Lenten requirements for Catholics
Ash Wednesday, March 9, begins the 40-day season of Lent that calls the faithful to a spiritual journey with the suffering Christ. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (April 22 this year) are days of fasting and abstinence from meat.
Regulations on fasting allow only one full meal during fast days but do not prohibit eating twice more during the day, as long as the two additional meals do not equal one full meal.
Other requirements of the season include abstaining from meat on all Fridays during Lent.
Abstinence applies to those who have reached age 14 and forbids eating meat but not eggs, milk products, or condiments made of animal fat. Fasting is required of the faithful from age 18 through 60. Pastors and parents are to see to it that children who are not bound by the laws of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.
In addition, The Code of Canon Law indicates that at least once during the year Catholics in serious sin should receive the sacrament of reconciliation. “All the faithful who have reached the age of discretion are bound to confess their grave sins at least once a year,” Canon 989 specifies.
The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many ways. Scripture and the Church Fathers insist above all on three forms: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving (Matthew 6:1-18), which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others. (See the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1434.)
The church recommends that the faithful pray daily, give alms, and perform acts of kindness and charity. Many parishes take up Lenten collections for Operation Rice Bowl, an anti-hunger program of Catholic Relief Services. More information may be found online at orb.crs.org.
Your participation in Operation Rice Bowl ensures that Catholic Relief Services can continue to provide assistance to those in need in more than 100 countries. Seventy-five percent of your gifts will go to CRS to help farmers in Bolivia receive training to improve crop yields, children in Afghanistan gain more opportunities for quality education, communities in Ethiopia to access reliable water sources even during times of drought, and fund many other vital projects. One-quarter of Operation Rice Bowl gifts remain in the local diocese and are used to support efforts to relieve hunger and poverty.
