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Hello everyone. Today, according to the Latin calendar of the Catholic Church, we begin Lent.
I hope you all have a fruitful Lent. To help you do so, here are some suggestions:
In addition to your usual spiritual disciplines, I suggest adding the following:
- Observe a medieval-style fast. That is, do not consume any food or drink (this includes water) until 3 p.m. And when you do eat, do not consume meat, eggs, or dairy products throughout Lent, except on Sundays.
- Try to at least observe the Eucharistic fast that was in effect during the time of Pope St. Pius X, that is, do not consume any food or drink from midnight until receiving Holy Communion the following day
- Find Rosary groups. Every Rosary prayed in a group multiplies exponentially. If 10 people pray 15 mysteries of the Holy Rosary, all 10 will receive 10 Rosaries added to their spiritual treasure. This is taught by St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. The Rosary is penance, so it’s best to use our time wisely and seek out (or start) the largest Rosary groups we can.
- Make a general confession. That is, a confession of all the sins in your life. Ideally, you should have already made this when you started attending Mass. But even if that’s the case, you can repeat it and add the sins committed since your last general confession.
- Go to a pilgrimage site in a medieval-style. That is, choose an ancient Catholic site that is a shrine due to a miracle, an apparition of Our Lady, or a powerful saint. And walk there. Even if the journey takes days, do it. Prepare time, water, and provisions for the trip, and do it. Pilgrimages on foot are extremely powerful and fruitful.
And those are all my suggestions.
Why fast?
- To restrain the passions of the flesh (Summa Theologiae, Question 147, Article 1)
- Since the flesh is one of the enemies of the soul.
- To elevate our mind and soul to God and Heavenly things.
- To do penance for our sins.
Who is exempt
- Age impediments.
- Youngsters who are under 21 and the elderly over 60 years old.
- Illness. Those who cannot fast comfortably due to being in a delicate state of health. For example:
- breastfeeding mothers, the clinically malnurished, where fasting would refuse nature its necessary support to heal the infirmed body, etc.
- Those who cannot fast comfortably due to being required to attend physically demanding work which in itself leaves the body weakened (in the case that the work at hand cannot be delayed).
Saint Thomas Aquinas on whether all are bound to keep the fasts of the Church?
(Question 147, Article 4)
“I answer that, … general precepts are framed according to the requirements of the many.
Wherefore in making such precepts the lawgiver considers what happens generally and for the most part, and he does not intend the precept to be binding on a person in whom for some special reason there is something incompatible with observance of the precept.
Yet discretion must be brought to bear on the point.
For if the reason be evident, it is lawful for a man to use his own judgment in omitting to fulfil the precept, especially if custom be in his favor, or if it be difficult for him to have recourse to superior authority. on the other hand, if the reason be doubtful, one should have recourse to the superior who has power to grant a dispensation in such cases.
And this must be done in the fasts appointed by the Church, to which all are bound in general, unless there be some special obstacle to this observance.”
May you have a fruitful Lent and, as a result, grow closer and closer to Christ.
Click on the image to read my theological positions.
