Did you know that penance is not only for Lent and Advent? And that we Catholics are not only supposed to be doing penance on the Fridays of Lent?
Of course, penance is good to do at many times for many reasons. But in fact, canon law says this:
Canon 1250—All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the universal Church.
Canon 1251—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 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.
Canon 1253—It is for the conference of bishops to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.
That’s right. Not just during Lent. But every Friday of the year for your entire life. I know. Crazy! But it’s also good for us and necessary.
Our USCCB here in the USA did indeed allow for substitution (per canon law) so that the traditional law of abstinence is no longer the “sole prescribed means” of observing. But the fact is that we are supposed to be doing some form of penance every Friday (except solemnities).
Did you know this? I only just learned this in very recent years. I’m still a bit baffled as to why nobody ever taught me this. I feel a bit cheated, to be honest. Anyway, now I know. And now you know.
If you’re not sure what to do, just abstain from meat. Easy. But fasting (and abstinence) of any kind is a very powerful thing to do. In fact, Jesus tells us that some things require prayer and fasting:
“And when he was come into the house, his disciples secretly asked him: Why could not we cast him out? And he said to them: This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” - Mark 9:27-28 (Douay Rheims)
Prayer is a powerful thing. And we turn to it quite naturally in times of need. But we often forget a most powerful prayer partner: fasting. And many of us (myself included) have spent most of our lives not knowing we have been asked to do penance every Friday. If we had known this, perhaps more of our prayers would have been answered by now.
[Possible penance for today: Go to your DVR. Delete every show on it.]
Whatever penance you do, offer it up for the unborn and their mothers as we pray and work, especially today, for a real culture of Life.
Have a blessed Friday and weekend everyone!
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I read this after our supper of roast beef. Now what? I agree, why didn’t I learn this when we were being received into the church? Or anytime since then? And now I am culpable for future Fridays. Well, God is gracious and I trust I will have the necessary graces at the necessary times to do the necessary (though optional form) penances.
The fact that Matthew Warner did not know the Friday “penance” requirements is another “benefit” of post-Vatican II “catechetics. Coots like me had the benefit of pre-Vatican II Catholic School education when nuns in wimples swung might cudgels and inculcated the truths of Catholicism in all of us who survived. Those sisters, bless them, required no “visitations.” Life was at once hard and simple then when the Mass was said in Latin and mumbling lectors were not found gamboling all over the altar.
Think about it? Did we “coots” really perform an act of penance pre-Vatican 11 days or did we go about the law (ritual) mindlessly and out of habit congratulating ourselves for “giving up” meat while eating lobster tails or wild salmon? Is that truly an act of penance reflective of our sorrow for our sins? Was it truly a whole day given up in acts of remorse for our sins…did we even think at all about sin? as we gobbled plentiful seafood meals? I think the answer for most of us was NO! The Council perhaps in taking away the ban was trying to wake us up and suggest that we could do better. Have we? If not, why not? It would be nice to hear this Canon reflected on in homilies to awaken our moral consciences.
Penance is recommended on all Fridays of the year but not required in the US. See www.catholic.com/thisrock/2005/0501bt.asp.
What I do is when I shop for groceries I buy about $10 worth of “real” (not sugary junk) food. Then when I get a chance, I drop them in the bin for the local food pantry. I may not drop them off the same week, but it’s soon after.
It is harder during Lent when you HAVE to. On those days I have a quadruple double-two packages of hot cereal (grits, cream of wheat, oatmeal…different flavors), two rice cakes with butter, the whites of two eggs (yolks optional), and two packages of carnation instant breakfast (choc/vanilla or vanilla/strawberry). But then again, I have this most nights if it’s late enough anyway.
Most people need those penances and disciplines. Most are not seekers of higher things. Most, by nature are literalists; just the opposite of ones who hit less observant on the head with a Bible or Catechism. The former see what they can get away with and so, without the penances and disciplines, they get away with muder—muder of their own soul. They realize it at some level, especially when down, and blame their parents (to some extent, if they were permissive and lax in religious and spiritual observance rightly so).
Thanks for the article, Henry! Very interesting stuff. Overall, I’m just a bit disappointed that such a simple thing is so complicated to determine with certainty.
