How's about 52 times a year, and 3,120 times in a 60-year period.
Dude, that's like what? once a week? Not a grievous burden at all, according to you.
This is works, that do nothing for a man's salvation, other then making him think he is paying his way, which then does away with the free gift of salvation.
This is what you think it is. No Catholic who has been properly catechised thinks that having a fish sandwich is getting them straight into Heaven. It's preposterous. how about you stop characterizing every Catholic as a simpleton, a Pelagian simpleton at that?
Secondly, in this rapidly secularizing culture the removal of a weekly reminder to folks that Jesus died for us in a way that had a real impact on peoples' lives is hadly showing them "mercy." If anything it leads to a weakening of the faith and contributes to the coming of the "post-Christian" era.
I guess when it comes to the Spiritual part of salvation, we just can't get through to you.
I guess whenever something physical is involved we can't get through to you that it's still a spiritual exercise. Avoiding meat once a week is a thing we do spiritually. Just because matter is involved in some way doesn't make it bad.
If I follow your example then nothing is required of a Christian, at least nothing that involves self-sacrifice or matter.
How many people do you think who kept meatless Friday, came to know God from this mini sacrifice? It simply became a ritual that they kept every Friday with no consideration of what it represented.
First of all you are arguing again to the stupidity of Catholics. I think most Catholics know or knew why they were doing what they were doing. They didn't think "it's because we're Irish" or "we're Italian, it's what we do." It wasn't just a cultural artifact, it was done in remembrance of the specialness of that day.
The little Italian store down the street from me (a mom and pop 7-11 type) is closed on Good Friday from 12 to 3. Do you think they do this because it's a quaint "custom"? Do you think they think it's their ticket to Heaven? Is it possible they actually know why they do it?
That is why repetition is condemned in the word, because it becomes vain when man no longer puts his heart into it and simply does it because it's Friday again.
Speak for yourself. God condemns what is vain, not what is repetitious. God himself gave us things to "repeat."
SD