Fasting and AbstinenceMatthew 4:1-2: Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.
Matthew 17:17-20: And Jesus rebuked him, and the devil went out of him, and the child was cured from that hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus secretly, and said: Why could not we cast him out? Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible to you. But this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting. Christians has taken Wednesdays (the day Our Lord was betrayed) and Fridays (the day Our Lord was crucified) as their penitential days.
Wednesdays and Fridays are still days of penance in most Eastern Catholic Churches, but in the Roman Church, only Fridays, as memorials to the day our Lord was crucified, remain as weekly penitential days on which abstinence from meat and other forms of penance are expected as the norm. From the 1983 Code of Canon Law:
Can. 1249 All Christ's faithful are obliged by divine law, each in his or her own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined together in a certain common practice of penance, days of penance are prescribed. On these days the faithful are in a special manner to devote themselves to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity, and to deny themselves, by fulfilling their obligations more faithfully and especially by observing the fast and abstinence which the following canons prescribe.
Can. 1250 The days and times of penance for the universal Church are each Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.
Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Can. 1252 The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.
Can. 1253 The Episcopal Conference can determine more particular ways in which fasting and abstinence are to be observed. In place of abstinence or fasting it can substitute, in whole or in part, other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.
Note that if any of the Fasting and/or Abstinence Days falls on a Sunday or a first class Feast outside of Lent, the requirements (except for the Eucharistic Fast) are totally abrogated. Those who need to be excused from the obligations of fasting and abstaining for medical reasons (pregnancy, the demands of extraordinarily hard labor, hypoglycemia, etc.) should speak with their priests for a dispensation. True charity trumps all law, and law exists to serve true charity!
Definitions | Abstinence In the Latin Church, abstinence means refraining from eating the meat from mammals or fowl, and soup or gravy made from them. 
Fish is allowed, hence Fridays are known as "Fish Fridays." Traditionally, the laws of abstinence apply to all aged 7 and over, but the new Code of Canon Law applies it to all who have completed their 14th year. Partial Abstinence Meat and soup or gravy made from meat may be eaten once a day at the principle meal. 
Fasting Fasting is the taking of only one full meal (which may include meat) and two smaller, meatless meals that don't equal the large one meal. No eating between meals is allowed, but water, milk tea, coffee, and juices are OK. Meat is allowed at one meal (assuming abstinence isn't also expected on a given day). Traditionally, everyone over 21 years of age and under 59 years of age is bound to observe the law of fast; but the present Code of Canon Law sets the ages of 18 and 59 as the limits. |
| Summary | Before receiving the Eucharist (the "Eucharistic Fast") | Traditional: nothing but water and medicines for three hours. The even older practice is to fast for 12 hours. | 1983 Code: nothing but water and medicines for 1 hour
| All Fridays | Traditional: Abstain. American Catholics have a dispensation, from Pope Pius XII, to refrain from abstinence on the Friday following Thanksgiving Thursday. | 1983 Code: To abstain is the universal law. Check with your local Bishops to learn what you are bound to.
| Advent Embertide | Traditional: Abstain and Fast | Novus Ordo: abolished
| Vigil of Christmas | Traditional: Abstain and Fast. | Novus Ordo: abolished
| Ash Wednesday | Traditional: Abstain and Fast | 1983 Code: Abstain and Fast
| Lenten Embertide | Traditional: Abstain and Fast | Novus Ordo: abolished
| All days of Lent but Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and 1st Class Feasts | Traditional: Partially Abstain and Fast | Novus Ordo: abolished
| Fridays and Saturdays of Lent | Traditional: Abstain and fast | 1983 Code: Abstain on Fridays (not Saturdays), even if you don't abstain on all other Fridays
| Good Friday | Traditional: Abstain and Fast | 1983 Code: Abstain and Fast
| Holy Saturday | Traditional: Abstain and Fast until the noon (after the Vigil Mass, to be more precise, which nowadays is most often at night) | Novus Ordo: abolished
| Vigil of the Pentecost | Traditional: Abstain and Fast | Novus Ordo: abolished
| Whit Embertide | Traditional: Abstain and Fast | Novus Ordo: abolished
| Michaelmas Embertide | Traditional: Abstain and Fast | Novus Ordo: abolished |
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To follow the traditional path, it might be easier to follow through on these disciplines if one just decides to fast and abstain on all the days mentioned. Remembering simply to "eat no more than one regular meatless meal and two smaller meatless meals that don't equal the larger meal on all the days marked on my calendar -- and no snacking!" is a lot easier than trying to memorize that chart!Note that in following these disciplines designed to make one mindful of Christ's sacrifice, to put the world into perspective, and to discipline the body, true charity trumps every other law; Catholics are not Pharisees. In other words, if you are asked to a sit-down dinner at a Protestant's house on Friday, and the host, unaware of Catholic practices, has worked hard to prepare a huge roast beef, eat the beef and shut up (unless you believe this person, upon learning of the discipline, would, say, see your having eaten the meat as a sign of Catholic weakness or hypocrisy and it would cause scandal or something. In other words, weigh the situation and show the Love of Christ). This same charity applies to yourself: if you truly forget that it's "Fish Friday" and you find yourself eating a big, juicy steak, stop eating the steak and don't beat yourself up over what you've already eaten. If the will isn't involved, there is no culpability (though one should pay better attention next week!).
Why should we fast? We fast for many reasons. Even if there were no other reason to fast, we fast out of obedience: Our Lord and His Apostles tell us to. We also fast to discipline the body so that we can focus more intently on the spiritual. And we fast to do penance. You will begin most appropriately, and with hope of the greatest profit, to recall men to the observance of the holy law of fasting, if you teach the people this: penance for the Christian man is not satisfied by withdrawing from sin, by detesting a past life badly lived, or by the sacramental confession of these same sins. Rather, penance also demands that we satisfy divine justice with fasting, almsgiving, prayer, and other works of the spiritual life. Every wrongdoing -- be it large or small -- is fittingly punished, either by the penitent or by a vengeful God. Therefore we cannot avoid God's punishment in any other way than by punishing ourselves. If this teaching is constantly implanted in the minds of the faithful, and if they drink deeply of it, there will be very little cause to fear that those who have discarded their degraded habits and washed their sins clean through sacramental confession would not want to expiate the same sins through fasting, to eliminate the concupiscence of the flesh. Besides, consider the man who is convinced that he repents of his sins more firmly when he toes not allow himself to go unpunished. That man, already consumed with the love of penance, will rejoice during the season of Lent and on certain other days, when the Church declares that the faithful should fast and gives them the opportunity to bring forth worthy fruits of penance. |
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