COMMON PRACTICE OF PENANCE

“All Christ’s faithful are obliged by divine law, each in his own way, to do penance. However, so that all may be joined together in a certain common practice of penance, days of penance are prescribed. On these days, the faithful are in a special manner to devote themselves to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity and to deny themselves by fulfilling their obligations more faithfully and specially by observing fast and abstinence” (Can. 1249).

• The days of common practice of penance are Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and every other Friday in the year.
• Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fasting and abstinence.
• Abstinence: The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The new Code of Canon Law has left it to the Episcopal Conference to determine, in place of abstinence, other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety. In virtue of this, the CBCI at its meeting at Nagpur in February 1984, had decreed that the obligations of abstinence can be fulfilled by choosing certain other forms of prayer or penance or works of charity, besides the traditional one of abstinence from meat.
• In the Diocese of Nashik, the faithful may observe the days of common practice of penance by choosing from any one of the following:
  1. Making the Way of the Cross or a Visit to the Blessed Sacrament or a Meditation on the Lord’s Passion. 2. Prayerfully reading the Scriptures or Praying the Liturgy of the Hours.
  3. Preparing for Liturgical Services by reflecting on the readings as a family.
  4. Giving 10 per cent of one’s daily wage in charity.
  5. Donating Blood.
  6. Offering voluntary service to a Social / Charitable Institution through some parish associations.
  7. Offering a meal to a poor family.
  8. Abstaining from meat preparations, if meat is part of one’s regular diet.
  9. Missing any one meal: breakfast, lunch or supper.
  10. Taking strictly vegetarian meals, without even fish and eggs.
  11. Abstaining from alcohol and/or smoking, for those who use these.
  12. Avoiding all beverages like tea or coffee or sweet drinks between meals.
  13. Avoiding films, television and other forms of recreation.
• Fasting:
  (a) The law of fasting binds those who have completed their 18th year till the beginning of the 60th year.(b) The law of fasting prescribes that only one full meal be taken per day. A light breakfast may be taken in the morning and a light supper in the evening. It is always permissible to reverse the order of the meals; e.g. take the full meal in the evening.
  (c) Those who cannot keep the law of fasting without considerable difficulty of health, work, etc., are excused from the observance of the law. Our faithful are however urged not to excuse themselves too easily from this obligation, as it is but fitting that on the two prescribed days of fasting, we unite ourselves in a special manner with the Passion and Death of Our Lord by a more intense form of penance.
• Dispensations:
  In case of difficulty regarding the fulfilment of the obligation of common penance and fasting, or a doubt regarding the existence of factors excusing from these obligations, a dispensation may be obtained from the Parish Priest or Confessor.
  A dispensation from the law of common penance and fasting is hereby granted to members of the Armed Forces in the Archdiocese and to travellers by land, sea or air.
• Easter Duties:
  Easter Duties would require that the Christian faithful who have been admitted to the Blessed Eucharist, receive Holy Communion at least once a year during the Paschal time, unless for a good reason the precept is fulfilled at another time during the year (Can.920). The faithful are reminded that those who have reached the age of discretion are bound to confess their grave sins at least once a year (Can.989).
• This year the Easter Duties can be fulfilled between Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2009 and Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2009.