tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3866611.post3243926971054569238..comments2023-11-05T02:14:33.709-07:00Comments on Qui Locutus: Fasting ALL FridaysScott Windsorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01961374547503296840noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3866611.post-28188554867626471552009-03-04T09:08:00.000-07:002009-03-04T09:08:00.000-07:00An anonymous contributor to Jimmy Akin's blog left...An anonymous contributor to Jimmy Akin's blog left this response:<BR/> <BR/>The Church has never enjoined us to fast on Sundays (except for the eventual discipline of fasting in preparation to receive the Eucharist). In fact, we have received injunctions FORBIDDING us to fast on Sundays.<BR/><BR/>Both the "Didache" (A.D. 90) and the "Apostolic Constitutions" (A.D. 400): "he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord's Day."<BR/><BR/>Saint Augustine describes the joy of the weekly Easter: "Fasting, is set aside ... on every Sunday". (Ep. 55, 28: CSEL 342, 202)<BR/><BR/>Hence, the "Quadragesima" (forty-day long season) of fasting--specifically counted as forty days of fasting, needs to exclude the Sundays from fasting.<BR/><BR/>The fasting that began on Ash Wednesday is continued on Holy Thursday (as day 28 of FASTING), on Good Friday (day 39 of FASTING) and on Holy Saturday (day 40 of FASTING).<BR/><BR/>The Paschal--"Passover"--Triduum begins with the Evening Mass on Holy Thursday. However the counting of "forty days" (Quadragesima) of FASTING continues.<BR/><BR/>At present, the Church officially REQUIRES us to fast only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. She nonetheless enjoins (without requiring) us to continue fasting on Holy Saturday<BR/><BR/>"Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy" 110 (from the English version on the Vatican's website): "Nevertheless, let the paschal fast be kept sacred. Let it be celebrated everywhere on Good Friday and, where possible, prolonged throughout Holy Saturday, so that the joys of the Sunday of the resurrection may be attained with uplifted and clear mind."<BR/><BR/>The color for the liturgical hours of prayer on Holy Saturday is the Lenten violet. We do not turn to the white until the Paschal Vigil.<BR/><BR/>Ash Wednesday is day 1 of the forty days of FASTING, and Holy Saturday is day 40 of the forty days of FASTING. The Sundays are excluded from FASTING. That is how we end up with forty days of FASTING between and including Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday.Scott Windsorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01961374547503296840noreply@blogger.com