AmericanPapist Comments
Hmm . . . I've always wondered; if St. Peter were a poultry farmer, rather than a fisherman, do you think that we would be permitted to eat chicken and required to abstain from fish?
You remember Fr. Duddleswell. I'm pleased.
it's amazing what gets absorbed without one realizing or wishing it. ;)
brassband - haha!
Here is a question for the Peters concerning fast and abstinence for pregnant women, close to my heart as my wife is in her 38th week as of today:
I have read (in a reputable moral theology manual) that pregnant women are not obliged to fast or abstain. Further, that those who care for them are likewise not obliged to fast or abstain as, in the understanding of the Church, such an observance by those taking care of the pregnant woman would be required to cook two meals (protein-rich meat lover's for the pregnant woman, meatless for everyone else,) and that this would pose an undue burden in terms of finances and time (in crunching the numbers, I can confirm this in my own case.)
Whadaya think?
WAC
You should make it clear that your comments regarding the Fridays of Lent refer to the United States of America. Local episcopal conferences can permit and have permitted substitute penances in other countries.
Is the "Friday after Ash Wednesday" the same as the "Friday of the First Week of Lent"? I ask because my breviary makes the distinction. It suggests to me that Lent does not begin for a couple of more days.
Zadok: this blog is, after all, called AMERICANpapist, no?
WC:"I have read (in a reputable moral theology manual) that pregnant women are not obliged to fast or abstain." CORRECT.
"Further, that those who care for them are likewise not obliged to fast or abstain as...," THAT'S STRETCHING THINGS, I THINK. IT GREW OUT OF FACT PATTERNS WHEREBY PEOPLE DOING FULL-TIME NURSING COULD NOT REASONABLY FIND SEPARATE FOOD STUFFS, ETC. I PERSONALLY DOUBT THAT APPLIES IN AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS WHERE, (A) MOST EVERYBODY WITH COMPUTER AcCESS IS LIKELY PLENTY WELL-FED, AND (B) WE ALL LIVE DOWN THE STREET FROM ARBY'S OR KFC OR LONG JOHN SILVERS.
HERE'S MY RULE OF THUMB: IF I REALLY THINK GOD IS GOING TO BUY MY REASONING, THEN I GO WITH IT. IF I THINK HE'S GONNA LOOK AT me FUNNY ON JUDGMENT DAY, I PLAY IT SAFE.
I can only recall eating meat on purpose once in my life. It was at a celebration hosted by non-Catholic friends, and most all of the food was meat. I was hungry, and I figure God isn't going to deny me entrance to heaven because of it. I'm back to enjoying PB&J's for lunch and mac and cheese for dinner now.
As for my above post, I mean eating meat on a Friday during Lent. I'm baffled by vegetarianism any other day of the year.
But we're also obliged to refreain from meat on Ash Wednesday, so a more complete sentence would be that "We are to refrain from meat on Ash Wednesday, the Friday after Ash Wednesday, all the Fridays of Lent and Good Friday." Since Lent officially ends on Holy Thursday, the start of the Triduum but the obligation to not eat meat extends to Good Friday. Days of fasting are obligatory, except for the age limitations, on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Gee, you'd think we all knew this!
Ed, J.U.D.,
(1)My computer access (internet, that is) is via charity. I myself am unemployed.
(2) I for one grew up in a place where the nearest fast food was quite a ways off. I grew up in a household of non-Catholics and, after my conversion, rarely kept abstinence at dinner time b/c mom didn't understand the whole "Catholic thing about fish."
(3) I figure that, yes, preparing two meals each meal time (six per day total) would be a financial and physical/temporal strain for my wife and I. The old reasoning comes from our agrarian past, and, for all intents and purposes, our present state of life limits us to one meal prepared for two people a total of three times a day, kind of like a farmer in the 19th century.
(4) I am not so sure about God buying my reasoning. In fact, I am quite sure God laughs at it.
WAC
WAC, comments alwasy apply to the majority of cases.
Oh, btw, Nathan, what you described is, objectively, serious matter. I would bring it to confession, with any circumstances you think relevant. I would not trust my own assessment of guilt or innocence.
Here's a question - for whatever you give up during Lent, do Sundays and feast days count?
"2. Observant Catholics are only required to give up meat during Fridays in Lent."
And every other Friday of the year, unless they've substitued some other form of penance.
Of course the Church also strongly encourages everyone who is able to abstain from meat (and to fast) on all days of Lent (excepting Sundays). I can't help but think that in our affluent western societies most people would be able, excepting perhaps the fast for those who have to do heavy physical work. It is important, of course, to know what we are legally required to do (and this is only what the question occasioning this post was about), but this is a minimum requirement which hardly satisfies the spirit of "magis" of Lent.
"...the Church also strongly encourages everyone who is able to abstain from meat (and to fast) on all days of Lent (excepting Sundays)."
Citation, please.
Ed, J.U.D.,
Thanks.
WAC
There are times I don't mind being a Protestant, not having to worry about abstaining from fish vs. chicken. And then there are days I realize that fasting isn't all bad, but Only for God's Reasons.
The Hound of Heaven is chasing me ever closer to the Tiber and I know it...
Interestingly, up until they changed the processing, one couldn't qualify the Chicken Mcnuggett as chicken and, therefore, as meat either. Perhaps this is the source of possibly claiming that chicken is not meat.
OK, Tom, so when you discovered this information about those searching your site, I take it you decided to cry "fowl"? Still, 43 people is a "poultry" number compared to your over all daily readership, no? I'm sorry, I can't help myself. You won't hear another peep out of me.
You ought to be tarred and chicken-feathered.
Actually most Eastern Catholics are instructed to refrain from all meat throughout Lent. I thought I would share.
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