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Fast and Abstinence

On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday Catholics are obliged to
fast and abstain (see below the Code of Canon Law, canons 1250-
1253). We are to turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel.

To fast means eating one main meal and eating a smaller amount
of food at other the times of the day. When fasting, snacking is
not permitted. Abstinence means that no meat is eaten on those
days for those between the ages of 14 and 60. As a way of keeping
the memory of the death of the Lord on Good Friday alive in our
spiritual life, Fridays in Lent are days of abstinence; the Church
also teaches that all Fridays are days of penance, and abstinence is
the preferred form of penance.

Meat is the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl.

The Code of Canon Law says the following on the observance of
fast and abstinence:

Canon 1250 All Fridays through the year and the time of
Lent are penitential days and times throughout the entire
Church.

Canon 1251 Abstinence from eating meat or another
food according to the prescriptions of the conference of
bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year
unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be
observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the
Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

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