DAILY MEDITATIONS SUPPLEMENT: LENT 2008
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Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2008


Editor’s note: These regulations can be considered a good guideline if you’re unable to find the official regulations from your own parish or diocese.


OVERVIEW:
Lent is the penitential season of the Church's year. This year it begins on Ash Wednesday, February 6 and ends with the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, March 20. Lent has six Sundays. The sixth is called Passion or Palm Sunday and marks the beginning of Holy Week.

The Easter Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday. It commemorates the Lord's passion and death on Good Friday, reaches its high point at the Easter Vigil, and ends with Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday. Then the joyful Easter Season of 50 days begins.

Traditionally, the Lenten season is a time of penance throughout the Catholic Church. Lent is a season in which prayer, the reception of the sacraments, charity and almsgiving are emphasized. Fast and abstinence are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. All the Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat.

The specific discipline of the Church in the United States regarding penitential days is as follows:


REGULATIONS for LENT:
Abstinence from meat is to be observed by all Catholics 14 years old and older on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays of Lent.

Fasting is to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday by all Catholics who are between the ages of 18 and 59 inclusive. Those who are bound by this may take only one full meal. Two smaller meals are permitted if necessary to maintain strength according to one’s needs, but eating solid foods between meals is not permitted.

By the threefold discipline of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, the Church keeps Lent from Ash Wednesday until the evening of Holy Thursday. All of the faithful and the catechumens should undertake serious practice of these three traditions. Failure to observe any penitential days at all or a substantial number of such days must be considered serious.


EASTER DUTY:
After they have received their First Holy Communion, Catholics are bound by the obligation of receiving 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 during the year. This obligation may be fulfilled between the First Sunday in Lent and Trinity Sunday.


THE FOLLOWING SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED:
a. RECONCILIATION: Catholics are bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year (Canon 989).

b. OTHER FRIDAYS OF THE YEAR: Catholics should be reminded that all other Fridays of the year remain as days of penance, in prayerful remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ.

c. EASTER DUTY OBLIGATION: The obligation which we have as members of the Church to do penance is a serious one. Furthermore, the obligation to observe, as a whole or "substantially," the penitential days specified by the Church is a serious one. Catholics are also bound to confess serious (mortal) sins at least once a year, but this is not limited to the Lenten/Easter Season.

d. While no one should hold himself or herself lightly excused, one should not become unduly scrupulous. Failure to observe individual days of penance is less serious than the failure to observe any penitential days at all or a substantial number of such days.


AN INVITATION:
In the name of peace, and in union with the Bishops of the United States of America, the faithful are invited to add voluntary fasting to the practice of penance during the Fridays of the year. Together with works of charity and service toward our neighbors, this practice would become a sign of our commitment to conversion, reconciliation and peace. (The Challenge of Peace, Art. 298).


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