Church Regulations for the Season of Lent

Days of Fast and Abstinence: Ash Wednesday & Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence; anyone between the ages of 18 and 59 is limited to one full meal on these days. No meat is permitted on these two days.

Days of Abstinence: On all the Fridays of Lent, anyone who is 14 years of age or older must abstain totally from meat.

Serious reasons, for example, one’s health, can excuse a person from these rules. Church law also encourages parents to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.

We keep the Season of Lent by a series of voluntary acts. These voluntary acts are both positive and negative. Positive acts are a decision to spend more time in prayer, participating in Mass, reading scripture, and doing works of mercy and kindness. Negative acts involve giving up something like our favorite foods or entertainment. We do these acts not just for the sake of doing them, but in order to enhance our realization of how much we depend on God. More importantly, these acts of self-sacrifice are themselves a prayer to God for ourselves and for the world in which we live.