Fasting - Our Lost Rite

The Tablet ^ | 1/31/2004 | Eamon Duffy

[Salvation]

**I simplified it by just going with the old way, and avoiding meat every Friday.**

Good choice.

[MarMema]

I try to remember the essential link with humility as a test of whether a fast is being properly pursued.

That would be, imo, a significant view.

[dansangel]

Fasting every Friday is *not* a lost rite in our household, I am happy to report.

[Catholicguy]

So fasting is now confined to a derisory two days of the year, and compulsory Friday abstinence has been replaced by a genteel and totally individualistic injunction to do some penitential act on a Friday - an injunction, incidentally, that most Catholics know nothing about. What had been a corporate mark of identity has been marginalised into an individualistic option.

Claptrap.

CHAPTER II : DAYS OF PENANCE Can. 1249 All Christ's faithful are obliged by divine law, each in his or her own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined together in a certain common practice of penance, days of penance are prescribed. On these days the faithful are in a special manner to devote themselves to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity, and to deny themselves, by fulfilling their obligations more faithfully and especially by observing the fast and abstinence which the following canons prescribe.

Can. 1250 The days and times of penance for the universal Church are each Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Can. 1252 The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.

Can. 1253 The Episcopal Conference can determine more particular ways in which fasting and abstinence are to be observed. In place of abstinence or fasting it can substitute, in whole or in part, other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.

The truth that this was just formally observed with little, if any, understanding of the connection twixt the profound spiritual truthfullness and necessity of fast/abstinence and the pharisaical observance is proved by how fast this practice was abandoned once reforms were instituted.

I,for one, love the reforms.

BTW, Me, my Bride (a convert from Congregationalis)m, and Me Kids are Friday Fish-heads every Friday year-round and this Lent I will be taking ought but water every Wednesday and Friday this Lent - (Didache).

[Catholicguy]

Spy Wednesday. Judas meeting with the Synagogue to betray Jesus.

[livius]

I'm glad to hear that you're doing this.

I don't know how old you are; possibly you did not grow up during a time when everybody fasted on Fridays year round, and Lent was a genuinely serious business. Granted, it might have gotten a little too legalistic: You could eat x amount of this, x amount of that, so that your meals would equal x amount.

During Lent, people did not eat meat and most people added another mortification - they gave up smoking or drinking, for example.

But the point is that it was NOT an individualistic expression of piety. It did not limit what you could do if you were pious and wanted to go beyond the requirements for a personal reason. But it was something that everybody did and it was a common bond and expression in the way that individual piety can never be.

And perhaps you could discuss things without screaming "claptrap" at the beginning of your post?

[livius]

That's good, and I think there are probably many people who also do this and have kept on doing it since the 70s.

But I wish it would go back to being what it had been, simply a given and a communal practice.

I am afraid many people have missed the point here, and do not understand the difference between a personal act of piety, and a corporate or communal practice.

It was the communal practice that Vatican II destroyed.

[livius]

Ping to you guys. I'm curious to know what you think about this issue (please read the article first).

I think that many people don't understand the significance of a "collective" practice, even though in theory Vat II was supposed to make us into this great community. I have found that the Church, in its practices and in the attitude of its members, has much less community identity than it did prior to VatII.

I am in my 50s, btw, so I grew up with one Church and saw it morph into something totally different within the space of about 5 years.

The communal aspect has always bothered me, because I felt that we had much more collective identity and connection with the past (the community that went before us) prior to VII than after it. The fasting rules were a particularly concrete expression of that.

[AAABEST]

You could probably teach me more about this than I you, so I'm going to have to defer. I'm very careful about advising someone on doctrine issues as I feel that I'm not qualified. I would advise you going to a priest, but I'm not sure who you'd wind up with anymore so I won't do that either.

