The Friars of the Atonement in Graymoor have developed an excellent series for Lent. Visit them here.

Eternal Word Televsion Network (EWTN) brings you james Akin in this Q & A. Click Here

Paulist Father Ron Franco gives. abrief history of Lent. Click here.

MISERERE MEI – MUSIC AND REFLECTIONS FOR LENT

Lent with Richard Rohr: Another Start! Click here

Fast & Abstinence

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics. In addition, Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence.

For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards.

Members of the Eastern Catholic Churches are to observe the particular law of their own sui iuris Church.

A Reflection on Lenten Fasting

If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection.

More information on fast and abstinence can be found below.

More Information

For members of the Latin Catholic Church within the United States, please see the USCCB's Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence and the complementary norm to canon 1253.

Code of Canon Law (cc. 1249-1253)

Questions and Answers About Lent

CRS Rice Bowl is one way Catholics can enhance their Lenten fasting practice by giving up meals and donating the cost of those meals to Catholic Relief Services in order to help those who do not have enough to eat. (https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year-and-calendar/lent/catholic-information-on-lenten-fast-and-abstinence)
 

— by  Rev. Daniel Merz

These initial observations, then, teach us that the Eucharist is always the end of a preparation.  It is always the fulfillment of an expectation. In the Orthodox Church during Lent, they have Eucharist only on Saturday and Sunday. But because Wednesdays and Fridays are total fast days, those two days are also days for the Communion service (Liturgy of the PreSanctified) which are held in the evening, i.e., after the day of preparation.  Fasting is always preparatory.

Humanity's "Fall" away from God and into sin began with eating.  God had proclaimed a fast from the fruit of only one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17), and Adam and Eve broke it.  Fasting is here connected with the very mystery of life and death, of salvation and damnation.  Food perpetuates life in this physical world, which is subject to decay and death.  But God "created no death." (Wis. 1:13)  Humanity, in Adam and Eve, rejected a life dependent on God alone for one that was dependent rather on "bread alone." (Dt. 8:3; Mt. 4:4; Lk. 4:4)  The whole world was given to man as a kind of food, as a means to life, but "life" is meant as communion with God, not as food. ("Their god is their belly." Phil. 3:19)  The tragedy is not so much that Adam ate food, but that he ate the food for its own sake, "apart" from God and to be independent of Him.  Believing that food had life in itself and thus he could be "like God."   And he put his faith in food.  This kind of existence seems to be built on the principle that man does indeed live "by bread alone."

Christ, however, is the new Adam.  At the beginning of his ministry in the Gospel of Matthew, we read, "When He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He became hungry."  Hunger is that state in which we realize our dependence on something else—when we face the ultimate question: "on what does my life depend?"  Satan tempted both Adam and Christ, saying: Eat, for your hunger is proof that you depend entirely on food, that your life is in food.   Adam believed and ate.  Christ said, "Man does NOT live by bread alone." (Mt. 4:4; Lk. 4:4)  This liberates us from total dependence on food, on matter, on the world.  Thus, for the Christian, fasting is the only means by which man recovers his true spiritual nature.In order for fasting to be effective, then, the spirit must be a part of it.  Christian fasting is not concerned with losing weight.  It is a matter of prayer and the spirit.   And because of that, because it is truly a place of the spirit, true fasting may well lead to temptation, and weakness and doubt and irritation.In other words, it will be a real fight between good and evil, and very likely we shall fail many times in these battles.  But the very discovery of the Christian life as "fight" and "effort" is an essential aspect of fasting.

Christian tradition can name at least seven reasons for fasting:

1. From the beginning, God commanded some fasting, and sin entered into the world because Adam and Eve broke the fast.
2. For the Christian, fasting is ultimately about fasting from sin.
3. Fasting reveals our dependence on God and not the resources of this world.
4. Fasting is an ancient way of preparing for the Eucharist—the truest of foods.
5. Fasting is preparation for baptism (and all the sacraments)—for the reception of grace.
6. Fasting is a means of saving resources to give to the poor.
7. Fasting is a means of self-discipline, chastity, and the restraining of the appetites.

This article draws in part on the writings of Alexander Schmemann, "Notes in Liturgical Theology," St. Vladimir's Seminary Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 1, Winter 1959, pp. 2-9.  Rev. Daniel Merz is a former Associate Director of the USCCB Divine Worship office.

  (https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year-and-calendar/lent/catholic-reflection-on-lenten-fasting)