Year Round Meatless Fridays

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Here in Canada we may substitute on any Friday of the year. That said, there is one Archbishop that I’m aware of who has imposed Lenten Friday abstinence from meat for all his flock, or at least those who fall in the age bracket to be affected by the rule of abstinence.

I started abstaining from meat on Fridays about 2 years ago. If my husband is cooking we’ll usually have salmon, if I’m on my own, tuna and pasta. Lunch at work is either noodles or hard boiled eggs and toast with Marmite.

That said, we were invited out for supper last night and our host had made a moose stew. I opted to do something else as penance.
 
I grew up when all Catholics had meatless Fridays all the time. Protestants called us “mackerel snappers.” I always thought it was ridiculous. Our Friday meals were my favorite. It was either tuna noodle casserole, which my Mom did really well, or fish sticks. I loved them both and still do! I like all kinds of fish for that matter. So bring on meatless Fridays, but don’t call it a penance.

I think a better choice would be “vegetarian Fridays.” Now that would be a penance!
 
jfz178 said:
Good point. OK, how about vegan Fridays?
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Makes it a little harder, since some of the vegan restaurants in the area serve baked goods that taste like wads of cardboard to me, but I’d probably go down to the Mediterranean or Middle Eastern restaurant, get some stuffed grape leaves, some pitas and veggie dips, some pilaf…

Edited to add, if we want to really do penance, we should all just do a sugar free day (no sugar and no refined flour at all), or an “egg and grapefruit day”, or a day when we drink nothing but plain water (no coffee, no soda, no juice, no sparkling water etc.) I guarantee most folks would have a splitting headache and/or the jitters by 6 pm.
 
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One of my prayer groups wants to have “bread and juice” fast days after Xmas…the problem with that is, unless you buy the worst tasting juice and most blah crispbread on the shelf, there’s no penance there because the sugar in the juice and the sugar and refined flour in most bread could keep an army on the move.
 
I could not do a “no caffeine day.” Here’s a radical thought: What if we actually fasted? I mean, no food at all. Some people say it’s good for you to do that once a week anyway.
 
That may work for some, but it would be disastrous for me. I pass out when I go entirely without food. This has happened before including when I tried to go to early morning Mass without eating breakfast, and most recently last summer when I tried to attend a holy hour during a certain time of the month without having had adequate food during the day. I had to run out of the church and stagger a block up the street to a pizza restaurant and buy a Coke immediately.

As one who many years ago used to try to eat very little in order to stay thin, I also don’t think regular extreme fasting is good for your metabolism. I messed myself up with that to the point where I had to go to a nutritionist to fix the issues that resulted.
 
Good Friday is a day of fasting, so the huge crawfish boils are a puzzle.
 
Yeah, same here. The only problem I have with our Fish Fry is its sorta in parallel with Stations of the Cross, and some people bypass SOTC and go directly to the Fish fry then Bingo. Sigh.
 
Source, please? The bishops’ conference Website seems to say otherwise. :confused:

Regardless, I’ve observed year-round meat abstinence since birth (according to my mother). It’s so deeply ingrained in me that I continued to adhere to it even during the time I was away from the Church.
 
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Bingo.

And, b/c of doing so, you will more greatly appreciate the food you eat on the other six days.

Not to mention, it is good for you.
 
well, yes; that is the problem

you start to like “fish on friday” so at a certain point that is no longer a sacrifice

“fasting completely” on friday; for example: nothing but milk, water & honey on Friday?

it is something i would struggle to do
 
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It is meant to be a penance; eating luxurious seafood may meet the letter of the law, but not necessarily the spirit. The faithful must exercise prudence, and not look for loopholes; the law is written to give the faithful wide discretion to avoid being overly burdensome.
 
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