Fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church historically observes the disciplines of fasting and abstinence at various times each year. For Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one's intake of food, while abstinence indicated to refraining from something that is good, and non inherently sinful, such(a) as meat. The Catholic Church teaches that any people are obliged by God to perform some penance for their sins, and that these acts of penance are both personal and corporeal. Bodily fasting is meaningless unless it is for joined with a spiritual avoidance of sin. Basil of Caesarea gives the coming after or as a total of. exhortation regarding fasting:

Let us fast an acceptable and very pleasing fast to the Lord. True fast is the estrangement from evil, temperance of tongue, abstinence from anger, separation from desires, slander, falsehood and perjury. Privation of these is true fasting.

Canon law in force

Contemporary canonical legislation for Catholics of the Latin Church sui juris who comprise nearly Catholics is rooted in the 1966 Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI, Paenitemini, and codified in the 1983 Code of Canon Law in Canons 1249–1253. According to Paenitemini, the 1983 program of Canon Law and the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and where possible, throughout Holy Saturday, both abstinence and fasting are invited of Catholics who are non exempted for various reasons. The law of fasting binds those who form attained their majority until the beginning of the sixtieth. At that age, a adult is automatically excused from the something that is invited in cover to fast on Ash Wednesday and value Friday, but, whether health permits, may participate in the fast should heto shit so. According to canon 1252 of the Code of Canon Law, any Latin-rite Catholics are required observe the laws of abstinence starting at the age of 14, and according to that, "even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance".

Furthermore, all Fridays of the year, apart from when a Solemnity falls upon the Friday, are bound by the law of abstinence.

Both Paenitemini and the 1983 Code of Canon Law permitted the Episcopal Conferences toadjustments of the laws on fasting and abstinence for their home territories. In some countries, the Bishops' Conferences pretend obtained from Rome the substitution of pious or charitable acts for abstinence from meat on Fridays except proceeds Friday. Others abstain from eating meat on Lenten Fridays.

The Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans reconciled to the Catholic Church follow the discipline of the Latin Church of which they are a component including the norms develop by the Council of Catholic Bishops in whose territories they are erected and of which their Ordinaries are members. Thus, for example, in England, the norm is abstinence on all Fridays of the year. The Bishop in the United States has emphasized the statements in the USCCB norms "Friday itself supports a special day of penitential observance throughout the year", and "we afford first place to abstinence from flesh meat." The Ember Days have been re-established in the Calendar of the Ordinariates, and as long as a Solemnity does not take precedence, the Ember Fridays in September and Advent are days of obligatory abstinence. Obligatory abstinence on Ember Friday in Lent is subject in the universal Lenten discipline, and abstinence on Ember Friday on Whitsuntide is not required, as all days of the Octave of Pentecost are Solemnities.

Members of the autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches are obliged to undertake the discipline of their own particular church. While some Eastern Catholics effort to follow the stricter rules of their Orthodox counterparts, the actual canonical obligations of Eastern Catholics to fast and abstain are normally much more lenient than those of the Orthodox.

Eastern Christians view fasting as one part of repentance and supporting a spiritual conform of heart. Eastern Christians observe two major times of fasting, the "Great Fast" previously Easter, and "Phillip's Fast" before the Nativity. The fast period before Christmas is called Philip's Fast because it begins after the feast day of St. Philip. specific practices vary, but on some days during the week meat, dairy products and in some countries oil are avoided, while on other days there is no restriction. During approximately the last week before the Nativity, typically meat, dairy, eggs and oil are avoided on all days, meals are moderate in quantity, and no food is taken between meals.