April 12
Friday of the Fifth Week in Lent
Read
“Wherefore, we ask, urgently and prayerfully, that we, as people of God, make of the entire Lenten Season a period of special penitential observance. Following the instructions of the Holy See, we declare that the obligation both to fast and to abstain from meat, an obligation observed under a more strict formality by our fathers in the faith, still binds on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. No Catholic Christian will lightly excuse himself from so hallowed an obligation on the Wednesday which solemnly opens the Lenten season and on that Friday called ‘Good’ because on that day Christ suffered in the flesh and died for our sins. . . . Gratefully remembering this, Catholic peoples from time immemorial have set apart Friday for special penitential observance by which they gladly suffer with Christ that they may one day be glorified with Him. This is the heart of the tradition of abstinence from meat on Friday where that tradition has been observed in the holy Catholic Church.”
(1966 USCCB Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence, no. 12 and no. 18)
Reflect
"If you have fasted two or three days, do not think yourself better than others who do not fast. You fast and are angry; another eats and wears a smiling face."
—St. Jerome, Letters, 22.37
Pray
Pray that abstinence from some of your favorite things this Lenten season will help bring you closer to God long after the season is over.
Act
Take note of the meatless meals you have enjoyed this Lent. Add your favorites to your family’s regular meal rotation once Lent is over.