Meat on Friday?

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Hi. I will be attending cooking class on Fridays. If we cook meat will it be OK if I just say some extra prayers on that day and eat the meat?
 
It’s okay whether or not you say “some extra prayers,” until Lent anyway.
 
Lucky10279 said:
Hi. I will be attending cooking class on Fridays. If we cook meat will it be OK if I just say some extra prayers on that day and eat the meat?
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The recommendation at the time of Pope Paul VI is that you abstain from meat on Friday’s and also reduce the food on that day to one full meal. At the same time the Church has instructed the faithful that they may substitute other forms of penace for this.

Canon 1250 – All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the universal Church.

Canon 1251 – Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

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.

Amended: “… the age of fasting is from the completion of the twenty-first year to the beginning of the sixtieth” (Paenitemini, norm IV) is amended to read ‘… the age of fasting is from the completion of the eighteenth year to the beginning of the sixtieth’ in accord with canon 97."

usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/canon-law/complementary-norms/canons-1252-and-1253-observance-of-fast-and-abstinence.cfm

Note that fast is one thing, and abstinance is another.

So you can substitute if it is not a solemnity, Ash Wednesday, or Good Friday.

The general list of solemnities (varies with location):

Motherhood of God (January 1), Epiphany (January 6), St. Joseph (March 19), Annunciation (March 25), Trinity Sunday (first after Pentecost), Corpus Christi (Thursday after Trinity Sunday), Sacred Heart (Friday after the second Sunday after Pentecost), St. John the Baptist (June 24), Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29), Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (August 15), All Saints (November 1), Christ the King (Last Sunday of the ecclelsiastical year), Immaculate Conception (December 8), and Christmas (December 25).
 
JGMendes4049 said:
It’s okay whether or not you say “some extra prayers,” until Lent anyway.
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My dad said it had to be an act of charity, but he didn’t know of anything I could do, so he would talk to my mom about whether I could just eat it.
 
Lucky10279 said:
Hi. I will be attending cooking class on Fridays. If we cook meat will it be OK if I just say some extra prayers on that day and eat the meat?
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We need to do something on Friday. If you choose to eat meat then choose some other act of charity, or devotion. Extra prayers would certainly be acceptable so long as they are not rushed or haphazard. Don’t, as you say “just say some extra prayers…”
Recognize why you are doing it, out of love and solidarity with Christ, and ponder on the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Peace
James
 
JRKH said:
We need to do something on Friday. If you choose to eat meat then choose some other act of charity, or devotion. Extra prayers would certainly be acceptable so long as they are not rushed or haphazard. Don’t, as you say “just say some extra prayers…”
Recognize why you are doing it, out of love and solidarity with Christ, and ponder on the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Peace
James
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Thanks!
 
Lucky10279 said:
Hi. I will be attending cooking class on Fridays. If we cook meat will it be OK if I just say some extra prayers on that day and eat the meat?
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You will most likely be struck dead with a lightening bolt!
 
JRKH said:
We need to do something on Friday. If you choose to eat meat then choose some other act of charity, or devotion. Extra prayers would certainly be acceptable so long as they are not rushed or haphazard. Don’t, as you say “just say some extra prayers…”
Recognize why you are doing it, out of love and solidarity with Christ, and ponder on the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Peace
James
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Well stated. 👍
 
Lucky10279 said:
Hi. I will be attending cooking class on Fridays. If we cook meat will it be OK if I just say some extra prayers on that day and eat the meat?
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It depends which country you are in. In your case its okay but for example in England you are forbidden because not eating meat on all Fridays is mandatory.
 
thistle said:
It depends which country you are in. In your case its okay but for example in England you are forbidden because not eating meat on all Fridays is mandatory.
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I imagine in such a case one could ask their pastor for a dispensation though (not unlike needing to miss mass).

Peace
James
 
JRKH said:
I imagine in such a case one could ask their pastor for a dispensation though (not unlike needing to miss mass).

Peace
James
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You could be right but wouldn’t that normally apply to one-off situations?
What if the cooking classes are every Friday?
 
Is Friday Penance Required?
The first thing is that the bishops “give first place to abstinence from flesh meat” (norm 3). This was an exhortation and as such did not establish a legal obligation. So abstinence continued to be a recommended practice for the observance of Friday but not a legally binding one.
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Lucky10279 said:
Hi. I will be attending cooking class on Fridays. If we cook meat will it be OK if I just say some extra prayers on that day and eat the meat?
Click to expand...
unless you live in a diocese where abstinence from meat on all Fridays of the year is mandatory under pain of sin, you are fine eating meat outside Lent.
thistle said:
It depends which country you are in. In your case its okay but for example in England you are forbidden because not eating meat on all Fridays is mandatory.
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is it mandatory under pain of sin, or is it something the bishops of the UK have restored with a request for Catholics to return to the traditional discipline?
 
puzzleannie said:
unless you live in a diocese where abstinence from meat on all Fridays of the year is mandatory under pain of sin, you are fine eating meat outside Lent.

is it mandatory under pain of sin, or is it something the bishops of the UK have restored with a request for Catholics to return to the traditional discipline?
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The latter. The Bishops of England and Wales have asked us to show Catholic solidarity by not eating meat on Fridays. but it is not a sin to go against this. . It is not mandatory in England and Wales to abstain from meat on Fridays (actually, it hasn’t even started until the end of Sept). and it is not a sin to eat meat on Fridays either.
 
Well, to be more precise, it comes in the the 17th Sept. not the end of the month. I was getting it confused with the introduction of the new translation, which Liverpool Archdiocese isn’t starting until the beginning of October.
 
paperwight66 said:
The latter. The Bishops of England and Wales have asked us to show Catholic solidarity by not eating meat on Fridays. but it is not a sin to go against this. . It is not mandatory in England and Wales to abstain from meat on Fridays (actually, it hasn’t even started until the end of Sept). and it is not a sin to eat meat on Fridays either.
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It is as much a sin as in other parts of the world where one is bound by Canon Law, but there is some discussion in the Q&A article about it not being a sin to miss one day out of many.
 
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