Those who Abstain on Fridays

[5Loaves]

I don’t understand why there is a focus on age. It starts to become a point of legalism if something like that is paid too much attention.
CMatt25;7612738:

I never have understood either. So then I ask why in the bulletin coming out this weekend (already online) at the territorial parish for Catholics in my locale does it state:
…Why even have such an elaborate set of rules?

I think the tendency to use a juridical approach comes when the faithful focus primarily on the canons that describe the obligations rather than seeking to digest, pun intended, the many excellent teachings that are offered in the Latin Church, formally and informally.

CMatt25 I hope in posting that list you are merely excerpting from the a more complete piece that will appear in “the bulletin coming out this weekend (already online) at the territorial parish for Catholics in my locale”. Such listing of the prescribed practices in the absence of the real teaching on where these come from and where they are intended to go, supports that so fragile juridical perspective and gives none of the “meat” that will help sustain the faithful in a way that encourages them to embrace this rich heritage we share with Christians reaching back to the apostles.

posted in this thread**JimG ** a link to the US bishops’ Conference document Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence

posted in this threadJM3 a link to Paenitemini, the Apostolic Constitution on Fast and Abstinence from HH Pope Paul VI.

The USCCB has additional teaching on their site in Penitential Practices for Today’s Catholics.

There’s a nearly endless amount of rich teaching on this in the Latin Church.

Fr. Schmemann in his wonderful book Great Lent, Journey to Pascha, Foreword and P31, speaks of Great Lent as:

…a school of repentance to which every Christian must go every year in order to deepen his faith, to re-evaluate , and, if possible, to change his life… [that] apart from formal…rules and prescriptions… there is something else… best described as an “atmosphere,” a “climate” into which one enters, as first of all a state of mind, soul, and spirit which… permeates our entire life… the purpose of Lent is not to force upon us a few formal obligations, but to “soften” our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the spirit, experience the hidden “thirst and hunger” for communion with God.

As HH Pope Benedict XVI has said “fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God.” We are all so clearly at this season prodigal sons seeking to restore our communion with God in His perfect love.

What better time than this beautiful season of Great Lent to take time to read the many teachings on this topic and ponder what they mean for one’s practical life, both uniquely in this great season and throughout the entire year? This season is indeed “a school of repentance” from which flows a deeper desire for such disciplines as times of abstinence and fasting throughout the entire year.

 

[CMatt25]

Shoot…my priest doesn’t even have enough time to answer all my questions…but the bishop has time for a phone call from everyone? If that’s the case…maybe you should suggest the OP call her bishop?

ABM, I once wrote snail mail (before the age of email) to a bishop asking who is a Catholic. He answered but said if I had further questions to see a local parish priest.

 

[CMatt25]

CMatt25 I hope in posting that list you are merely excerpting from the a more complete piece that will appear in “the bulletin coming out this weekend (already online) at the territorial parish for Catholics in my locale”. Such listing of the prescribed practices in the absence of the real teaching on where these come from and where they are intended to go, supports that so fragile juridical perspective and gives none of the “meat” that will help sustain the faithful in a way that encourages them to embrace this rich heritage we share with Christians reaching back to the apostles.

Loaves, here’s all the rest. It said the 3 Lenten disciplines are fasting, almsgiving and prayer. Practices undertaken in penance and preparation for Easter baptismal renewal.

 

[5Loaves]

Loaves, here’s all the rest. It said the 3 Lenten disciplines are fasting, almsgiving and prayer. Practices undertaken in penance and preparation for Easter baptismal renewal.

And so what do these two sentences truly mean?..
How to help “starve” the faithful… :sad_yes: Here’s hoping the good and holy priests in the parishes will offer more meat on the topic. The Church can be sadly adept at hiding her riches from her people…

 

[roveau]

It is a better thing when we give up something as a penance when we are actually not required to do it. For example, no meat on Fridays year around.

I grew up under the rule of not eating meat on Fridays. It became such a habit that our family observed the old rule up to about, say, 2004. I took it up again nearly two years ago because I figured it was easier to simply avoid meat on Fridays that thinking up a different penance for Fridays. So, I’m a lazy bones.

Funny thing is lots of Protestants still eat fish on Fridays, just as a traditional thing to have on Fridays. To this day most aged care facilities serve fish on Fridays, even though there may only be a few Catholics there.

So, each Friday, instead of meat (steak or chicken) I get out a 89 cents tin of Tuna and eat Tuna with a heap of vegetables and brown rice. That’s what I’ll be having tonight.

I don’t like fish but can just tolerate Tuna, it was a bit of a sacrifice, a true penance, at first. Now I don’t mind in the least and it hardly seems like a penance. Although, I still look wistfully at the Malaysian curry ready in the fridge which will now have to wait there till tomorrow.