I’m not one to really ever disagree with Jimmy Akin (the man is absolutely brilliant!). So if I were you I’d probably side with Jimmy. But personally I’m not convinced yet by the case he makes.
First, canon law #1253 doesn’t appear to give the conference of bishops the authority to entirely get rid of the obligation set forth in #1251 at all without substituting some other form of penance for it.
Here’s what it appears to me to say they can do:
1) 1251 says they can substitute/change the food involved in the fast/abstinence.
2) 1253 says they can determine more precisely the observance of fast/abstinence. Determining the precision of an observance is not at all getting rid of it. No matter how precise or imprecise they wanted to make it, the observance would still exist.
3) 1253 also says they can substitute the fast/abstinence for another form of penance. This does not in any way remove an obligation. It just allows them to substitute a different form of penance for the observance of the obligation. This one doesn’t seem to apply here at all since it doesn’t appear the USCCB has substituted another form of penance.
Further, what the USCCB documents say is that they “terminate the traditional law of abstinence as binding under pain of sin, as the sole prescribed means of observing Friday.” The key words there to me are “sole prescribed means.” They didn’t terminate the entire obligation. They just terminated the “traditional law of abstinence… as the sole prescribed means” of the Friday observance. So it would seem to be that we still have an obligation to observe some form of penance on every Friday…we are just not bound to the “sole prescribed means.”
And actually, on further thought, it would seem to me that we may still be bound to specifically practice “abstinence from meat or some other food” (since the USCCB has NOT substituted another form of penance for fasting/abstinence). They did terminate the “traditional law of abstinence” (whatever that means!) as the SOLE means of observance - assumingly allowing us to use another food other than meat.
Another sticky point is that the USCCB terminated the traditional law of abstinence (as the sole means of observance) as binding under “PAIN OF SIN.” So perhaps we are not morally obligated under pain of sin. But we are still legally obligated. Of course I think we are morally obligated to obey the laws of the Church. So…yeah.
But maybe I’m missing something. I’m not a canon lawyer. If anyone else has some better insights, please share!
Either way, it seems to me that in the absence of a clear and simple statement from the USCCB (which to my knowledge we do not have) on a very simple matter, we should go with what canon law DOES very clearly and very simply say (which is that we are obligated to at least some form of penance every Friday other than solemnities).
And besides, if we are doing what the Church asks of us only because we are afraid of the “pain of sin” or because it is required in canon law…then we are missing the point anyway. Everything the Church requires of us or asks us to do is because it is good for us and the entire Body of Christ. Even IF there is no moral obligation for Friday penance (which I believe there is) it is still negligent of pastors to leave out this great suggestion/urge/exhortation by the Church to help build up the Body of Christ and sanctify souls in this way.
I’m Canadian, but for what it’s worth: when I was about 16 I was taught that a)Friday abstinence DID still apply but b)one could substitute a “significant act of charity or piety”. This came from a priest with his doctorate in Canon Law (JCD).
Here’s a follow-up from the Canadian Catholic Bishops’ website. Should have looked for this before posting my comment - sorry for posting twice!
http://www.cccb.ca/site/content/view/2319/1172/lang,eng/
Jeanine - thanks for sharing! The Canadian conference did well here because they made a very simple, easy statement to clear it up for Canadian Catholics: “In accordance with the prescriptions of canon 1253, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops decrees that the days of fast and abstinence in Canada are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fridays are days of abstinence, but Catholics can substitute special acts of charity or piety on this day”
I am a bit confused as to why the US conference can’t do the same unless they are intentionally leaving it unclear for the faithful. Oh well. We can only do the best we can.
Interestingly enough, though, many Canadian Catholics (we are very influenced by the US, you must understand - in many areas!) do not realize that we still have Friday abstinence. I even had a priest in Confession tell me that it was a personal choice, and that if I had decided to do Friday penance as a habit, but failed to do so one Friday, it wasn’t a sin, it was just not keeping up with my plan. In the interest of anonymity I did not send him an e-mail with this website (which I found afterwards) but really should have. His explanation to me was also that it was up to the individual diocese, which I believe is incorrect as well.
He was a fairly new priest (although not a young man) and did study in New York, so that might explain some of the confusion.
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