Catholics United for the Faith (CUF) has a great summary on the U.S. bishops' declaration of 1966 and reaffirmed in 1991:
In accord with Pope Paul VI’s directives and Canon, no. 1249, the U.S. faithful must do some sort of penance on every Friday, excluding Solemnities or a dispensation by their diocesan bishop. Abstinence from flesh meat maintained its primary place among recommended works of self-denial and personal penance from which the faithful may choose.
CUF summarized the bishops' statement thus:
1. Friday remains a special day of penitential observance throughout the year, a time when those who seek perfection will be mindful of their personal sins and the sins of mankind, which they are called upon to help expiate in union with Christ Crucified;So...do you keep the Friday abstinence with your family? Or do you choose other forms of penance and, if so, what? It won't be many months before we are putting on our Lenten practices. But Catholics need to have a penitential spirit all year long.
2. Friday should be in each week something of what Lent is in the entire year. For this reason, we urge all Catholics to prepare for that weekly Easter that comes with each Sunday by freely making of every Friday a day of self-denial and mortification in prayerful remembrance Christ’s Passion;
3. The traditional law of abstinence as binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday, is hereby terminated as the sole means of observing Friday. Among the works of voluntary self-denial and personal penance which we especially commend to our people for the future observance of Fridays, abstinence from flesh meat has first place. The bishops do so in the hope that the Catholic community will ordinarily continue to abstain from meat by free choice as we formerly did in obedience to Church law. Our expectation is based on the following considerations:
a. We shall thus freely and out of love for Christ Crucified show our solidarity with the generations of believers to whom this practice frequently became, especially in times of persecution and of great poverty, no mean evidence of fidelity to Christ and His Church.
b. We shall thus remind ourselves that as Christians, although immersed in the world and sharing its life, we must preserve a saving and necessary difference from the spirit of the world. Our deliberate, personal abstinence from meat, more especially because no longer required by law, will be an outward sign of inward spiritual values that we cherish.
I don't eat meat on Friday and attend the Latin Mass. I support tradition and not modernism that St. Pius X warned about.
ReplyDeleteI keep the Friday abstinence. Not perfectly, but as best I can - sometimes I forget, now that I'm retired and "TGIF" no longer applies. When things changed, I tried other options, but found it was simpler and easier just to do what I had done most of my life.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that we were to keep it outside of lent until just a few years ago. It has been an adjustment to keep it and we do try to. When circumstances arise where we eat meat, we either pray extra Rosaries or try to do something in its place. Very few in my archdiocese of OKC even know about it and we live in a protestant town, so we sometimes find ourselves out on Fridays with few no meat options.
ReplyDeleteWow, I know I'm a few days late on this one, but wanted to chime in anyway. About a year ago I had this strong urge that I needed to start making more sacrifices in my life. At that time, I was at the beginning of a very difficult battle in my life. But now that things have calmed down, I continue to abstain on Fridays and have added Wednesdays as well (I later read that this is a Carmelite observance, which is curious because I've always felt Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was the most beautiful of all her apparitions).
ReplyDeleteSome days it's such a burden to abstain though, especially since my husband is not Catholic and does not share the same observances as me, but I continue to trod on. Knowing that this is what God has wanted of us all along truly makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing. I know I should definitely pray more than I do, but I never fail to go meatless on Wednesday and Friday as long as I can help it.
We just began abstaining on Fridays. I didn't know until last summer that it was not okay to eat meat on Fridays. I am glad to do this for our Lord. I try to go a step further and eat meagerly on Fridays - sometimes fish can cost more than flesh meat - and, there, my dilemma arises. If we have leftovers that contain meat, wouldn't it be better to eat the leftovers and thereby not spend ANY money on dinner (thus leaving more for the poor) or is it the MEAT that is important to give up? Any ideas? We also give up all sweets and snacking on Friday -it essentially becomes a day of mild fasting for us. This fasting term too gives me thought also. What is fasting? I know what the Church says, but it is very vague. I've had many people tell me what they eat on days of fasts and, honestly, it's more than we eat on "normal" days. Ideas here too would be welcome. THANKS!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about meat leftovers, Lauralee. When we have a lot of leftovers we sometimes make another sacrifice, because I don't think the Lord wants us to throw food away. It's a question of common sense. Sounds like you are making Friday a serious day of sacrifice and that is what counts. But abstaining from meat joins us to many of our forefathers and makes it easy to remember that Friday is special.
ReplyDeleteAs far as fasting, the Church says that on fast days you can have one normal meal and two small ones that down add up to a full meal. But I'm sure there are folks who make that "normal meal" a feast which makes fasting a joke. And I know people who think having a milkshake on a fast day is fine because drinks don't count. So how much of a fast is that?
My husband and I are over the age for required fasting (21-59) but we still try to keep the old Lenten fast every day during Lent. Some days I do better than others. My failures keep me humble I hope.