Good Friday
Holy Week can be a very difficult week for modern Catholics. There's a lot of fasting involved, which is a custom most people are not familiar with. As a general rule, Holy Week is a period of intense prayer and meditation of the coming of our Lord's Passion. It also is a time of recommended fasting in addition to what we gave up or took on for Lent. This is especially true on Good Friday. On this day, Jesus died and we are asked by the Church to commemorate it by fasting from meat all day and only having one full meal and two smaller meals. As a human, this is hard. As a member of modern society, it's very hard.
I went to a frozen yogurt place with my youth group this past Wednesday. As a devoted Catholic, I chose to abstain from purchasing anything, seeing as it was Holy Week. I was the only one. This isn't to say that everyone else is a bad Catholic, they aren't. It's just that most people don't recognize the importance of what we celebrate this week.
Jesus chose to suffer immensely for us this week, we should be able to do something for Him in return.
In modern society, choosing not to indulge is seen as rather odd. That's why fasting is such a foreign concept in our culture. It's typical to get teased or treated differently when we chose to fast because it's so rare. We must remember not to complain about it or else the point of fasting is lost. Joyful fasting is the greatest gift we can give Jesus. And even though it's hard, it's so much better for us.
Have a fantastic rest of your Holy Week!
I went to a frozen yogurt place with my youth group this past Wednesday. As a devoted Catholic, I chose to abstain from purchasing anything, seeing as it was Holy Week. I was the only one. This isn't to say that everyone else is a bad Catholic, they aren't. It's just that most people don't recognize the importance of what we celebrate this week.
Jesus chose to suffer immensely for us this week, we should be able to do something for Him in return.
In modern society, choosing not to indulge is seen as rather odd. That's why fasting is such a foreign concept in our culture. It's typical to get teased or treated differently when we chose to fast because it's so rare. We must remember not to complain about it or else the point of fasting is lost. Joyful fasting is the greatest gift we can give Jesus. And even though it's hard, it's so much better for us.
Have a fantastic rest of your Holy Week!
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