S
Shin
Guest
For those who do not know, I’d like to let people know, it is tradition that on Christmas Eve one does not eat meat. 
So if you are thinking about what types of meals to cook, remember this! And keep on the observance of our Catholic traditions!
And do not forget Fridays, naturally.
Christmas Day is a Feast day one may eat as one likes.
I’d like to add though, that one should be very careful not to overindulge on feast days. These are spiritual days, for the sake of the Lord, not days of gluttony and self indulgence in food. We are to give thanks for the food we receive and eat only enough of it so that we appreciate the gifts, not so much that we become like pagans feasting.
Remember that you keep feeling like eating longer than you should naturally, so stop before you are stuffed! If your body makes you pay for what you ate later on, you know you went too far! Show some self restraint and you will be the closer to God!
Feast on the Lord’s charity and His word especially this Christmas, and the story of the nativity.
‘Anyone who believes that the sacrifices, feasts, Sabbaths, and celebrations of the new moon specified in the Law have been instituted by God for the sake of physical license and relaxation will fall completely into the power of the passions, and will be ignominiously polluted by the shameful thoughts they stimulate. He will be in the sway of the corruptible world and preoccupied with thoughts of bodily indulgence. Dominated by the matter and form of passion, he will be unable to value anything except what is subject to decay, senses, and which in the shape of mental images provides the passion with suitable matter to work on. . . When the soul’s contemplative faculty embraces self-indulgence as a divine command, it makes an unnatural use of the senses, not allowing them to express themselves at all in accordance with nature.’
St. Maximos the Confessor
‘Brethren and fathers, most people call the present days feasts, because of they get drunk and debauched during them, not understanding that these days demand abstinence from meat, not indulgence in drunkenness and intoxication. That is proper to a pagan feast; it is the business of Christians to exercise self-control and not to satisfy the desires of the flesh, as the Apostle teaches. Nevertheless evil has progressed into law and leads the world as it wishes. But let us, brethren, flee intemperance even in partaking of things that are permitted, for we know that intemperance is the mother of sin.’
St. Theodore the Studite
‘The blessedness of seeing God is justly promised to the pure of heart. For the eye that is unclean would not be able to see the brightness of the true light, and what would be happiness to clear minds would be a torment to those that are defiled. Therefore, let the mists of worldly vanities be dispelled, and the inner eye be cleansed of all the filth of wickedness, so that the soul’s gaze may feast serenely upon the great vision of God.’
Pope St. Leo the Great
So if you are thinking about what types of meals to cook, remember this!
And keep on the observance of our Catholic traditions!And do not forget Fridays, naturally.
Christmas Day is a Feast day one may eat as one likes.
I’d like to add though, that one should be very careful not to overindulge on feast days. These are spiritual days, for the sake of the Lord, not days of gluttony and self indulgence in food. We are to give thanks for the food we receive and eat only enough of it so that we appreciate the gifts, not so much that we become like pagans feasting.
Remember that you keep feeling like eating longer than you should naturally, so stop before you are stuffed! If your body makes you pay for what you ate later on, you know you went too far! Show some self restraint and you will be the closer to God!
Feast on the Lord’s charity and His word especially this Christmas, and the story of the nativity.
‘Anyone who believes that the sacrifices, feasts, Sabbaths, and celebrations of the new moon specified in the Law have been instituted by God for the sake of physical license and relaxation will fall completely into the power of the passions, and will be ignominiously polluted by the shameful thoughts they stimulate. He will be in the sway of the corruptible world and preoccupied with thoughts of bodily indulgence. Dominated by the matter and form of passion, he will be unable to value anything except what is subject to decay, senses, and which in the shape of mental images provides the passion with suitable matter to work on. . . When the soul’s contemplative faculty embraces self-indulgence as a divine command, it makes an unnatural use of the senses, not allowing them to express themselves at all in accordance with nature.’
St. Maximos the Confessor
‘Brethren and fathers, most people call the present days feasts, because of they get drunk and debauched during them, not understanding that these days demand abstinence from meat, not indulgence in drunkenness and intoxication. That is proper to a pagan feast; it is the business of Christians to exercise self-control and not to satisfy the desires of the flesh, as the Apostle teaches. Nevertheless evil has progressed into law and leads the world as it wishes. But let us, brethren, flee intemperance even in partaking of things that are permitted, for we know that intemperance is the mother of sin.’
St. Theodore the Studite
‘The blessedness of seeing God is justly promised to the pure of heart. For the eye that is unclean would not be able to see the brightness of the true light, and what would be happiness to clear minds would be a torment to those that are defiled. Therefore, let the mists of worldly vanities be dispelled, and the inner eye be cleansed of all the filth of wickedness, so that the soul’s gaze may feast serenely upon the great vision of God.’
Pope St. Leo the Great
) that this is traceable to the fact that, although Poland is mostly a Latin Catholic country today, it was originally evangelized into the Byzantine rite.
Plus I love saying the word… it makes me feel even more Polish!