Fasting - Our Lost Rite

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

[tiki]

I think that fasting on Fridays is good my problem is remembering that it is Friday:-}

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Ok, Now I am confused, I know that it used to be that Catholics never ate Meat on Friday. I thought however that now it was only during Lent? Not that never eating meat on Friday is a bad thing, in fact, it is a small sacrifice, but a sacrifice, so, is it, all Fridays or just Fridays in Lent as I have always been told?

[NYer]

Now I am confused, I know that it used to be that Catholics never ate Meat on Friday. I thought however that now it was only during Lent?

And your confusion is justified! As a 'seasoned' citizen, I grew up with meatless Fridays and was in high school when the rules were 'relaxed'. Perhaps I wasn't paying much attention but I don't recall any admonitions to maintain abstinence, on the part of the bishops.

Earlier this year, someone else in the forum issued a reminder to the catholics. Like you, I was truly stunned. But, after researching it, I have now voluntarily elected to personally restore Friday abstinence. As the canon law states:

"The Code also gives the conference of bishops the power to substitute another penance to be observed on Fridays in place of abstinence from meat."

According to the USCCB:

Canons 1252 and 1253 - Observance
of Fast and Abstinence

c. 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.

c. 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.

Complementary Norm: Norms II and IV of Paenitemini (February 17, 1966) are almost identical to the canons cited. The November 18, 1966 norms of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on penitential observance for the Liturgical Year continue in force since they are law and are not contrary to the code (canon 6).

Approved: Administrative Committee, September 1983

Promulgated: Memorandum to All Bishops, October 21, 1983

Amended: "... the age of fasting is from the completion of the twenty-first year to the beginning of the sixtieth" (Paenitemini, norm IV) is amended to read ‘... the age of fasting is from the completion of the eighteenth year to the beginning of the sixtieth' in accord with canon 97."

Promulgated: Memorandum to All Diocesan Bishops, February 29, 1984

[B Knotts]

I was ignorant of the real law on abstinence until a couple years ago.

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

[livius]

Well, we had them first.

Islam is a syncretist religion dreamed up by the 7th century equivalent of L. Ron Hubbard.

[PA Lurker]

We always abstain from meat on Friday. PA Lurker & Spouse

[livius]

There is a vast difference between a law (fasting, in this case) binding upon every member of a group, and a personal practice, even if it involves the same act. In other words, it was one thing when the entire Church fasted on Fridays; it is quite another thing when an individual, as an act of personal piety, chooses to fast or do something else on Fridays.

One of the other peculiar things about VatII is that, in addition to being oddly authoritarian while protesting that it was not, it was also oddly non-communal while protesting that it was really the soul of community.

A corporate identity is forged by participating in an action that is not of your own choosing, but that is something you do because you are a member of whatever group it is that has decided upon this action. Granted, each individual member will have his own personal response to it, or personal interpretation of it, but the act is the same for all, and it is not the result of a personal decision.

[John Beresford Tipton]

"the 7th century equivalent of L. Ron Hubbard."

LOL,
Well, if OBL weren't pissed off before, this is sure to do it, putting him in the same cult as Tom Cruise,et. al.

[livius]

Actually, there's a lot of money in Scientology, so OBL might find it right up his alley! Maybe we shouldn't let him know...

[John Beresford Tipton]

NO!
Let him know,
sure to get him out of his cave.

"I'm freezing my ass of in a cave, making like Plato,
when I could be out in Hollywood with the Scientology babes"

[MarMema]

A corporate identity is forged by participating in an action that is not of your own choosing, but that is something you do because you are a member of whatever group it is that has decided upon this action.

That's what I was trying to say helps with unity.

[MarMema]

We fast on Wednesdays in memory of Christ's betrayal. On Fridays for his death.

The fasting we do is so complex and should be set up with a spiritual father for each individual. After 8 years in the Orthodox church I can almost say I have made it to the serious fasting. But when I began I was very cautious, as all newcomers should be.

We fast from all animal products for the most part.

link which explains our fasting.

Here is the explanation of our seasonal schedule of fasting. It is really overwhelming for most newcomers to the church and can be hard to follow.

"Some of the fasts of the Orthodox Church are for one day, some for many days. Among the single-day fasts are included Wednesday and Friday throughout the whole year with the exception of fast-free weeks and the days between Nativity and Theophany; the eve of the Baptism of Christ (eve of the Feast of Theophany, January 5); and feasts that are held as fast days - the Beheading of John the Baptist (August 29) and the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (September 14). There are four fasts a year which extend for many days. On the Monday after Cheesefare week begins the first fast of the Spring- it is called Great Lent due to its special importance, and consists of the fast of the Holy 40 Days in imitation of the 40-day fast of the Lord in the desert and the fast of Passion Week, dedicated to the commemoration of the saving sufferings of Christ. A week after the Sunday of the Holy Trinity (Pentecost), the Apostles' Fast begins and this extends to the day of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (June 29). The faithful use the Dormition Fast (from August 1 to 14) to prepare for the celebration of the Dormition of the Theotokos. The Nativity or St. Philip's Fast extends for 40 days from November 15 through December 24. According to the Church Typicon, during Great Lent and the Dormition Fast only vegetable products are allowed to be eaten, [Tr. note: except during Great Lent on the Feasts of Annunciation and Palm Sunday, and during the Dormition Fast on the Feast of the Transfiguration] whereas during the Apostle's Fast and Nativity Fast fish is allowed."

On exceptionally holy days I try to fast by eating only one small meal a day. I have done this a few times and truly found it to be blissful. Once I went 24 hours with nothing except communion, and simultaneously attended several services. On Holy Saturday I usually go without anything but a glass of wine. It seems to only be a greatly rewarding task when I am able to be in church most of the time.

LOL, the dang everyday world really gets in the way of spiritual practise. :-)

[Romulus]

you can tell someone is Orthodox because they don't flinch when water is thrown at them.

I get water thrown on me every Sunday. I've noticed my pastor is careful not to wet the rare and precious fabrics adorning the altar, but the rest of us are fair game. ;-)

[Romulus]

my problem is remembering that it is Friday:-}

There's no rule resticting it to Fridays. ;-)

[Romulus]

For the Orthodox, fasting is a liberation from dependence on earthly food and a daily reminder about dependence upon the true "Bread of Life".

Having given a lot more thought to fasting in the past couple of years, I now think of it as iconic: it's a way to both symbolise and personally encounter the call to pennance and conversion through a withdrawal from both world and self. Just as it's necessary frequently to put distance between ourselves and the world, I find fasting helpful in establishing a spiritual distance between soul and disordered will.

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

[Salvation]

Guess you'll just have to fast every day during Lent, then, just like we used to! LOL!

[Salvation]

ROTC,
The suggestions are a definite for Lent and Advent, but the fast and abstainence from meat are recommended year around. It is merely voluntary other than in Lent and Advent when it is currently mandated.