To Meat or not to Meat, that is my question

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MaryAgnes:
The whole idea in lifting the obligation was to liberate us to meet the needs of the Church and God’s people in a variety of ways:

“It would bring great glory to God and good to souls if Fridays found our people doing volunteer work in hospitals, visiting the sick, serving the needs of the aged and the lonely, instructing the young in the faith, participating as Christians in community affairs, and meeting our obligations to our families, our friends, our neighbors, and our community, including our parishes, with a special zeal born of the desire to add the merit of penance to the other virtues exercised in good works born of living faith.” NCCB, “On Penance and Abstinence,” 1996.

But if you rather abstain from meat … :rolleyes:
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  1. Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Friday … we give first place to abstinence from flesh meat. We do so in the hope that the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as formerly we did in obedience to Church law.
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Roll your eyes at that.
 
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MaryAgnes:
The whole idea in lifting the obligation was to liberate us to meet the needs of the Church and God’s people in a variety of ways:

“It would bring great glory to God and good to souls if Fridays found our people doing volunteer work in hospitals, visiting the sick, serving the needs of the aged and the lonely, instructing the young in the faith, participating as Christians in community affairs, and meeting our obligations to our families, our friends, our neighbors, and our community, including our parishes, with a special zeal born of the desire to add the merit of penance to the other virtues exercised in good works born of living faith.” NCCB, “On Penance and Abstinence,” 1996.

But if you rather abstain from meat … :rolleyes:
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I can see where the American bishops have given people latitude on this; that is also provided for under Canon Law. And for a lot of folks, giving up meat isn’t much of a penance. That is, they go out for lobster or pizza on Fridays. BUT I don’t think many people even “get” that it is a requirement to do any kind of penance on Fridays. (Not even some in religious life from discussions I’ve had.) So you have to wonder if people are really performing those charitable works on Fridays “with a special zeal born of the desire to add the merit of penance to the other virtues exercised in good works born of living faith”. Nice sentiment, but I kind of doubt it. Maybe our pastors ought to mention it sometime at mass, if indeed it is a requirement. That might help us all sort it out (even Catholic Answers apologists).
 
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Confiteor:
Maybe our pastors ought to mention it sometime at mass, if indeed it is a requirement. That might help us all sort it out (even Catholic Answers apologists).
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I agree! But let’s face it … everyone who read it here knows. Should we wait until our priest can work it into a homily or are we obligated to spread the word? Think about it. 😉
 
Scotty PGH:
Roll your eyes at that.
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What we get when we selectively quote from a document–out of context–is at best “ambiguity” and at worst “misinformation”.

You and I have quoted from the SAME document … yet the spirit of the Bishops’ document is summarized thus:

“It would bring great glory to God and good to souls if Fridays found our people doing volunteer work in hospitals, visiting the sick, serving the needs of the aged and the lonely, instructing the young in the faith, participating as Christians in community affairs, and meeting our obligations to our families, our friends, our neighbors, and our community, including our parishes, with a special zeal born of the desire to add the merit of penance to the other virtues exercised in good works born of living faith.” NCCB, “On Penance and Abstinence,” 1996.

If you believe it pleases God to refrain from the consumption of meat on Friday … by all means go for it! However, Jesus was not so much about the law, but rather, the spirit of the law.
 
I abstain from meat seven days a week unless I am ill “or at sea” (!!!). I am beginning my formation as a secular Teresian Carmelite and it is required of us. In fact, I fast on Fridays and I give the money for my food to a charity. Hard though.

I think that it is just such a pity that many Catholics have ‘forgot’ about the abstinence from meat rule. Like yourselves our Bishops Conference here in England & Wales have managed to obscure the issue over the years. But in fact it is still a requirement but the Bishops have managed to put in a lot of ‘get-out clauses’.

I recommend a book by Professor Eamonn Duffy, Cambridge Don and expert on medieval Catholic Church history. Called Faith of Our Father’s it is a series of essays on some of the practices that Catholics used to do and which made them Catholic. Fasting and Abstinence is one such, reciting the Angelus is another. A good read.
 
Cockney Clive:
I abstain from meat seven days a week unless I am ill “or at sea” (!!!). I am beginning my formation as a secular Teresian Carmelite and it is required of us. In fact, I fast on Fridays and I give the money for my food to a charity. Hard though.

I think that it is just such a pity that many Catholics have ‘forgot’ about the abstinence from meat rule. Like yourselves our Bishops Conference here in England & Wales have managed to obscure the issue over the years. But in fact it is still a requirement but the Bishops have managed to put in a lot of ‘get-out clauses’.

