My Top 7 Lenten Misconceptions

Lent starts this week! There are certain, perennial, discussions and questions that come up at this time every year. I thought it was high time that I addressed the top 7 that I heard this past week with This Ain't the Lyceum for 7 Quick Takes!

1. You can’t have chicken/beef stock on a Lenten Friday

I get where the thought is coming from - if we can't eat red meat then we shouldn't eat a product of the carcass - but it's still wrong. Yes, you can eat bone broths on days of abstinence.

Canon law only considers meat to be the flesh of animals that live on land. Moral theologians have taught that we should abstain from all animal products that bear the taste of meat, but this is not required by canon law.
In short - use veggie stock if you want, but it does not break the abstinence observance if you use a bone broth.

2. Ash Wednesday is a Holy Day of Obligation

It's perhaps the best misconception, but it's still a misconception.
Attendance at mass is not obligatory for Ash Wednesday. But it's still GOOD if you go! It's awesome to see people come out of the woodwork to receive ashes. Do it anyway and bear your ashes as an outward sign, but it's not a sin if you don't make it to mass that day.

3. You have to give up something for Lent

"What are you giving up for Lent?" is the official Catholic party question right now, but there is no requirement to give up something. The only disciplines we are required to observe during Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

It's awesome to fast from something that is keeping you in a habit of sin, and that is what you are intended to be giving up. It's not supposed to be a way to crash diet or be a chance to let scrupulosity run wild. If your observance of the Lenten fast is a simple focus on your habitual sins, and breaking their cycle, you have fulfilled the discipline beautifully.

4. The great “can you have what you gave up for Lent on Sunday” debate

We all know Lent is 40 days long, yet there are 46 calendar days in the Lenten season. Because every Sunday is a solemnity, they are not included in the fast of Lent. We are not to fast on a feast day, however the question of allowing indulgence in what you are fasting from for the Lenten season on Sundays needs to be taken with prudence.

If you are fasting from something that is morally neutral, let's say alcohol when you're not an alcoholic, then I would argue (from my non-ordained lay person position mind you) that having a glass of wine at dinner with family on Sunday would be acceptable.

If you are fasting from a habitual sin, let's say masturbation, then the fact that it's a feast day does not negate your Lenten fast. You are not just giving this up because it is Lent, you are giving it up because you are trying to break the chains of habitual sin. That is better served by consistency.

If you want more guidance on this, I strongly encourage you to talk to your priest or spiritual adviser.

5. Giving to the church is my almsgiving

You drop something in the collection basket every week, so it's super easy to fulfill the almsgiving part of Lent, right? Yet tithing is not almsgiving.
Tithing is something we give because it is owed. We owe a portion of our resources to the church that sustains our communal life. It is a debt we are paying.
Almsgiving is material help we give to others out of charity. This is freely given, not paying a debt.

6. You have to eat fish on Fridays

While all Catholics, 14 and older, are required to abstain from meat on days of abstinence, no one says you have to do so by eating fish instead!
A simple vegetarian meal or meatless soup are perfectly fine.

In addition, while they incur no sin by eating meat on days of abstinence, it's awesome to practice giving up meat as children. I find it fantastically easier to observe the day as a family if I just make a big pot of soup and some bread.

7. Lent ends on Easter

It does not end on Easter!
Holy Thursday through Holy Saturday is a funky time in the liturgical year where those three calendar days are one liturgical day. The Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) is neither in Lent nor Easter - it is a separate liturgical period as clarified by Pope Pius XII in 1955.

Thus, technically speaking, Lent ends on Holy Thursday.
Do you continue to observe your Lenten discipline through the Triduum? Up to you to discern. Hopefully your Lenten discipline has become ingrained into you, and becomes a lifelong change if you gave up a habitual sin. If I gave up a moral neutral, then I personally prefer wait until after the Easter Vigil to partake. It seems to add to the joy, don't you think?

Did I miss anything? Was any of this surprising to you?

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Updated to include My Sunday Best with Rosie at A Blog For My Mom.

She's very concerned to see Mommy holding that other baby in the picture.

We've reached that point in the winter when I'm done with seeing my summer dresses sit in my closet. Solution: add leggings and wool socks underneath, and a ballet warm up on top. Boom summer dress is winter wearable!