Two Questions About the Friday Penance

[QuizBowlNerd]

1. This is something that has bothered me for a long time. Although I do sometimes substitute another penance, I typically prefer to abstain from meat on Fridays throughout the year. However, I have a sometimes unconscious habit of chewing on my lip/the inside of my mouth. Is this considered consuming meat?
2. What is “enough” of a penance to substitute? Is it simply engaging in prayer/fasting/good works that are beyond what you would normally do, or is there another metric to measure it by?

 

[thistle]

• This is something that has bothered me for a long time. Although I do sometimes substitute another penance, I typically prefer to abstain from meat on Fridays throughout the year. However, I have a sometimes unconscious habit of chewing on my lip/the inside of my mouth. Is this considered consuming meat?
• What is “enough” of a penance to substitute? Is it simply engaging in prayer/fasting/good works that are beyond what you would normally do, or is there another metric to measure it by?

Chewing your lip is not consuming meat.

Yes, prayer/fasting/good works satisfy as a substitute penance.

 

[Fauken]

However, I have a sometimes unconscious habit of chewing on my lip/the inside of my mouth. Is this considered consuming meat?

No. Tissue is constantly flaking off on the inside of your cheek. Chewing on your lip is no different.

 

[CRV]

I typically prefer to abstain from meat on Fridays throughout the year. However, I have a sometimes unconscious habit of chewing on my lip/the inside of my mouth. Is this considered consuming meat?

1. No. You must put the meat into your mouth and chew/swallow as you normally would when eating food/having a meal.

What is “enough” of a penance to substitute? Is it simply engaging in prayer/fasting/good works that are beyond what you would normally do, or is there another metric to measure it by?

That is usually left up to the individuals’ conscience. Perhaps saying a full 5 decades of the rosary, visiting a relative or neighbor who is sick, or lonely and the time spent doing so is up to you - half an hour or an hour or however long you would visit for, if the purpose was to visit and not as a" penance visit".

Fasting is enough when it is done according to the Church/Conference of Bishops where you live, requirements.
It’s additional to what you normally do is my understanding as these are acts of penance undertaken in additon to what you normally do on Fridays.

I’d suggest choosing one thing of the permitted substitutions to replace the abstaining from meat.