I recommend a book by Professor Eamonn Duffy, Cambridge Don and expert on medieval Catholic Church history. Called Faith of Our Father’s it is a series of essays on some of the practices that Catholics used to do and which made them Catholic. Fasting and Abstinence is one such, reciting the Angelus is another. A good read.
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How wonderful that you are in formation with a secular religious group. I will keep you in my prayers. 🙂 Your acts of penitence and mortification are difficult–and that’s precisely why they will be transformational, right? God bless you and give you the grace to succeed.

I would like to say, however, that the particulars of religious practices, like fast and abstinence, (whether we used to do them, currently do them, or not) are not what make us Catholic. That does not mean disciplines don’t have value, but they are not what distinguish us as truly “Catholic.” What and how we believe is more essential to our being truly Catholic.

Regarding abstinence, let me offer an example. My daughter is a vegetarian–she eats no meat, fish or poultry–ever. One Lent she struggled with the Friday abstinence rule, realizing how the rule would make no difference in her lifestyle, and therefore would offer no means of penance or virtuous formaion. She asked me what she should do and I said (tongue-in-cheek) she should force herself to eat a hamburger each Friday! 😉

Since we are individuals, I think the same holds true for each of us when we discern what our Friday penance should be. Being “told” what to do (or not do) may not be personally effective either as a penance or for spiritual growth in holiness. For some folks the abstinence rule works well; for others working at a soup kitchen, tutoring a child or babysitting for a neighbor can be a better option.

I don’t really think the Bishops were looking for “get out clauses.” Rather, they wanted mature Catholics to find a personal avenue to “get in.”

Peace!
 
I don’t eat meat on Fridays. I really don’t know what I would do for a penance unless I gave up meat. In the past, on the days I would slip up and eat meat on Friday, I would say the rosary instead. Now I say the rosary fairly regularly, and I’m at a loss of what to do on those days I forget and eat meat on Friday.
 
I agree with making a special sacrifice on Fridays - I’m working on doing that, but I have done poorly in that aspect so far… My mom has chosen to give up chocolate on Fridays - that sounds much more difficult than meat 🙂

Question: What do vegitarians do on Fridays during Lent?
 
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MaryAgnes:
I agree! But let’s face it … everyone who read it here knows. Should we wait until our priest can work it into a homily or are we obligated to spread the word? Think about it.
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MaryAgnes,

Great point! That is true for so many aspects of our Faith. The Lord has been putting that message in my heart for the past week. I need to stop complaining about what the priests aren’t saying in their homilies and start spreading the word myself.

God Bless,
Gary
 
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tee_eff_em:
I answered “No”, but I meant: “No, not as a rule, though I do make exceptions”. I can’t remember the last time I “slipped up” on something like this.

For instance a few weeks ago I attended the Catholic wedding of a friend, and at the reception I chose to hospitably eat the meal set before me, rather than making some kind of scene. It wasn’t a slip. It was a conscious decision.

tee
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Hi, tee-eff-em,
Code: 
I remember being taught as far back as the late fifties that if, for instance, you go to a reception or visit a friend, and are offered a meat meal on Friday (and there's no other choice), charity trumps the rule this once and you eat what is given; you can abstain the next day.
Szczebrzeszyn
 
The New Testament makes it clear that it is important to fast, and in fact I think some form of penance is good for a person’s soul. So I have fasted two days a week for many years, eating only bread and drinking only coffee and water on Wednesday and Fridays. However, since it doing this specifically isn’t an obligation, I have been willing to skip this practice on occasion, though I usually just had changed the day when I fasted. However, I was recently married, and my wife loves to cook so I stopped fasting for a month until I spoke to her about tt, as I have now. I agree that charity is a more important thing.
 
Abstaining from meat on Fridays is a minimum requirement for penance on that day.

I abstain from meat because it is a lot easier than some other penances, like being nice to people or doing an act of kindness or giving my last dollar to that stinky, greasy fellow in the park.

Sure, I’ll eat bar b que’d salmon on Friday. No problem.
 
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ICXCNIKA:
Abstaining from meat on Fridays is a minimum requirement for penance on that day.

I abstain from meat because it is a lot easier than some other penances, like being nice to people or doing an act of kindness or giving my last dollar to that stinky, greasy fellow in the park.

Sure, I’ll eat bar b que’d salmon on Friday. No problem.
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And this seems penetential to you??? :rolleyes:
 
DH and I are giving up meat entirely…bad chicken the other night…it’s gonna be a struggle but we’ll do it!!
 
my diet now is so strict that I am already fasting when I am in compliance, and now my medical condition is such that I am not allowed to fast during Lent. Since I now eat fish at least 5 times a week, and limit red meat drastically, I don’t worry about what I eat on any given day. Friday, my day off, is a day of penance either through extended prayer time or specific works of charity I could not do otherwise.
 
I have to answer most of the time but slip up, because I am human and tend to forget what day it is. To answer No would mean that you have totally NEVER eaten meat on Friday.
 
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