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Christine
Ybarra
wrote:
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Hi guys,
I have heard different answers to this question and would
like to get one straight answer:
- Is there such a thing as a free pass during
Lent?
- For example, if someone gave up drinking fountain drinks
for Lent, is there a day someone could drink
fountain drinks?
From my view, if you are really giving up something as
a sacrifice — then even one day of the week would
be part of your sacrifice.
I only recently heard of this rule. It was
not a rule I grew up with so from my view, there is no
such thing as a free pass.
Since everyone I have asked has a different answer, I
thought I would ask someone with more knowledge than myself.
Looking forward to your response,
Christine
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Is there such a thing as a free pass during Lent? }
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Mary
Ann replied:
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Christine,
The obligation to fast or abstain never applies
to Sundays! So, while one may fast or abstain if
one wishes, (actually, there are those who say
one may not fast on Sunday), one does not have
to do any penance on Sunday.
If a Solemn Feast Day (Solemnity), like:
- the Annunciation of the Lord, or
- Feast Day, like
St. Joseph
falls on a Friday of Lent, one is still
obliged to abstain [and/or] fast from meat, unless
a dispensation is announced by the local bishop (as
is frequently done for St. Patrick's Day).
Mary Ann
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Eric
replied:
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Hi Christine,
Giving something up for Lent is a matter of pious
custom and is not regulated by the Church. Therefore
you can do whatever you wish in this regard. As Mary
Ann pointed out, traditionally fasting is not done
on Sunday because it is a mini-Easter (although
in some traditions, abstinence is) so if you
skip a day, Sunday would be the fitting day to do
so.
Canon 1251 says:
| Abstinence from eating meat
or another food according to the prescriptions
of the conference of bishops is to be observed
on Fridays throughout the year unless (nisi) they
are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be
observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of
the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. |
The USCCB document, On
Penance and Abstinence,
says:
13. In keeping with the letter and spirit of Pope
Paul's Constitution Paeniteminim, [Vatican][EWTN] we preserved for
our dioceses the tradition of abstinence from meat
on each of the Fridays of Lent, confident that no
Catholic Christian will lightly hold himself excused
from this penitential practice.
16. During the Lenten season, certain feasts occur
which the liturgy or local custom traditionally
exempts from the Lenten spirit of penance. The
observance of these will continue to be set by
local diocesan regulations; in these and like canonical
questions which may arise in connection with these
pastoral instructions, reference should be made
to article VII of Paeniteminim, [Vatican][EWTN] and the usual norms. |
Paeniteminim, [Vatican][EWTN] Pope Paul VI's Apostolic Constitution On Penance says:
II. 1. The time of Lent preserves its penitential
character. The days of penitence to be observed
under obligation throughout the Church are all
Fridays and Ash Wednesday, that is to say the first
days of Grande Quaresima (Great Lent),
according to the diversity of the rites. Their
substantial observance binds gravely.
2. Apart from the faculties referred to in VI
and VIII [VI refers to the
prerogatives of the bishop's conference and VIII
pertains to Eastern rites.] regarding the manner of fulfilling the
precept of penitence on such days, abstinence is
to be observed on every Friday which does not fall
on a day of obligation, while abstinence and fast
is to be observed on Ash Wednesday or, according
to the various practices of the rites, on the first
day of "Grande Quaresima" (Great
Lent) and on Good Friday. |
Thus I would say that on any day that is an obligation
(a Holy Day of Obligation), abstinence is lifted.
Given however that neither the Feast of St. Joseph
nor the Annunciation are holy days of obligation in
the United States, this does
not apply to the U.S. . . . St. Joseph's is one universally
but not in the U.S. therefore universal law does
not provide for lifting of Friday abstinence in the
U.S.
Eric
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