However, here is a some good info from a tradional site that shows how we used to fast and what has changed since. Note at all of that has been abolished:

Summary
Before receiving the Eucharist (the "Eucharistic Fast")	Traditional: nothing but water and medicines for three hours, though twelve hours are recommended
	1983 Code: nothing but water and medicines for 1 hour
All Fridays	Traditional: Abstain. There is an indult exempting American Catholics from abstaining on the day after Thanksgiving Thursday, however.
	1983 Code: Abstain. American Bishops, however, decided that Fridays' penance can be replaced by other, unspecified sacrifices. Many "conservative Novus Ordo Catholics" follow the traditional practice and abstain from meat as penance on this day along with traditional Catholics, and the American Bishops "recommend" the practice in reparation for the sin of abortion. Note, too, that American Catholics have a dispensation, from Pope Pius XII, to refrain from abstinence on the Friday following Thanksgiving Thursday.
Vigil of the Immaculate Conception	Traditional: Abstain and Fast
	1983 Code: abolished
Advent Embertide	Traditional: Partially Abstain and Fast
	1983 Code: abolished
Vigil of Christmas	Traditional: Abstain and Fast. A decree by Pope Pius XII allows the Fast to take place on December 23 instead
	1983 Code: abolished
Ash Wednesday	Traditional: Abstain and Fast
	1983 Code: Abstain and Fast
Lenten Embertide	Traditional: Partially Abstain and Fast
	1983 Code: abolished
Weekdays of Lent	Traditional: Fast
	1983 Code: abolished
Fridays of Lent	Traditional: Abstain, like all Fridays, in addition to the Lenten Fasting
	1983 Code: Abstain, even if you don't abstain on all other Fridays
Good Friday	Traditional: Abstain and Fast, like all Lenten Fridays
	1983 Code: Abstain and Fast
Holy Saturday	Traditional: Abstain and Fast until Noon
	1983 Code: abolished
Vigil of the Pentecost	Traditional: Partially Abstain and Fast
	1983 Code: abolished
Whit Embertide	Traditional: Partially Abstain and Fast
	1983 Code: abolished
Michaelmas Embertide	Traditional: Partially Abstain and Fast
	1983 Code: abolished

Also as a matter of disclosure, there are many here that would advise you against asking my opinion on ANY matter! LOL.

I love your take on communion, this is so essential to me and Catholicism. Have you ever had any invovement with traditional movement? You sound like a perfect candidate.

[AAABEST]

More info on the above table:

Definitions

Abstinence

In the Latin Church, abstinence means refraining from eating the meat from mammals or fowl, and soup or gravy made from them Fish is allowed, hence Fridays are known as "Fish Fridays." The laws of abstinence apply to all aged 7 and over.

Partial Abstinence

Meat and soup or gravy made from meat may be eaten once a day at the principle meal.

Fasting

Fasting is the taking of only one full meal (which may include meat) and two smaller, meatless meals that don't equal the large one meal. No eating between meals is allowed, but water, milk tea, cofee, and juices are OK. Meat is allowed at one meal, but not on Fridays, Ash Wedneday, Holy Saturday, and the Vigils at right. Everyone over 21 years of age and under 59 years of age is bound to observe the law of fast.

LINK TO ABOVE INFO

The entire site is a great reference. Canticle of Deborah turned me on to it.

[al_c]

Good post.

FYI for anyone interested ... E5 Men
The e5 man fasts for his bride to imitate Jesus, the Groom, as described by St. Paul in Ephesians Chapter 5 (from which the e5 is named) The incarnate God, Jesus, makes a bodily sacrifice for his bride, the Church, to present her to God the Father "without spot or wrinkle." (Eph 5:27) By fasting for our earthly bride and joining our sufferings to Christ's we co-redeem with him. We bring our brides to holiness and at the same time, because of our act of bodily love in unison with Christ, we too become without spot or wrinkle.

In short, by fasting for our earthly bride for her holiness we live out the essence of the gospel in a particular act. This act contains the whole DNA of the meaning of the gospel - to give up one's very body in love for another.