[Salvation]

The Holy Season of Lent is fast approaching. Ash Wednesday is next Wednesday, February 25th.

Prepare for the season of Lent by talking over these thoughts and ideas about Fast and Abstinence with your family.

Then make a family decision about what you will do in accordance with the Rules for Fast and Abstinence in your family.

[Salvation]

Lenten Journey Ping!

Please notify me via Freepmail if you would like to be added to or removed from the Lenten Journey Ping list.

[nickcarraway]

BUMP

[BlessedBeGod]

I have a questions:

Is it true that you're not supposed to fast or abstain on Sundays? I always have done so during Lent, but I've heard that Sundays are exempt.

[ponyespresso]

Could you help me get some information about Ash Wednesday?

I am a Protestant, but I spent much of my growth as a Christian in a church which observed Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season. However, now I am currently in a Protastant church which doesn't celebrate hardly any of the traditional Christian calendar, and I would like to be able to give them some resourses on the history and importance of Ash Wednesday, Lent, and other traditional Christian observances that seem to be totally missing from this church.

many thanks in advance for your help

pony

[OpusatFR]

Thanks especially for this and the post on the Stations.

Been searching for meditations and found some that viewed fasting and abstinence not as a means to Jesus, but as solidarity with the rest of the third-world and a means to protect the earth.

Very discouraging to have Gaia interjected.

[Ciexyz]

Lenten journey ping!

[Salvation]

Lent 2006 is just around the corner!

[Salvation]

Here are some other links about Lent:

The Holy Season of Lent -- Fast and Abstinence

The Holy Season of Lent -- The Stations of the Cross

Lent and Fasting

Mardi Gras' Catholic Roots [Shrove Tuesday]

Ash Wednesday

All About Lent

Kids and Holiness: Making Lent Meaningful to Children

[diamond6]

Is it a mortal sin to eat more than the church requires on those two days?

[Salvation]

Ash Wednesday is February 21st this year -- 2007!

Catholic Discussion Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic Discussion Ping List.

[redhead]

Thank you! Bumping for later...

[Salvation]

BTTT on Ash Wednesday, February 21, 2007!

[Coleus]

they love to confuse you, so canon law 1251 states that you must abstain from meat on all Fridays and then the USCCB requested an exemption with a substitution of a charity.

The Holy Season of Lent

Fast and Abstinence.

It is a traditional doctrine of Christian spirituality that a constituent part of repentance, of turning away from sin and back to God, includes some form of penance, without which the Christian is unlikely to remain on the narrow path and be saved (Jer. 18:11, 25:5; Ez.  18:30, 33:11-15; Joel 2:12; Mt. 3:2; Mt. 4:17; Acts 2:38). Christ Himself said that His disciples would fast once He had departed (Lk. 5:35). The general law of penance, therefore, is part of the law of God for man.

The Church for her part has specified certain forms of penance, both to ensure that the Catholic will do something, as required by divine law, while making it easy for Catholics to fulfill the obligation. Thus, the 1983 Code of Canon Law specifies the obligations of Latin Rite Catholics [Eastern Rite Catholics have their own penitential practices as specified by the Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches].

Canon 1250  All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the entire Church.

Canon 1251  Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Canon 1252  All persons who have completed their fourteenth year are bound by the law of abstinence; all adults are bound by the law of fast up to the beginning of their sixtieth year. Nevertheless, pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.

Can. 1253  It is for the conference of bishops to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.

The Church, therefore, has two forms of official penitential practices - three if the Eucharistic fast of one hour before Communion is included.

Abstinence  The law of abstinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in honor of the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. Meat is considered to be the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl. Also forbidden are soups or gravies made from them. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted, as are animal derived products such as margarine and gelatin which do not have any meat taste.

On the Fridays outside of Lent the U.S. bishops conference obtained the permission of the Holy See for Catholics in the US to substitute a penitential, or even a charitable, practice of their own choosing. They must do some penitential/charitable practice on these Fridays. For most people the easiest practice to consistently fulfill will be the traditional one, to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. During Lent abstinence from meat on Fridays is obligatory in the United States as elsewhere.

Fasting The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th Birthday [Canon 97] to the 59th Birthday [i.e. the beginning of the 60th year, a year which will be completed on the 60th birthday] to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. Such fasting is obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The fast is broken by eating between meals and by drinks which could be considered food (milk shakes, but not milk). Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem to be contrary to the spirit of doing penance.

Those who are excused from fast or abstinence Besides those outside the age limits, those of unsound mind, the sick, the frail, pregnant or nursing women according to need for meat or nourishment,  manual laborers according to need, guests at a meal who cannot excuse themselves without giving great offense or causing enmity and other situations of moral or physical impossibility to observe the penitential discipline.

[Yaelle]

Wishing my Catholic FReeper friends a meaningful and healthy Lent season! It’s a fascinating holiday / time. I am learning so much.