Meatless Fridays

[jmcrae]

Hey everyone!

Last Fridat I was in Nebraska for my niece’s graduation. Unfortunately for me we went to my niece’s job for dinner. It was very late as we got there late. We had driven 16 hours and there was not a meatless dish on the menu. I ate a hamburger. I know that I could have just ate fries, only I was starved.

This is actually perfectly fine, since the intention of the “no meat” rule on Fridays is to help us to simplify our lives. Since it would have taken you out of your way and complicated things to have gotten a meatless dish, you actually did the right thing by eating what was set before you without complaining.

Another situation where you can eat meat on Fridays in the spirit of abstinence is when someone who doesn’t know about the Friday abstinence rule offers you a meat dish out of the kindness of their heart, for example, if a neighbor invites you over for hot dogs because she sees that you are tired and hungry - it’s actually a good thing to accept her hospitality and eat the hot dogs (and of course tell her that they are the best hot dogs you ever ate), without mentioning anything about Friday abstinence, because it allows her to do a good work for Jesus, and thus, gain graces.

But you would not presume on your neighbor, or invite yourself over to their place for hotdogs on a Friday - that would not be in the spirit of the Friday penance. And ordinarily, hopefully you don’t look like you are starving to death most Fridays.

 

[NCSue]

The Bishop of Steubenville called for the faithful of his diocese to return to this practice in support of life: acts17verse28.blogspot.com/2009/05/meatless-but-with-twist.html. I think it’s a wonderful idea!