7 responses to “The Bishops’ Instruction on Fasting and Abstinence”

1. 

   Rosemary Hannah

   09/02/2016

   I think it is helpful – but in our time, abstaining from meat is easy – not particularly a hardship. So much really good veggie food around.

   What also needs said, sadly, is that any practice which makes living a good useful life or showing love to others, or damages your own health is a no no.

   But fasting on Christmas Eve? Far too far out of step with today’s cultural norms.

   Reply
2. 

   Eamonn

   09/02/2016

   The Lenten regulations of the (RC) Archdiocese of Dublin used to include the immortal phrase, ‘custom sanctions the use of an egg’.

   More seriously, though, I see little point in imposing rules about the kind of frugal, focussed living that should be characteristic of Christians all the year round.

   Reply
   1. 

      Rosemary Hannah

      09/02/2016

      The thing is – ‘we do it all, all the time’ soon becomes ‘we hit a kind of median’. People should rejoice, feast, fast, mourn. We are most helped, I think, when we do these things of different occasions. There is a time to remember we are dust with limited responsibilities and abilities. There is a time to remember the suffering we bring to the world. Another time to remember the utter joy of rebirth. Trying to get them all into one day is beyond our abilities.

      Reply
3. 

   Mary Wallace

   09/02/2016

   Its a very good reminder of what we should or could do, however, perhaps we should concentrate on the doing rather than the not doing, at Holy Trinity Haddington we are trying something different by following the booklet “Love Life Live Lent” – “Be the change”, with a different small task every day in the hope that after 40 days those things will become a habit and our community a better place for it.

   Reply
4. 

   Tod

   09/02/2016

   I’m a U.S. Episcopalian. And I belong (vestryman, even!) at the second oldest black Episcopal church in the U.S. –I hear from old members and those that were raised in the Caribbean that none of these edicts are followed or even explained anymore-in our church or the wider church. I’m 49 and I lament the same thing.

   There is no Benediction service at our parish any longer. It was done away with when they were short of staff in the 90’s–although they had an awful lot of staff. People I guess weren’t attending the evening service so it was excised. I’m sorry but showing up on a Sunday for a 1.5 hour service is not enough. And doing ‘good works’ in the world is not either. Where is the discipline? Where is the deep teaching and appreciation for our faith?

   Thanks for posting this, culturally I am very liberal and theologically but liturgically there must be some refusal to stop GUTTING the essence of Christianity. I don’t think most people at our parish understand why the choir genuflects at the St. Elizabeth chapel when they recess out of the church! It’s because the HOST is there. Christ in that little box. Show some respect!

   Reply
5. 

   Thomas Rees

   11/02/2016

   Ah – Benediction! I used to drive 30 miles to serve as an acolyte on Thursday afternoons, put on a cassock and surplice, and take charge of the thurible. There were rules (rubrics?) about how many times to swing it, but I forget – that was 40 years ago! It was about honouring what Donald Trump calls “the little cracker” and we call the Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And when the Bishop of Los Angeles showed up…

   Reply
   1. 

      Tod

      11/02/2016

      Love this story!

      Reply