. . . about buying some fish at the grocery store as a protein source for Friday.
Then I realized, "Wait a minute! Ash Wednesday is coming up fast!"
So I guess I'll be going to the store later today.
What are your meal plans?
HERE ARE THE REGS.
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
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Jimmy,
Regarding the “approved local custom”…does not the fact that it is expressed in this way constantly in the USA…in parish bulletins or diocese newspapers etc and that it is actually then the way it is observed…
does that not amount to “approved local custom”???
Only have time for a quick answer now, but the subject of custom in canon law is notoriously thorny, and it is not at all apparent that the requirements of canons 23, 24, and 25 are met in respect of this alleged “custom” (which, in fact, is not a custom at all because it has not been introduced by the community with the intent of creating a custom that goes beyond the law and that is intended by the community to attain force of law). This of itself will at minimum trigger canon 14 regarding doubt of law.
Coming up “fast.”
Ha ha ha.
when you address this in longer form….perhaps Pope Paul VI was not speaking the language of Canon Law when he said ‘approved local custom’??? …and of course it came out prior to the 1983 Code….
Hey, Jimmy, I enjoy your blog. Our menu for tomorrow was going to be fish, but we eat fish all the time, so it’s no fast. So, we are going to have butter beans, Mediterranean style okra, maybe a salad and either a cheese quesadilla with whole wheat tortilla or just naan bread. There will probably be grumbling from my husband, who turns 60 this year, so is gleeful that he doesn’t have to fast anymore, but if he wants something else he can go to McDonalds for a fish sandwich since I’m the cook. AnneG in NC
My husband and I are doing a 3 day fat fast. We will have small amounts of nuts, an egg and tuna salad for these three days. It will be a penance for sure, especially for my husband who dislikes tuna. I can stomach it, but it’s not my favorite. I have also bought Salmon steaks, Blue Hake and Tilapia, but I don’t know when we will have those because they are too good for lent!
During Lent, we will have a lot of eggs and salad. We are staying away from carbs.
I don’t have to fast because I am nursing, but my baby is a toddler (I really should wean soon) and I fasted last year nursing and it went well.
I bought my cans of clams for supper tomorrow. And I will be fasting for Lent, not just Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Can’t talk now. Ice cream.
Having a sibling who’s vegan, it might be easier for us now during lent to eat non-meat stuff because we can just eat what she does. Not sure what tomorrow’s meal will be though.
Sometimes we eat “entomatadas” (which would roughly translate to something that’s been “tomatoed” if that were a verb). It’s basically a lightly fried corn tortilla (still soft, not crunchy) and it’s covered in tomato sauce inside and out and you fill it up with things like cheese, lettuce and anything else you can think of putting in there that isn’t meat. Simple and tasty.
It is Ash Wednesday in Australia and my family had rice with tinned salmon, onions, hard boiled eggs and peas. It is a version of Kedgeree.
“A kedgeree is a rice based dish and its name comes from Hindi. Khicari is a Hindi word derived from the Sanskrit word khiccā….Nowadays a so-called traditional kedgeree contains rice, peas, flaked fish, hard boiled eggs and sometimes, but not always, a curried sauce….It is said that the British in India introduced fish to a traditional dish of onions, lentils, eggs and rice to produce the anglo-indian kedgeree that was such a fashionable dish for Victorian breakfasts
I was happy to see Jimmy’s comments about the spirit of the fast and abstinence. Without judging anyone, it sure seems the famous Fish Frys are very enjoyable. I really don’t think they are what the Church has in mind.
I concur with others in that the fast and abstinence requirements strictly speaking are not too educative. However, they are what the Church asks, so we cannot look down on anyone who does the minimal, while all the while encouraging something more.
Jimmy,
So when you respond with the longer post…take into account the fact that parishes and dioceses and even the USCCB website says that the two ‘smaller meals’ (the some food) are not to add up to a full meal.. For this seems to be what the Pope meant by approved custom….he may not in fact been thinking canonically but culturally –that this is the custom of the particular place in quantity and quality and it is approved by the fact that this is what the Bishops or pastors of the place are even telling folks this is the way to go…. not that he was thinking in terms of canon law ….but just of the practical simple fact that it is customary in a cultural way and that the Bishop etc knows this and is fine with it…
in our case this is repeated all over the place in the US…and even by the USCCB on their website! So it seems that it is the approved custom here….
A suggestion for folks making brown-bag lunches: oni giri, or “rice balls.” Use tuna-fish sandwitch filling, or minced deviled eggs, or egg salad, or chunks of that salmon-in-a-bag or, well, anything that’s at least as thick as egg salad and they’re inexpensive, fairly easy to make, keep well and are meat-less!