Meat!

[Paris_Blues]

So let me get this 100% clear:

I can’t eat meat during Lent - Easter on Fridays. But I can eat it otherwise on Fridays in Ordinary time…but I don’t if I want to make it a penace…right?

 

[Scotty_PGH]

Paris Blues:

So let me get this 100% clear:

I can’t eat meat during Lent - Easter on Fridays. But I can eat it otherwise on Fridays in Ordinary time…but I don’t if I want to make it a penace…right?

Sounds right!

 

[Timidity]

Paris Blues:

So let me get this 100% clear:

I can’t eat meat during Lent - Easter on Fridays. But I can eat it otherwise on Fridays in Ordinary time…but I don’t if I want to make it a penace…right?

No meat on Ash Wednesday, either.

And on the non-Lenten Fridays, if you do choose to eat meat you should perform a different penance on that day.

 

[Paris_Blues]

Timidity:

No meat on Ash Wednesday, either.

And on the non-Lenten Fridays, if you do choose to eat meat you should perform a different penance on that day.

All righty then…no meat on Ash Wednesday or Fridays during Lent…right? Even after Ash, no meat on Wed. and Fri? Right? Am I getting this?

 

[mtr01]

Paris Blues:

All righty then…no meat on Ash Wednesday or Fridays during Lent…right? Even after Ash, no meat on Wed. and Fri? Right? Am I getting this?

Kind of. You are correct that there is no meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent. There is no prohibition against meat on Wednesdays during Lent, however (except Ash Wed.).

Also remember that in addition to abstaining from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, they are also days of fasting. The minimum requirements for a fast are: only one full meal is allowed. Two other meals, sufficient to maintain strength, may be taken according to each one’s needs, but together they should not equal another full meal. What it boils down to is a small breakfast, small lunch, then a moderate supper (at the most). Everyone between the ages of 18-59 are bound to observe days of fasting.

Self-imposed fast are also suggested for every day of Lent, but not required:

For all other weekdays of Lent, we strongly recommend participation in daily Mass and a self-imposed observance of fasting. In the light of grave human needs which weigh on the Christian conscience in all seasons, we urge particularly during Lent, generosity to local, national, and world programs of sharing of all things needed to translate our duty to penance into a means of implementing the right of the poor to their part in our abundance. We also recommend spiritual studies, beginning with the Scriptures as well as the traditional Lenten devotions (sermons, Stations of the Cross, and the Rosary) and all the self-denial summed up in the Christian concept of 'mortification."

“On Penance and Abstinence” (USCCB)

 

[Paris_Blues]

So if I don’t substain from meat, could I substain from something else? I mean, I eat sweets! Could I not eat those and still eat meat (not that I would! LOL!!! Besides, I’m not really a big meat eater anyways…I do like chicken.)

Oh that reminds me…if you don’t eat meat, what if you eat vegetable soup with chicken broth or beef broth in it but not the chunk meat? Would that be okay or would you still have to not even eat that!?

 

[Timidity]

Paris Blues:

Oh that reminds me…if you don’t eat meat, what if you eat vegetable soup with chicken broth or beef broth in it but not the chunk m

eat? Would that be okay or would you still have to not even eat that!? It is generally held that “meat” includes the body parts of mammals and birds, but that it does not include eggs, milk, or things containing animal fat. It also does not include fish. Refer to the Aposptolic Constituion on Penance, Paenitemini.

 

[kage_ar]

Paris Blues:

I eat sweets!

I’ve always been instructed no sweets, no alchohol for every day during Lent (that was the reason for Easter Candy - we Catholics could finally have sweets again).

When abstaining from meat, you can have veggies, salad, grilled cheese, eggs, pasta… just leave off the meat. And of course, there are fish sticks and the Lenten Special (McDonalds filet of fish - so nasty it is suffering to eat it…)

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Vegetable broth and vegetarian vegetable soups. Yes, it can be a bit tricky–lots of soups which sound like they’d be OK have beef, chicken, or turkey broth. Split pea usually has ham (no-no), bean with bacon soup’s an obvious “strike”, etc.

Since my older daughter’s a vegetarian, we make her soups weekly, and for Lent we just double up on the batches because everybody eats meatless on Fridays. (And Wednesdays too, but don’t let this confuse you, Paris, this is a personal devotion. Wednesdays do not have to be abstinence days except for Ash Wednesdays).

 

[meuwzic]

May I jump in here? I’m pretty sure I understand when we abstain but, why and when this started is my question. I was told by two friends, “distant” Catholic and a Protestant, tonight that the "no meat thing started as a commercial decision by the Pope to help out the Italian fishermen or some such nonsense. Any information or truth on this?

JimO:

We are required to abstain from meat on Friday during Lent as an act of penance. Back in the day, when meat was the main course for most people, it was a real sacrafice. Nowadays, with all the gourmet seafood and vegetarian fair available, strictly abstaining from meat, but eating other delicacies kinda misses the point.

The purpose of abstaining from meat and fasting (required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday) is to deprive ourselves of some comforts so we remember that we are sinners who have been redeemed by God’s grace.

Some Catholics do some form of fasting year-round, but it’s not required. Fasting is not limited to not eating for a day either. An act of fasting can be giving up meat every Friday, giving up some other favorite food regularly, or even giving up other pleasures, like watching TV.

The bottom line is that fasting is more of an internal action manifested outwardly. The point of it is to direct one’s mind and heart to God. The outward means are simply reminders. Anyway, that’s my humble opinion.

Blessings

 

[meuwzic]

JimO:

We are required to abstain from meat on Friday during Lent as an act of penance. Back in the day, when meat was the main course for most people, it was a real sacrafice. Nowadays, with all the gourmet seafood and vegetarian fair available, strictly abstaining from meat, but eating other delicacies kinda misses the point.

The purpose of abstaining from meat and fasting (required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday) is to deprive ourselves of some comforts so we remember that we are sinners who have been redeemed by God’s grace.

Some Catholics do some form of fasting year-round, but it’s not required. Fasting is not limited to not eating for a day either. An act of fasting can be giving up meat every Friday, giving up some other favorite food regularly, or even giving up other pleasures, like watching TV.

The bottom line is that fasting is more of an internal action manifested outwardly. The point of it is to direct one’s mind and heart to God. The outward means are simply reminders. Anyway, that’s my humble opinion.

Blessings