule is pointless- I’m going to eat what I want whenever I want”
 
Grace & Peace!

I just wanted to side with those folks here who considered the attitude of the other person in their response. If the meal was given out of courtesy, out of kindness, or even out of need, the Lenten fast is no excuse to spit on that kindness. Reminds me of a story of the Desert Fathers. One of the hermits, observing his fast, was visited by a hungry stranger. The hermit uprooted his small garden, prepared some meat, and put together a feast for the traveller, which he ate with him, breaking his own fast. When the traveller left to go, he said, “I’m sorry that I intruded on your rule. Forgive me.” The hermit said, “My rule is to receive you in peace, and to bid you farewell in peace.” I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist. The story illustrates the true fast, I think. It is not an external observance solely or even primarily–it is a fast from the world that prepares the soul to respond with love to all circumstances.

Under the Mercy,
Mark

Deo Gratias!
 
Hey I just want to say here that Fridays in Lent are no different to any other Fridays of the year - except for Good Friday. The rule is on Good Friday you don’t eat meat. On any other Friday, Lent or not, you can choose your penance (but you must do something out of prayer, helping others, or self sacrifice - and giving up meat for the day counts as self sacrifice).
I’ve never understood why people thought Lentern Fridays were different to normal Fridays. I guess people must just want to try harder.
Oh and as for having to miss out on juicy hamburgers - yea, it’s a shame isn’t it. What can we do. (Eat it the next day seems to work).

I was in a similar sort of situation. I didn’t spit it out there, as that would have been rude. I went to the bathroom and spat it out there. However, I guess there’s nothing wrong with finishing just that bit. We don’t need to be over-pedantic.
 
Yes, Fridays during Lent are different from other Fridays. Abstaining from warm-blooded meat each and every Friday during Lent is required by the Church. Fasting is required for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (in addition to abstaining from meat since it’s a Friday). Fasting guidelines might vary from diocese to diocese and do depend on one’s age. Please be careful that the wrong information isn’t posted.
 
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