Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of FAST and ABSTINENCE. This means that we do not eat meat and we have only one full meal.

The other FRIDAYS of the season of Lent are also days of ABSTINENCE from meat. This obligation to abstain from meat binds Catholics 14 years of age and older. The obligation to FAST, limiting to one full meal and two lighter meals in the course of the day, binds Catholics from the age of 18-59. Those who are younger or older may freely embrace these disciplines. Lenten disciplines should never endanger your health.

The Fridays of the year outside of Lent are also days of penance. Abstaining from meat is the traditional way of observing these days of penance; however, each person is free to replace this with some other practice of voluntary self-denial or personal penance.

It is obvious that abstaining from meat is meaningless to vegetarians; it is equally obvious that replacing meat with a gourmet seafood meal is not in keeping with the SPIRIT OF LENTEN PENANCE. Abstinence from meat on the other Fridays of the year may be replaced with time spent reading and studying the Scriptures, special prayers, thoughtfulness and charity to those in need, or acts of personal witness to ones faith, such as teaching catechism or speaking out on the sinfulness of abortion, racism, euthanasia, or other social events.

While the season of Lent is the primary period of Catholic penitential practices, these regulations are not intended to limit the occasion for Christian penance. The practice of spiritual discipline is always appropriate during periods of special need for the individual and the larger community.