And so the Lenten fast begins…

So the monk wakes up on Wednesday and has a full breakfast.

After a long morning of hard work, lunch is late and it’s also a full meal.

And then: conventual Mass is at 5pm and it hits him that there is the Ash Wednesday discipline! The church’s regulations for fasting and abstinence allow for only one full meal, but lesser portions may be taken at other meals.

At this point, after two full meals, there is only one way to fulfill the law. Supper must be such a large meal that it makes the other full meals “lesser portions” by comparison. At supper the monk is so stuffed that he can hardly force in another mouthful.. but he must, for rules are rules, and it is Lent.

awr

 

Anthony Ruff, OSB

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John's Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John's University School of Theology-Seminary. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. He does priestly ministry at the neighboring community of Benedictine sisters in St. Joseph.

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Comments

23 responses to “And so the Lenten fast begins…”

  1. Scott Pluff

    I am a creature of habit, and this morning I was eating my usual sausage/egg/cheese muffin when my daughter walked in and said, “Dad, it’s Ash Wednesday!” I usually forget once or twice during Lent, but I didn’t even make it one hour this time.

    As they say, “This year for Lent I’m just giving up.”

    Reply
    1. Alan Hommerding

      @Scott Pluff – comment #1:
      To paraphrase a former choir member: “When I’m called up on Judgement Day, I just HOPE that the topic chosen for discussion is that Ash Wednesday I ate my usual sausage/egg/cheese muffin.”

      Reply
  2. Ellen Joyce

    “Conventional Mass”? Is this a technical term?

    Reply
    1. Anthony Ruff, OSB Avatar
      Anthony Ruff, OSB

      @Ellen Joyce – comment #2:
      Oh, you’re a Latin scholar – con + venire. Yeah, it’s the old term for the community Mass in a religious house.

      Reply
      1. Mgr Bruce Harbert

        @Anthony Ruff, OSB – comment #6:
        Isn’t that ‘conventu

  3. Rory Cooney

    Will you be my confessor?

    Reply
  4. Scott Knitter

    Sounds like an “eating a lot” sort of fasting. I like it!

    Reply
  5. Karl Liam Saur

    Do you get to wear funny hats?

    Reply
  6. Paul F Ford

    I thought the word was “conventual.”

    Reply
  7. Chris Grady

    An attack of unconventional scruples?!

    Reply
  8. Brendan Kelleher svd

    Still no correction to “Conventual” !!!!

    Reply
  9. Paul R. Schwankl

    Some people (I don’t think I’d agree with them) have found worship at Father Anthony’s abbey too restrained and Germanic, so maybe “conventional” was a Freudian slip.

    Reply
    1. Anthony Ruff, OSB Avatar
      Anthony Ruff, OSB

      @Paul R. Schwankl – comment #11:
      Duh – now I get it everyone. I’m changing the post to “conventual” already. And leaving up all your comments for appropriate humiliation of me! 🙂
      awr

      Reply
      1. Ellen Joyce

        @Anthony Ruff, OSB – comment #14:
        Thank you. I knew I was right but didn’t have time to research it…

  10. Paul R. Schwankl

    As for Father Anthony’s solution to his problem: I didn’t think Benedictines went in for that kind of canonical cunning. I associate it more with other religious orders, which I shall not name.
    But in any case, is he now obliged to make all his “full meals” huge for the rest of Lent?

    Reply
  11. Claire Mathieu

    Two jokes in one! Clever!

    Reply
  12. Alan Griffiths

    Time was (when I was a student) a group of us helped out at a very swish convent in Rome in Holy Week.

    Good Friday meal after the Liturgy was smoked salmon. But ok, there was just water to drink.

    Alan Griffiths.

    Reply
  13. John Swencki

    It’s like the Franciscan who said his confessor said he could not smoke when praying. But the Jesuit said his confessor said it was fine to pray when smoking.

    Reply
  14. Lee Bacchi

    Having celebrated my 59th birthday a few years ago, and being a Type 2 diabetic, the fasting from food and drink is no longer something I do. But take a look at Lent: Fast From . . . Feast On . . . on the Anglican Digest site for a terrific set of non-food/drink things to fast from and feast on during this holy season. If I knew how to do links, I would do it here, but I don’t.

    Reply
  15. Philip Spaeth

    To paraphrase comedian Jim Gaffigan: “If you’re Catholic you can’t eat meat on Fridays. Unless you forget.”

    Reply
  16. John Kohanski

    Sounds like a great monastery to live in!

    Reply
  17. Fran Rossi Szpylczyn

    Here I was fasting from food and the internet all day yesterday and I miss the fun! Well, maybe not so much. I did have less food and internet, but hardly fasting. The monk’s way may be my solution!

    Reply
  18. Fr Aidan Peter Rossiter CJ

    Hi, to parallel Alan’s story #17, several years ago I was supplying at Padstow a fishing village in Cornwall. The good sister of the parish took me and several others for our Good Friday lunch at the local exclusive Golf Club. A wonderful shellfish soup followed by the best salmon I have ever eaten all washed down with San Pelligrino ! The 1972 translation in one of the prefaces talked of this “happy season” of Lent; perhaps our religious sisters understand something about fast days that we do not!
    Happy Easter when it comes, Aidan, (new boy on the block/blogg)

    Reply

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