What Penance do you do on Fridays?

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Thanks again Brooklyn. It seems to me, they prefer abstinance from ‘flesh meat’ as they say. So be it.
 
I have to admit for the most part Friday is just like any other day.😦

I am seriously considering along with my wife to reinstitue the abstaining from the eating of meat on Friday, for us and our child.
 
My best friend abstains from meat on Friday’s all throughout the year. I never asked her why but I think its a pretty cool thing to do. I have actually thought about starting to abstain myself.
 
I was in the same boat. I simply heard years ago that you no longer had to abstain from eating meat on Fridays and that was that. I wasn’t told that you had to substitute avoiding meat for some other penance. My mother continued to serve fish on Fridays (which I don’t like).

Anyway since reconciling with the Church and finding out that you still had to perform a penance I decided the simplest thing would be to just eat fish on a Friday. I don’t mind Tuna so that’s it… with cracked pepper corns. One day I forgot to get fish so I gave up my favourite nightly snack (which definitely was a penance).

Funny thing is that of the several nursing homes that I know of all of them serve the residents fish every Friday

Rove
 
No meat on Friday and most time I try not to eat at all until dinner so one meal a day with nothing else. Getting older I have trouble with this once and awhile and must eat a piece of fruit to hold me to dinner but I try.
Jesus said after he leaves his followers would fast. Are you a follower of Jesus? — Jesus said to them, "Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast.But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day. Mark 2:18-22
 
Tomb54 said:
No meat on Friday and most time I try not to eat at all until dinner so one meal a day with nothing else. Getting older I have trouble with this once and awhile and must eat a piece of fruit to hold me to dinner but I try.
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Have you consulted a physician about this regimen? I am thinking it would be better to move the timing of your one meal for the day, for the sake of your pancreas.
 
jmcrae said:
Have you consulted a physician about this regimen? I am thinking it would be better to move the timing of your one meal for the day, for the sake of your pancreas.
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If I did not work I would move it to midday and will when I retire but I have done this off and on since I was a teenager about 40 years ago.
 
Tomb54 said:
If I did not work I would move it to midday and will when I retire but I have done this off and on since I was a teenager about 40 years ago.
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I would ask a doctor about this. We are asked to do penance, but we are not required to kill ourselves.
 
@Moderators: I suggest this thread be split, that way the thread can get back on topic and DLClark can go play dress-up-as-a-troll-and-derail-the-thread-with-no-intent-to-dialogue-honestly somewhere else.
 
Brooklyn said:
I know there have been several threads on this forum about eating meating on Fridays, and exactly what our Friday obligation is. I understand that while it is no longer considered a mortal sin to eat meat on Fridays, we are to substitute some sort of penance if we do choose to eat meat. I’m a vegetarian, so I definitely have to do something else. I have chosen to fast on this day, eating only one meal at night, and a couple of small snacks (fruit) during the day, and no sweets at all (trust me, that is truly penance for me 😦 ) I figure this is the least I can do in honor of our Lord who gave his life so that we may live.

I’m just curious as to what others have chosen to do on this day. I have actually come to like the idea that it has not been mandated for us by the Church anymore, but left up to each one of us to decide on our own. I realize that the vast majority of present-day Catholics pay absolutely no attention to this (a vast majority of American Catholics don’t even believe in the Real Presence, which is tragic beyond words), but I’m sure a good number on this forum do. If you’re here, you’re probably here because you truly love our Lord and want to do all you can to honor him.

So tell me, what penance do you do on Fridays?

Mary
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Today, I have decided to cut back on the amount of food, a meal and a half, meatless. I’ll keep the television off and do some reading, a little bit of the ECF’s.

As I just went to confession on Wednesday, I’ll be working on my penance, part of which is to put my wife and her needs before my own and to try, with God’s grace, to be a better listener to her. She’s quite a gal my Carmen. God has blessed me with a real Christian wife.
 
(Edited)

Anyway, good article linked at Spiritdaily.com about penance on Fridays:

newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?print=1&did=0709-graebe

Here’s a quote:
One area of the Church that has perhaps suffered more than its share of neglect is the penitential nature of Fridays. Not just Lenten Fridays, but all Fridays of the year. And not just penance in general, but specifically abstinence from meat. What might seem like a rather remote and insignificant corner of the contemporary Church becomes, on closer inspection, a trove of spiritual riches of which the faithful have largely deprived themselves. A victim of confusion, poor catechesis, and general disregard, penitential Fridays can play a significant role in the renewal of our times.
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Mary
 
Yesterday (Friday) at the end of daily Mass, the priest reminded everyone of the obligation to do a penitential act on Fridays. He said if you’re not doing the “no meat thing,” you need to do something else. I was very impressed. He’s new in the parish.

I do the “no meat thing.” It’s easiest to remember and feels like Catholic culture.

Betsy
 
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