On 16 October 2014, a Spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales announced that the Friday within the Octave of Christmas is never [in England and Wales] a day of Abstinence. (Different rules, of course, exist in different countries.)
That applies to tomorrow.
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Yay! I can keep eating the left-over turkey!
Oh, hold on...
Delia Smith's English Colonial Curry for turkey leftovers, Sue. Recommend.
I'd feel happier with the CBCEW's now apparently perennial insistence on our inalienable right to carry on stuffing ourselves merrily on the Friday of the Octave of Christmas, if they occasionally drew attention to the pressing obligation to strict abstinence - and penitence - on the other Fridays of the year.
Ah, 'But everyone knows'?? Really? That's not my experience. And how will they learn, if they are never reminded?
This comes up every year. The law assigns that competence to the episcopal conference, of course. But if the spokesman is purporting to interpret the universal law, rather than articulate a particular law for England and Wales made by the episcopal conference, he is mistaken.
That I think accords with the rule from my childhood, but in those days Christmas explicitly had an Octave. And, do I recall correctly, Christmas Eve was a day of fasting and abstinence?
The Book of Common Prayer is of course nothing like so indulgent, the sole exception to Friday penitence is if it should be Christmas Day.
It is good to see that the Novus Ordites have finally found a use for Octaves.
Now feeling contentedly replete after my usual fish and chips, 'regular' cod and 'small' chips, so not a blowout. And wondering what is supposed to be penitential about them. I long ago recognised that I stuck with this discipline just for the routine reminder.
Friday abstinence was a part of Catholic culture until it was done away with in the 1960s. It cannot be reinstated with the stroke of a pen since the culture which nurtured it has vanished.
The same applies to Sunday obligation. It made sense when the Mass was the same everywhere, but I, for one, am not going to submit myself to a lacklustre and possibly abusive Novus Ordo out of obligation.
Obligation works both ways. The Church has an obligation to provide a liturgy which respects tradition.
Dear John
I beg you to submit yourself to the Church's law without pride. If my sweet Saviour could endure for me the three-torment, it is the least I can do to bend my knees to worship Him when I have no option but to attend a Novus Ordo Mass.
God bless you and keep you. I will remember you ad altare Dei.
John Hunwicke
Father, I fear I have overstated my case. When I am not singing for the EF I attend the Solemn OF Mass at the Oxford Oratory, although there is a nearer Low Mass in the traditional rite.
My father (1920-1998) disliked the liturgical changes but attended Mass at his parish church, despite the abuses and appalling music, because it was an obligation. His generation, which had after all been obliged to do war service, took obligation seriously. My generation, brought up in the 'swinging sixties' celebrated 'choice'. I don't doubt that his was the better way.
However, also in the 1960s, the Catholic Church, in a desperate and misguided attempt to become 'relevant', spurned its time-honoured liturgical tradition and in effect ordered everyone to worship in a radically different way. Societal and liturgical changes combined to create the situation we now find ourselves in.
Thank you for your prayers and be assured of mine.
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