I went to Mass today and the deacon read a letter from Archbishop Terry. The Archbishop has asked the faithful not to eat on Fridays in Lent.
I think the penance is more of a symbolic value than anything else. I'm more inconvenienced by having to think of something else to eat for supper than giving up the meat itself. We might just have cheese pizzas on Friday. If you're wolfing down the Jos Louis for dessert, abstaining from meat isn't such a big deal.
The value of the practice is recalling that our Lord died on Friday, and commemorating his Passion.
Sacralizing time is a tough thing. Consider Sunday. I know it should be more than "the weekend". But it's as busy as any other day of the week, and maybe even more so because I gotta bring kids to Mass, if I hadn't gone the evening before.
When you're trying to be a faithful corner, alone in your corner-- and I know that I'm not the only one who often feels this way-- it's tough to get everything right. It was never meant to be this way.
