Fasting and abstinence are the Church's oldest bodily penance, and since Pope Paul VI's apostolic constitution Paenitemini (1966) the universal law has asked very little in quantity so that the faithful might give more in freedom. The Code of Canon Law sets the days and the ages; the bishops' conference of each country may adapt them, and the USCCB has done so for the United States. This guide gives the law as it actually stands, so that you can keep it exactly, and then go beyond it with a free heart. Those bound by different disciplines, the Eastern Catholic Churches in particular, follow the law of their own Church.

What you need

• The dates of Ash Wednesday, the Fridays of Lent and Good Friday this year
• An honest look at your age, health and work, which decide whether the fast binds you
• A plan for what you will do with what the fast saves

When to pray it

Fast and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday; abstinence on every Friday of Lent. The Church also commends keeping the paschal fast through Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil.

Steps

1. 1

   Step 1: Know the days of fast and abstinence

   Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of both fasting and abstinence from meat. Every Friday of Lent is a day of abstinence from meat. Those are the only obligatory days. The Church also strongly commends, without commanding, that the Good Friday fast be continued through Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil, so that the whole Church comes to the Resurrection with 'uplifted and welcoming heart', as the Second Vatican Council put it. Write these dates down before Lent starts.

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   Step 2: Know who is bound

   The law of fasting binds those who have completed their eighteenth year until the beginning of their sixtieth, that is, from the eighteenth birthday through age fifty-nine. The law of abstinence binds everyone who has completed their fourteenth year. Parents and pastors are asked to teach children who are not yet bound the real meaning of penance, so a family can keep the Friday abstinence together even where the youngest are not obliged. These are the norms for the Latin Church in the United States; the Eastern Catholic Churches keep their own.

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   Step 3: Know what counts as a fast

   A fast day permits one full meal, and two smaller meals that together do not add up to a full meal, with nothing eaten between meals (liquids are permitted). The two smaller meals may be taken at any time of day; what is excluded is snacking. Water, coffee, tea, milk and juice are permitted. That is the whole of the law; anyone able to keep a stricter fast, such as bread and water, is free to, but nothing more is required, and the sick should not attempt it.

4. 4

   Step 4: Know what abstinence means

   Abstinence means not eating meat, understood as the flesh of warm-blooded animals: beef, pork, lamb, poultry and the like. Fish and shellfish, eggs, milk, cheese and butter are permitted, as are products derived from animals that do not have the taste of meat, such as broth-based soups, gravies and gelatin. The law asks for simplicity, though, and a lavish seafood dinner keeps the letter while missing the point. A plain meatless meal, eaten with gratitude, is what the discipline intends.

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   Step 5: Know who is excused

   Those who are physically or mentally ill, including people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, and women who are pregnant or nursing, are excused from fasting and, where necessary, from abstinence. So are those whose heavy work or circumstances make the fast a real danger to health. In every case common sense prevails, and no one should jeopardise their health in order to fast. Someone excused from fasting is still invited to keep the Friday abstinence if it is safe, and to offer another penance if it is not.

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   Step 6: Make it a prayer, not a diet

   The law gives the form; you give the heart. Begin each fast day by offering it to God, and when hunger comes, turn it into a short prayer: the Our Father▾, or an Act of Love▾. Give what the fast saves, in money or time, to someone poorer than you; from the beginning the Church has joined fasting to almsgiving. Do not weigh yourself, do not announce it, and do not compare your fast with anyone else's. A fast kept quietly for love of God is worth more than a stricter one kept for its own sake.

Tips

• If a solemnity falls on a Friday of Lent (Saint Joseph, 19 March, or the Annunciation, 25 March), abstinence does not bind that day.
• Friday penance continues all year round, not only in Lent. In the United States you may substitute another penance for abstinence on Fridays outside Lent, but Fridays remain penitential days.
• Fasting and abstinence are minimums, not the whole of Lenten self-denial; the Church expects you to add a voluntary penance of your own.
• If you are unsure whether you are bound, ask a priest. Scrupulosity is not the point of the law.

Related practices

• Fasting
• Almsgiving
• Christian Mortification