Do You Fast On Sunday?
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Family on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 3:00 PM
I don’t know why memories of my first years as a Catholic keep coming to me this year, but I recall taking my first Lent very seriously.
I fasted completely (water and black coffee alone) on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent, took on several other challenging disciplines, and considered people who took Sundays off to be wimping out.
This was the zeal of a convert and the metabolism of youth.
In my 20s I hardly noticed not eating all day; in my 40s, skipping meals leads to debilitating brain fog and exhaustion. Now fasting really is a sacrifice, whereas once it was as nothing.
I don’t remember what year I was first introduced to the idea that every Sunday is a little Easter, and therefore we can take a break from our Lenten disciplines on Sundays.
Seemed a little weaselly to me at first, but I heard it from a pastor I trusted, so I started taking Lenten Sundays off.
By that time I’d settled into the faith a little and was less concerned about bearing witness through excruciatingly correct behavior than with striving to be humbly obedient to the Church. If the Church says we’re off, then we’re off.
So it stood with me for years until marriage forced my husband and me to blend our separate approaches to Lent and therefore to see what the Church actually taught.
By which, of course, I mean we each stuck stubbornly to our positions and went scouring for authorities to prove the other wrong. (Not for nothing this annual period of repentance.)
That was the year I learned how much I was living by the argument from authority.
As a new-ish Catholic, I accepted as Gospel Truth a lot of pronouncements from faithful Catholics who loved the Lord and meant well…but didn’t necessarily know what they were talking about.
I accepted it when the Catholic friends who introduced me to the faith suggested it was wimpy not to continue fasting on the Sundays of Lent. I accepted it again when a priest friend said otherwise.
Which brings us to what Catholic Apologist Jimmy Akin calls The Annual Lent Fight.
Follow that link and you’ll find a series of his posts on whether or not Sundays are part of Lent.
The short answer is yes, they are.
Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper exclusive [General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar 28].
What about the argument that Sundays are little Easters? It’s true, but that doesn’t supplant Lent. Akin explains:
The Church’s law is clear that Sundays in Lent both involve the celebration of the Resurrection and the practice of penitence. The penitential practice of the Church is even reflected in the liturgy on Sundays of Lent, as illustrated by the fact that the Gloria and the Alleluia are omitted, purple vestments are worn, and special readings (e.g.“unless you repent you also will perish”). It’s also worth noting that, as the General Instruction provides, “Rose may be used, where it is the practice, on Gaudete Sunday (Third Sunday of Advent) and on Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent)” (GIRM 346f). The standard interpretation of the use of rose vestments on Laetare Sunday is that it is a lessening of the penance that is already in place.
The decisive fact, though, is simply that the law (quoted above) provides that “The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.” It doesn’t say “except Sundays.”
If you have been (as I have) in the habit of lightening up your fast on Sundays, don’t panic and think you’ve been doing it wrong, or hasten to up-end long established family practices.
Our Lenten penances (except for the mandatory fast and abstinence days) are voluntary. So even knowing that Sundays are part of Lent, it’s perfectly acceptable for you to proclaim your fast to exclude Sundays, or to allow yourself to at least lighten up the penance on those days in recognition of the Lord’s day.
It’s a perfectly fair thing to do, and a common practice—we just don’t get to say we’re doing it by command of the Church.
That video at the top? Just something you can watch on Friday to make your abstinence more penitential. Or easier, depending.
How does your family treat the Sundays in Lent? Do you keep your fasts or lighten them?
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