Wife keeps feeding me meat in Lent

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I’m a Roman Catholic, and my wife is non-religious. Though I gently explain my obligation to certain observances, she often forgets them because it isn’t something that crosses her mind.

On Ash Wednesday she surprised me, out of the blue, with a delicious meatloaf. Today (a Friday in Lent), she made me a chicken sandwich for lunch. Her non-Catholic family is coming for dinner tonight, and they want steaks and ribs.

My old country priest once related to me a story about Cardinal Manning of Los Angeles. He tells the story that on a Friday in Lent, the Cardinal was hosting some kind of important meeting of all the auxiliary bishops. He asked his secretary to bring them lunch, and the secretary brought hamburgers. The bishops all looked at one another in anxiety, wondering what they should do. The cardinal finally broke the silence and said “well, we eat what the Lord has provided.”

This is generally the approach I take. If she (or anyone else, really) makes me a roast beef sandwich on a Friday in Lent, I eat it in gratitude. I’m wondering if anyone else has a similar challenge and how they might deal with it, whether there’s a better way or no.
 
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Well, a good start might be to drop the “heathen” adjective. 😉 Secondly, why don’t you offer to cook meals on Friday for her? It’s not like you have to depend on outside catering for food. I assume you have your own home, kitchen, and are physically able to cook? I’m betting she would love the help too.
 
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powerandglory said:
drop the “heathen” adjective
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Well, she is kind of a heathen. Not that that’s a problem. I use the term jovially and lovingly.
powerandglory said:
why don’t you offer to cook meals on Friday for her
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I often take the initiative in this regard “guess what’d for dinner tonight! fish tacos!” But I can’t manage it every single time. Sometimes she wants to cook for me.
 
Oh, Man. Why are you “unequally yoked”? Don’t answer that. I think it’s paramount to keep the peace in your marriage so don’t reject meals she has prepared, but, keep reminding her of your obligation and seek counsel from a married deacon (or priest) perhaps. Also pray for her conversion of course.
 
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Since this is a pretty frequent thing, are you sure that she isn’t doing it on purpose? I would just be sure to say no meat the next time that she starts to cook for you on a meatless day.
 
C.Ray said:
This is generally the approach I take. If she (or anyone else, really) makes me a roast beef sandwich on a Friday in Lent, I eat it in gratitude. I’m wondering if anyone else has a similar challenge and how they might deal with it, whether there’s a better way or no.
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Gee honey, thank you so much but since it’s Friday I can’t eat meat. It looks delicious and I can’t wait to have it tomorrow.
 
angel12 said:
have you tried reminding her, on Thursday night or Friday morning, that you can’t have meat on Fridays?
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Yes, but I do so judiciously and gently. Observance of Lent is something far from her mind, so she tends to forget I mentioned it. She is getting better at it though, but this kind of reinforcement will take some time.

For instance, I was able to move the planned BBQ from tonight to tomorrow, and we’ll have fish tacos instead tonight. But she still made me a chicken sandwich for lunch. Lolz.
 
Let me guess, she feeds you fish on non-Fridays in lent? She’s trolling you, bro.

Just troll her back. Buy her some cubic zirconia diamond necklace or cheap gold plated necklace from Amazon but put it in real expensive Tiffany box.
 
Neithan said:
I think it’s paramount to keep the peace in your marriage so don’t reject meals she has prepared, but, keep reminding her of your obligation and seek counsel from a married deacon (or priest) perhaps. Also pray for her conversion of course.
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I like your advice best because its what I am already doing. 😁
 
C.Ray said:
I’m wondering if anyone else has a similar challenge and how they might deal with it, whether there’s a better way or no.
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My girlfriend used to do that to me, made me really tasty steak and mushroom on Friday, so I stayed up till 12:01am Saturday morning then DESTROYED it. The tension surrounding the final 10 minute stare down from 11:51pm - 12:01am was sick.
 
Aquinas11 said:
so I stayed up till 12:01am Saturday morning then DESTROYED it
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OK this reminds me of one of my tactics: Pray the office of Vespers as early in the day as it is permitted, at 2 PM. Somewhere I read that liturgically, this starts the new day, which will be a Saturday.
 
CCHcolonel said:
Also work on getting your wife to be a little more obedient. Seems odd to me she continues to repeatedly ignore specific requests. Seems to be a lack of respect for your will.
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The OP has stated already she is not “ignoring” his requests. She’s not Catholic, Lent is not of importance to her, and so she forgets.

Men … can’t handle making their own sandwiches but demand obedient wives. :roll_eyes:
 
No meat on Fridays is a relic from a time when meat was a delicacy. Debatably, it seems that a plan to abstain from seafood/sushi/fish on Fridays would be commensurate in today’s society.
 
powerandglory said:
Men … can’t handle making their own sandwiches
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I would like to emphatically state that I do not demand she makes me a sandwich. She simply, of her own love and obedience, makes me a sandwich with no prompting.
 
Neithan said:
Oh, Man. Why are you “unequally yoked”? Don’t answer that
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People always bring this up on threads like this… it is not helpful. What do you expect him to do about it now? It would be a grave sin for him to divorce his wife over the religious differences. If you’re not suggesting he do that, it seems unnecessary to even bring it up.
 
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