Meatless Friday 2011: Introduction


I've decided to bring back "Meatless Friday" as my Friday posts for Lent.  Why "Meatless Friday"?  During Lent, Catholics abstain from eating meat on Friday.  Pre-Vatican II, every Friday during the year was meatless.  Now, Catholics are "encouraged" to abstain from meat every Friday during the year, but it is "mandatory" during Lent.

Since Jesus suffered and died on Friday, that day has been held by the Catholic Church as a day of reverence; a day of fasting and abstinence.  Growing up, our Friday suppers consisted of some kind of fish.   Canon Law 1251 states "Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference (which is the Conference of Bishops), 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."  However, the United States Conference of Bishops mitigated the obligation of meat on all Fridays; they then came out with  a statement indicating that it should be a Catholic's choice to abstain from meat on Fridays.  Catholics are still supposed to do some form of penance on Fridays throughout the year.  (This was news to me...wonder why no one ever told me that?)

Okay, so that's the background.  My posts on Fridays will be on my Catholic Faith.  If you aren't Catholic, please don't be turned off by them.  My purpose is to hopefully give you something to think about.  There are a lot of misconceptions about the Catholic Faith out there.  As I told Mom24, if I can dispel one misconception to one person, I'll be happy.
If you have a question, please either e-mail me or leave the question in the comment.  If I don't know the answer, I'll do my best to find out!  If you are Catholic and I haven't gotten something exactly right, please let me know.

Apparently McDonalds decided not to bring back this commercial this year, so I thought I'd give you a nice earworm for the day:



19 comments:

  1. Hi, just stopping by on Follow Friday. Very nice blog.

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  2. Your so funny! I love this post girl! Hope you have a wondeful weekend and come enter my giveaway today if you have a chance.I really think you would like it! XO
    jessica

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  3. Hi Mary- you are like my fav cyber Catholic chic! Happy Friday and I'll be back! laura

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  4. Thanks for a great post, Mary. Very informative!

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  5. I love learning the background on this...growing up Methodist, some of it I had never heard before.
    Have a great weekend!

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  6. I look forward to reading your posts and learning more about Catholicism, Mary!!

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  7. I had forgotten all about that commercial- FUNNY!

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  8. I remember as a child I was sick a lot and needed a doctor's note to have bologna on Friday because I needed the protein/iron from meat. The note covered me every year for Lent. How funny.

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  9. Interesting! I always get very confused as to whether we, as Lutherans, are supposed to "give something up" or not. I wish our Pastors would be more clear. I had to laugh a bit that there's confusion about the rules everywhere. :)

    How do you feel when St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday and the Bishop says it's okay to eat meat on it? Does it matter? Not?

    I'm looking forward to learning more. Thanks.

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  10. I have a question. You can eat Fish on Friday though, right? Why is that not considered a meat? That's so funny to me. Around here there are HUGE fish frys...yummo!

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  11. @Bobbi:
    Fish is allowed because it isn't "flesh" like from an animal. Great question!
    One thing we miss about SC is that there were a lot of "fish camps" there.

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  12. Hi Mary! I'm following from Java's Friday Hop. You have a lovely blog!

    Growing up Catholic, every Friday night in our house meant mac & cheese, fish of some kind, or "breakfast for dinner". (minus any bacon, ham, etc. of course)

    I'd love it if you stopped by and said hello sometime! Blessings,

    Mrs B
    http://goaheadtakeabite.blogspot.com/

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  13. I love this idea of educating me on the Catholic Faith. I sing so many things from masses and the history of music through the Catholic church has always facinated me.

    Thanks!!

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  14. I'll be interested to read what you share about the Catholic faith, Mary. I grew up Catholic so I'm familiar with a lot of it. We always did meatless Fridays.

    good idea to share like you are doing!

    betty

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  15. Great post, Mary!!! You are stirring up that chocolate milk ;)

    David just phoned home...didn't want meatless spaghetti for dinner and said he was stopping in Mickey D's for a filet-o-fish :)

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  16. Mary, I'm looking forward to your Friday posts! It will be interesting to learn about the Catholic faith. My husband and I were talking this morning and had a question about eggs. I said that the breakfast that I made would be a great "meatless" meal and he reminded me that eggs are chickens. haha...like I didn't know that, right?! I certainly wasn't thinking about them being chickens when I said that. Do you abstain from all animal products or just the flesh? Thanks for sharing this with us! Great post!

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  17. @Candace: Eggs are allowed. In the Middle Ages (and I'm assuming before that) no animal products were allowed, but at some point the law loosened up a bit and it was allowed. Thanks for the question!

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  18. thank you - I never knew the "why" behind no meat on Fridays, now I'll be more mindful...love the look of your new blog for the season!

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  19. Today we tend to think of seafood as one of the more expensive protein sources--it doesn't make sense to most of us to outlaw hot dogs, but allow lobster. I read a history book that said that the Lenten fast was partly about social control for the public good. Back in the day, most animals, except breeding stock, were killed in the fall, and the meet preserved through salting, smoking or drying. By this time of the year, most folks who could afford meat were quite sick of that and wanted fresh meat--however to get it would mean killing breeding stock, or, if a wild animal, perhaps the mother of a litter. By only allowing people to eat fish for much of Lent, they preserved the breeding stock at least until the young were born.

    I'm looking forward to your weekly posts on Catholicism.

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