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Victor wrote:

Hi, guys —

  • Are spices that have chicken flavor allowed to be eaten on Fridays of Lent and Good Friday?

Victor

  { Are spices that have chicken flavor allowed to be eaten on Fridays of Lent and Good Friday? }

Eric replied:

Hi, Victor—

If it doesn't contain chicken powder or dried chicken, it's OK. Broth and bouillon containing animal fat are acceptable, as is milk. (Paenitemini, Paul VI).

Generally, I find this means that sodium-free bouillon is OK but regular bouillon is not.

Eric

Victor replied:

Thanks!

  • What if it was used in a meal which is the only one you have to eat?

Victor

Eric replied:

I am not sure what you mean.

  • If you are in the middle of the desert of Africa and happen to be down to your last meal on Good Friday which sadly contains chicken bouillon, by all means eat it, or
  • if you're in a prison somewhere and it is literally the only option you have for food, then fine.

If on the other hand you have to disrupt your day to make an inconvenient trip to the grocery store to buy something else using readily-available funds, I don't buy that it is the only one you have to eat.

The discipline of the Church used to be:

  • no meat
  • no meat products (including broth)
  • no milk, and
  • no eggs

for all forty days of Lent, not to mention every Friday throughout the year.

Every day of Lent was a day of fasting, too. Now it's been relaxed to no meat only on Ash Wednesday and Fridays of Lent, and fasting two days a year. This is pretty generous. Most people can handle this manfully.

There are certainly the infirm who are excused, as well as those under 14 but most people can accommodate it. It is, after all, supposed to be a sacrifice, an act of giving something up out of love for God. Let's not be parsimonious about this. On the other hand, if you truly and honestly cannot do it, in a real and objective sense, God will excuse you.

I can't judge your situation, especially without knowing the particulars. For all I know you're a starving person in the middle of an African desert, in which case I would say eat what you can get your hands on. If I knew that you were a middle-class American, I would tell you to stop making excuses, get your butt to the grocery store, and find something to eat there.

Eric

Victor replied:

OK.

  • That helped a lot but just to be sure, are eggs allowed?

Victor

Eric replied:

Yes,

Sorry, I forgot to mention that eggs are allowed. Previously, they were not permitted.

Eric

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