LENTEN REGULATIONS – 2005

In introducing the year of the Eucharist, Pope John Paul II used the image of the disciples walking with the Lord on the way to Emmaus.  Our Holy Father reminds us that Christ continues “to walk at our side, opening to us the Scriptures and leading us to a deeper understanding of the mysteries of God” (Apostolic Letter, Mane Nobiscum Domine, Oct. 7, 2004, #3).  Lent is a time for us to renew our journey with Christ, to deepen our relationship with Him, to serve Him more fully in one another.  This is part of the renewed mission to our generation and our culture.  While many Catholics remain near to the Lord and the Church, many others have become distant.  While we renew our own steps with Christ, let us also invite back those who have begun to journey along a different road.

The traditional means of prayer, fasting and almsgiving help us to cooperate more fully with God’s grace and the power it has to transform us.  These spiritual tools, so long revered in the Christian community, can help to remove the self love which can inhibit a deeper encounter with Christ and which can dampen our zeal for him.  May this season be a holy journey with the Lord and with one another

The following are minimal requirements for the season of Lent:

ABSTINENCE – The Church requires all the faithful who have reached 14 years of age to abstain totally from meat on ASH WEDNESDAY and ALL FRIDAYS of Lent.

FASTING – All the faithful between the ages of 18 and 59 inclusive are bound to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  This practice involves limiting oneself to a single full meal and avoiding food between meals.  Light sustenance may also be taken on two other occasions during the day.

EASTER DUTY – After they have been initiated into the Most Holy Eucharist, all the faithful are bound by the obligation of receiving Holy Communion AT LEAST once a year.  This precept must be fulfilled during the Easter season, unless for a good reason it is fulfilled at another time of the year.  By special indult in the United States, the time period for fulfilling this precept has been extended to include the period beginning the First Sunday of Lent (Feb. 13) to Trinity Sunday (May 22).

THE FOLLOWING SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED:

Pastors and parents are responsible to see that young persons who are not bound to the above requirements are educated in an authentic sense of penance.

The Church considers it divine law that all the faithful are required to do penance.  As a result, the obligation to observe, as a whole or “substantially,” the penitential days specified by the Church is a serious one.  Days of penance are not merely individual exercises, but they are observed by the whole Church, as the community of the Body of Christ.

The faithful are encouraged to celebrate the sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance frequently during the Lenten season.  Reading the Scriptures, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and generosity toward the poor and the needy are additional means of becoming more involved in the Lenten season.  Our Holy Father has reminded us to “cultivate a lively awareness of Christ’s real presence, both in the celebration of the Mass and in the worship of the Eucharist outside Mass” (Mane Nobiscum Domine, 18). 

All other Fridays of the year remain as days of penance in prayerful remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ.  This may be done in special association with the violations of respect for the dignity of human life.  While abstinence, in a true spirit of penance, is recommended, the Bishops of the United States have indicated that each individual may substitute for that tradition some other practice of voluntary self-denial or personal penance.  This may involve acts of mortification, prayer or charity.

Lent is also an opportunity to increase our prayer for vocations to priesthood and to consecrated life, as well as for the efforts of the new evangelization.

                                    Monsignor Andrew J. Vaccari

                                                                        Chancellor