Fasting During Lent

Hello, there!

It has been quite some time since I posted to this blog and if figured it was high time I did.

I have covered Lent and fasting in two previous posts:

Breaking You Lenten Fast on Sundays

Solemnity of the Annunciation, the Non-Fasting Friday of Lent

They covered mostly days you are not required to fast or observe abstinence.  This post will cover what you can or cannot eat during lent.

First there is a difference between abstinence and fasting, both of which you are required to observe.

Abstinence is simply doing without something. The only thing Catholics are required to abstain from is meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays of Lent. That means no eating beef, pork, chicken and basically meat from any mammal pr fowl. Seafood such as fish, crab, lobster...ect are permitted.

I often get asked why fish/seafood is allowed. From what I have read the reason is more a long standing tradition than anything else. When abstinence during lent started, many people lived near the sea or body of water and seafood was readily available and relatively cheap. Meat from a cow or pig and fowl was much less abundant and much more expensive. So, the thought was that eating seafood was a less extravagant meal than eating something like a steak. By abstaining you were denying yourself what was considered an extravagant meal during that time.

The intent behind abstinence should be kept in mind. It is my opinion that going out and having an expensive, extravagant meal with or without meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday or any Friday during Lent is outside the intent of abstinence. So, when planning meals during days of abstinence,keep in mind the meal should be relatively humble regardless of the content of the meal. Remember, the idea of abstinence is to deny yourself something meaningful or noticeable.

Many people also abstain from other things during Lent as an added dedication but it is not a requirement by the church. It has been a long standing tradition to give up a vice or something else that distract you from the Lord and the Gospels but it isn't a requirement.

Fasting in the purpose of Lent is a simple reduction of meal sizes. Catholics are required to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday which means that you get only one full sized meal that day and two meals not equalling a full meal. The idea is to have one main meal and two meals smaller than your typical meals. So, it is not a complete fast from food the entire day, just a reduction in meal sizes.

If you typically have a bowl of cereal and a banana for breakfast, maybe you just have the cereal or just the banana. If you normally have a sandwich, orange and yogurt for lunch maybe you drop the fruit and yogurt...ect.



 

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Breaking your Lenten Fast on Sundays

Being a new Catholic, in fact not confirmed yet,  I'm still learning all of the customs and practices. Lent is 40 days, but more correctly 46 days long. Apparently the six Sundays during Lent (while they are part of Lent) are not counted in the "40 days o f Lent".  This is where the fasting and breaking your fast on Sunday's come in.

There seems to be some confusion for us newbie Catholics about not having to fast on Sundays from whatever we decided to give up for Lent. It seems like an easy out to just say "whoohoo it's Sunday, unlimited chocolate today!". However, there is a reason for allowing you to indulge on Sundays and it's not to make your life easier, it's to prepare for the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus. It's the preparation of the fulfilment of the scripture and prophecies. Sundays are exempt because all Sundays are feast days in the celebration of Mass and Jesus.

Jesus said to "keep holy the sabbath" and after all we do "celebrate" Mass every week, thus there is no requirement to observe your fast on Sundays during Lent. In fact, Jesus encourages us to celebrate on the sabbath.

However, I have to point out there the Church does not require anyone to give up something for Lent and thus there is no official Church teaching on whether or not it's correct to break your fast on Sundays. Giving ups something for Lent is purely tradition so you are not sinning if you don't fast from anything at all (outside of the required Friday/Ash Wednesday fasts) or are not fasting on Sundays.

I think fasting from something (giving it up) is a good practice even if it's not required but fasting on Sunday or not is personal choice.

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Eating Fish During Lent

At our RCIA class this week the question about abstaining from meat on Fridays came up. Many of us were curious why we were allowed to eat fish (which is a meat) when the rule is to not eat meat. Many theories were suggested including that it was a tie in with Jesus calling Simon and Peter (fishermen) to follow him. Another was that cold blooded animals don't count and still another was that the rule only counts land animals.

Here's a good summary of our obligations during Lent.

However, the above link does not address the question. It does tell us that amphibians and all sorts of fish are fair game but not why.

St. Thomas Aquainas chimmed in with this explaination:

I answer that, fasting was instituted by the Church in order to bridle the concupiscences of the flesh, which regard pleasures of touch in connection with food and sex. Wherefore the Church forbade those who fast to partake of those foods which both afford most pleasure to the palate, and besides are a very great incentive to lust.

Such are the flesh of animals that take their rest on the earth, and of those that breathe the air and their products, such as milk from those that walk on the earth, and eggs from birds For, since such like animals are more like man in body, they afford greater pleasure as food, and greater nourishment to the human body, so that from their consumption there results a greater surplus available for seminal matter, which when abundant becomes a great incentive to lust. Hence the Church has bidden those who fast to abstain especially from these foods. (Summa theologiae II-II q. 147, a. 8)

St. Thomas was against eggs and milk being part of the abstainence, but that has since been changed by the church.

It's important to note here that Catholics are not required to eat fish during Lent, only that it's permitted. There is also the misunderstanding that allowing fish to be eaten on Firdays during Lent  was some sort of scheme to boost the fishing industry.

The most likely  reasons it's OK to eat fish are outlined here by Jimmy Aikin.

Essentially, red meat and meat of birds was much, much more expensive and less abundant than fish in biblical days.  Red meat or fowl was something most people couldn't afford to have everyday and was more of luxury item than it is today. Since lent is a time of depriving one's self and giving to others, it would be inappropriate to indulge in luxury items like a big steak.

Another issue is that the word "meat" as used in the US doesn't have a good translation to many other languages. Meat to many Americans means flesh of any animal, where as in Latin the closest word with somewhat similar meaning is "carne". Carne, when used in Latin, does not typically refer to fish but warm blooded animals on land.

So, there you have it. Meat is a luxury item and the term does not translate well from Latin to English.

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