![]() Thus, whilst in many countries, the use of eggs, milk-meats, and even dripping and lard, is tolerated, - the abstaining from flesh-meat is everywhere maintained, as being essential to Fasting. Its privation, greater or less according to the regulations of the Church, is essential to the very notion of Fasting. And firstly, it consisted in abstinence from flesh-meat, because it is a food that was given to man by God, out of condescension to his weakness, and not as one absolutely essential for the maintenance of life. It was then, also, that Noah, guided by a divine inspiration, extracted the juice of the grape, which thus formed a second stay for human debility.įasting, then, is the abstaining from such nourishments as these, which were permitted for the support of bodily strength. But when God, as we have already observed, mercifully shortened man’s life, (that so he might have less time and power for sin), - he permitted him to eat the flesh of animals, as an additional nourishment in that state of deteriorated strength. The life of privation, which the king of creation had thenceforward to lead on the earth, - (for the earth was to yield him nothing of its own natural growth, save thorns and thistles,) - was the clearest possible exemplification of the law of penance, imposed by the anger of God on rebellious man.ĭuring the two thousand and more years, which preceded the Deluge, men had no other food than the fruits of the earth, and these were only got by the toil of hard labour. ![]() Gregory the Great, make the remark, that the commandment put upon our First Parents, in the earthly paradise, was one of Abstinence and that it was by their not exercising this virtue, that they brought every kind of evil upon themselves and us their children. The traditions of every nation of the world testify the universal veneration, in which it has ever been held for there is not a people, nor a religion, how much soever it may have lost the purity of primitive traditions, which is not impressed with this conviction, - that man may appease his God by subjecting his body to penance. The Sacred Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, are filled with the praises of this holy practice. We deem it unnecessary to show the importance and advantages of Fasting. According to the actual discipline of the Western Church, the Fast of Lent is not more rigorous than that prescribed for the Vigils of certain Feasts, and for the Ember Days but it is kept up for Forty successive Days, with the single interruption of the intervening Sundays. Fasting is an abstinence, which man voluntarily imposes upon himself, as an expiation for sin, and which, during Lent, is practised in obedience to the general law of the Church. Lent, then, is a time consecrated, in an especial manner, to penance and this penance is mainly practised by Fasting. I can’t print everything here, but here is a nice little part (he writes much, much more) of his explanation of the disciplines of Lent in his day and in ancient practice. I still don’t know all of the answers, and I certainly cannot tell you which rules were changed in which years, but Dom Guéranger certainly answers a whole lot of questions like this. ![]() Why did we use to abstain from meat throughout Lent? Were eggs and milk allowed? Why was the fast all day and the one meal only at night? Did we really fast every day except Sunday? Could we eat the “forbidden foods” on Sunday since it wasn’t a fast day? These and so many more are all great questions, and I myself never knew the answers to any of them until I started delving into the differences between current and traditional practices. For the past few weeks, I have been fielding many questions about the changes to the Church’s discipline concerning fast and abstinence during Lent. He was the abbot of Solesmes from 1837-1875 and in 1841 he began to write what would become a 15-volume series about the treasures of the, needless to say, Church’s liturgical year. One of my most often used books, or, rather, series of books, is Dom Guéranger’s The Liturgical Year.
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