Pigging out on Fridays

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Russ_2073

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Reading my diocese newspaper shows the half page of ads for parish-sponsored “Friday Fish Frys”. I really don’t get it. What does pigging out on a $15 plate of walleye and potato pancakes have to do with keeping a fast? I feel like such a stick in the mud! The fish fries are fun but I thought the point was to have a modest meal or two all day that, by the way, can’t include meat. Not “don’t eat meat and anything else ges. Make sure your belly is full!”

Am I just being picky?
 
Russ 2073:
Reading my diocese newspaper shows the half page of ads for parish-sponsored “Friday Fish Frys”. I really don’t get it. What does pigging out on a $15 plate of walleye and potato pancakes have to do with keeping a fast? I feel like such a stick in the mud! The fish fries are fun but I thought the point was to have a modest meal or two all day that, by the way, can’t include meat. Not “don’t eat meat and anything else ges. Make sure your belly is full!”

Am I just being picky?
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Fasting and abstenance are different. You don’t have to fast on Fridays. In fact you don’t have to not eat meat on Fridays. Fridays are days of penance. You can choose what penance to do. Not eating meat is one choice.
 
the idea of parish sponsored fish-fries has a lot of benefits, a low-cost meal in a family friendly place, community building among parishioners and among the parish volunteers who host the dinners, fund-raising for the organizations which sponsor them-Knights, scouts etc.

anytime the parish gathers for a shared meal it has Eucharistic dimensions and overtones, so it is a good think in and of itself, even without the added benefit of encouraging abstinence from meat.
 
Who says you have ‘pig out’ at the fish fry? If you are observing a fast (which is only required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday) then you are allowed one full meal. Does the fish fry not qualify as ‘one full meal’? Unless it is an ‘all you can eat’, in which case one could stop at one serving, the meals served at a church fish fry are generally a modest portion.

Fridays throughout the year are still days of abstinence, that has never been removed. However, one can chose an alternate sacrifice as opposed to abstaining from meat.

ewtn.com/expert/answers/fast_and_abstinence.htm
 
That link is perfect. Thank you so much.

It must have something to do with my not being to spell abstenance…
 
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