|
Vendaval -> RE: A Question about Lent (2/26/2009 7:58:13 PM)
|
Fasting for 40 days during Lent goes back to the 5th century. If you want an in-depth explanation here is an excerpt and link to the Online Catholic Encyclopedia entry.
Lent
"Other mitigations of an even more substantial character have been introduced into lenten observance in the course of the last few centuries. To begin with, the custom has been tolerated of taking a cup of liquid (e.g., tea or coffee, or even chocolate) with a fragment of bread or toast in the early morning. But, what more particularly regards Lent, successive indults have been granted by the Holy See allowing meat at the principal meal, first on Sundays, and then on two, three, four, and five weekdays, throughout nearly the whole of Lent. Quite recently, Maundy Thursday , upon which meat was hitherto always forbidden, has come to share in the same indulgence. In the United States, the Holy See grants faculties whereby working men and their families may use flesh meat once a day throughout the year, except Fridays, Ash Wednesday, Holy Saturday, and the vigil of Christmas. The only compensation imposed for all these mitigations is the prohibition during Lent against partaking of both fish and flesh at the same repast."
http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=7007
|
|
|
|
