LENTEN FAST & ABSTINENCE

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of Fast and Abstinence for Catholics from their 18th through their 59th birthday. The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat for all those over 14 years of age 

What is meant by fasting? Generally it means eating only one “full” or regular meal during the day, making other meals smaller, and eliminating “snacks” (except for beverages). People who have special medical conditions, fragile health or other serious reasons are NOT REQUIRED to fast. In fact, the obligation to care for themselves may oblige them not to fast.

Why fasting? Fasting is common among the world religions and is ancient in Christianity. By the end of the first Century A.D., Christians fasted on Fridays and during the 40 days of Lent to honor Christ's Passion and our own hunger for God. A recent article says, “Considered from this perspective, compulsory fasting and abstinence, practiced regularly, routinely and in common, was a recognition by the Church that identification with the poor and hungry, with those who know themselves to be needy before God because they were needy among the human family, is not an option for Catholics, but a necessary and definitive sign of their redemption, as essential in its way as attendance at Mass. The Church has always linked personal asceticism and the search for holiness with this demand for mercy and justice to the poor; the Lenten trilogy of prayer, fasting and almsgiving is both fundamental and structural.” (Eamon Duffy, “Fasting - Our Lost Rite,” The Tablet, Jan. 31, 2004)

This is the essential difference between dieting and fasting. Both involve eating less. Dieting is something we do for ourselves, for our own health and well-being. Fasting focuses us beyond ourselves - on Christ, his suffering and death for our salvation, on those who are hungry every day, not by choice but because they have no food, and for our longing for God, who can alone fill us. 

FRIDAY FISH FRIES DURING LENT