Friday: Abstain From Meat

[Moneybags]

[quote name='Lil Red' post='1257980' date='Apr 27 2007, 01:36 PM']i agree with you - i just wanted to make sure people were aware that they can substitute abstaining from meat with works of charity. St. Benedict acts like that's not even an option.[/quote]

I acknowledge that it is an option. That's why I included that part of the Code of Canon Law in my first post.

[Moneybags]

[quote name='Terra Firma' post='1258013' date='Apr 27 2007, 02:18 PM']So are we going to have reminders of this every week?
Is this really necessary?
I for one find it to be slightly condescending.[/quote]

I post a reminder about this on my blog each and every Friday. Catholics need to be taught the truth. As long as there are people like Gershom who appreciate it and are glad that I post the reminders, I will continue to post them.

[Moneybags]

[quote name='Mateo el Feo' post='1258000' date='Apr 27 2007, 01:51 PM']Agreed. Phatmass is a wonderful concentration of individuals with a love for their Catholic Faith. In my real-world experience, I think that such knowledge isn't so common.

As far as the St. Benedict post, though his topic doesn't suggest an alternative to abstaining, he does fully quote Canons 1251 and 1253. Over half of his post consists of recommendations for prayerful meditation which would fit quite well as an "exercises of piety". (can 1253)

In light of this, I'm not ready to find discord with someone who posts in charity and without any trace of animosity.[/quote]

Thank you. I seek to post these just so people will remember to do some type of penance. Personally I prefer abstaining, but I just want people to remember to do some kind of penance.

Thank you. I try to be charitable and polite and am insulted for it by some members of Phatmass. I appreciate posts like yours They keep me posting.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='St. Benedict' post='1258080' date='Apr 27 2007, 03:00 PM']I post a reminder about this on my blog each and every Friday. Catholics need to be taught the truth. As long as there are people like Gershom who appreciate it and are glad that I post the reminders, I will continue to post them.[/quote]
But this is not your personal blog.

If you insist on creating a new thread each Friday on the topic of reminding us to abstain from meat, I will merge them.

[Moneybags]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1258115' date='Apr 27 2007, 03:35 PM']But this is not your personal blog.

If you insist on creating a new thread each Friday on the topic of reminding us to abstain from meat, I will merge them. [/quote]

Can we just add a reminder to Phatmass so that it comes up on the Calendar on the Phorum each Friday?

[Deeds]

[quote name='Mateo el Feo' post='1258073' date='Apr 27 2007, 08:56 PM']If I could, I'd like to share an extreme real-world example to make my point. A few years ago, I was invited to a priest's house for lunch. This was in a Catholic country, and everyone (~10 people) were at least nominally Catholic. On that Friday in Lent, you ready for what was served as the main dish? Meat. No one made the slightest suggestion that there was something wrong...not even the priest.[/quote]
What country is this? Fridays are year-round days of penance, but the bishops of each country have the authority to decide what form is required. In the US, abstinence from meat is required on Fridays during Lent, but in other countries (such as the UK, where I live) people are free to choose their own form of penance all year round, even in Lent. So are you sure that abstinence from meat on Lenten Fridays is mandatory in that country?

[Sojourner]

[quote name='St. Benedict' post='1258084' date='Apr 27 2007, 02:03 PM']Thank you. I try to be charitable and polite and am insulted for it by some members of Phatmass. I appreciate posts like yours They keep me posting.[/quote]
I'm going to respond to this via PM.

[Mateo el Feo]

[quote name='Deeds' post='1258142' date='Apr 27 2007, 05:14 PM']What country is this? Fridays are year-round days of penance, but the bishops of each country have the authority to decide what form is required. In the US, abstinence from meat is required on Fridays during Lent, but in other countries (such as the UK, where I live) people are free to choose their own form of penance all year round, even in Lent. So are you sure that abstinence from meat on Lenten Fridays is mandatory in that country?[/quote]Thanks for the correction. You're probably right. The best I could find (in the secular press) was a statement that "some homes practice abstinence on Fridays."

In any event, it becomes a bit disheartening to cross borders only to find that the rules change everywhere you go. I think today's "Catholic in the pews" may look at this as arbitrary rules coming from an increasingly irrelevant authority. By this, I mean that the anti-authority sentiment in our society can only be emboldened by this. (As a side note, I don't think this would have been as much of an issue if we didn't have such an interconnected world, in which you can physically cross the planet in a day.)

Further, I think most people (the non-Phatmass ones) who witnessed the change from a fixed practice (e.g. abstinence) to a flexible rule (e.g. abstinence or some substitute) incorrectly concluded that the the entire practice had been abandoned. Although on paper, it's still in canon law, the reality is that days of penance have largely been abandoned, and we're all got to work together to educate the Faithful. That's all St. Benedict did.

[mortify]

Abstaining from meat is a simple and satisfying way of holding Friday apart from other days.