Eggs on toast. Admittedly I will be eating well this evening as I am meeting someone for dinner tonight in London; but he is a Catholic and so we will both be celebrating the re-introduction of Friday abstinence by having fish. God bless Bishop Conry who seems to have played no small part in persuading his brother Bishops to take this initiative. Here is an extract from his Pastoral Letter for Advent last year:
Next week, Monday 15 November, I am going to Leeds for a meeting of the Bishops’ Conference. I hope that we will discuss the possibility of restoring the old Friday Fast Day. This was one of the most obvious signs of Catholic identity, apart from going to Mass. It determined the diet in places like prison and hospital, and was something that Catholics were instinctively conscious of: we knew that we couldn’t have meat like everybody else that day, and it was a source of a sort of pride – it marked us out as different.
Today we are perhaps less willing to be marked out, in case we are marked out as not just different, but ‘odd’. And that is what we had been told, and began to believe. But the Pope’s visit has said to us that this is not ‘odd’, but that it’s actually important. A few years ago I suggested that we might take up another of those old Catholic practices, grace before meals, if we had lost the habit of it. It’s not difficult, doesn’t take much time, but it’s a gentle reminder.
There are all sorts of small ways in which we quietly show to the world that we believe in Christ, and that we want to welcome Christ back into a world that has either largely forgotten him or never really heard of him. Pop into the church when you are passing, so that people can see it. Put a crucifix in the window. If you are at work or with friends and people ask you what you did at the weekend, mention the fact that you went to Church. But make sure it’s true. And we can also show ourselves, by praying a little more often, and spending time reflecting on the bible.
20 comments:
oooooooooooo! Make mine scrambled please!
I have always even as a non-Catholic tired to observe the Meatless, Fish on Fridays. Here in the US when I was growing up so many decades ago the public schools always had fish on Fridays up until 1962-63. Then they still had it but had to offer meat as well for the pagan unbelievers. The Church abolition never affected me. Like an Anglo-Catholic I've always been more Catholic than the Pope HA!HA!HA!
Any updates on former Anglican Priest Jeffrey Steel? Miss his blogging.
It is such a great pleasure to be proud of one's bishop.
I had salmon sandwiches for lunch at work and am just about to get cod and chips from the chippie! I started to say Grace before meals a few months ago because i was feeling guilty about having so much compared to poorer peoples. Grace suddenly seemed the exactly right thing to do! Other people join in if I do it infront of them. I think all the disasters with earthquakes and floods is making society as a whole more aware and grateful for what we have in most western countries, such as warmth, food, running water.
Your toast looks nice too, is that brown bread with butter? (You can tell I'm hungry!!)
Very interesting that I had to wait for ten minutes in the canteen at work today while more fish was cooked. A first.
Quite a big queue waiting for it as well.
I am hoping that this means that I have more practising Catholic colleagues than I realised.
Did anyone else have a similar experience?
Looks yummy but Fr, I hope you had a nice side salad or some fruit for pudding too! As a doctor it would be remiss of me not to point out how you can try & get one or two of your 5 a day!
As a covert, lots of the "old traditions" appeal to me and we have had meatless Fridays for several years now. I am so proud to be in A&B and have Bishop Keiran leading on this. The pastoral letter you quote was such a blessing to us last Lent. Who knows what will come next? Maybe even an revival of the open promotion & teaching of NFA. Another thing I though was just a quaint and forgotten old Catholic teaching when I first converted.
I really like what was in that letter. When we adopt the day to day acts of Catholic Identity it helps to make our lives into a visible witness - which in turn gives credibility whenever we talk about our faith.
Shadowlands said "I started to say Grace before meals a few months ago because i was feeling guilty about having so much compared to poorer peoples.
I visited Wonersh (St John's) a little while ago and they said a really touching grace before meals but I didn't write it down - if anyone knows it please let me know.
LF
Not so much Egon Ronay as Egon Toast ...
Sadie - that's really very good!
thelicensedfool - the Wonersh grace is "Bless us O Lord, bless this meal and those who have prepared it, and give food to the hungry." After meals it is "We thank you Lord for the gifts that we have received. Make us generous to those in want, and always grateful for what you have given us."
I have to be honest and say that I prefer the traditional grace myself but it is good to hear that the you liked the Wonersh grace.
Thank you Father.
I got it wrong - it was the after meal bit that I liked (well it was some months ago)
The bit which says "Make us generous to those in want, and always grateful for what you have given us" touched me because I know that I haven't always been either of those things over the years.
LF
Fr. Finigan,
This is my first time commenting. I am a sometime reader from Fr. Z's blog, and saw that you had written on St. Charles' Instruction on Ecclesiastical Building and Furnishing (in 2007). I don't know if you got a chance to read a copy but I have found an English translation with analysis at http://evelynvoelker.com/
Thanks for your excellent work!
Many thanks, Patrick
I always thought Protestants said grace before meals, because they didn't believe in blessings, and Catholics said a blessing before the meal and grace after.
@Patrick
Thank you.
I have forwarded this wonderful link to my 'C of E' A Deo et Rege Deptford connections, and the Prince's Foundation Ben Bolgar too.
God Save the Queen!
The fast does not begin until Advent and should require abjuring fish as well s meat otherwise it is a cop out. Fish is just not convincing.
Robert - No, we are required to abstain from meat from 16 September. It is true that eating fish can be pleasant. But it is still a witness and may be small penence of inconvenience. That is what is required by the Church. We can, of course, add more onerous penances of our own free will.
Is this the same Kieran Conry who only last year complained that the Pope's Westminster Cathedral Mass had too much Latin in it, and earlier opined in the Catholic Herald that teen masses need to be focussed on 'saving the planet' since the concept of saving their souls was meaningless to young people? If so, we must be witnessing a truly Damascene conversion.
It would be splendid if the Anglican bishops would also recemmend this practice to their faithful. (They wouldn't, of course, legislate to make it mandatory.)
Perhaps our bishops would recommend this as an advance in ecumenical witness?
Interesting blog... I just discover it and I am enjoying it. Well done :)
@Angelman, Satan the fallen Angel is Christ's adversary, and mine too.
Our Lady of the Angels ( http://www.our-lady-of-angels.org.uk/ ) pray for us!
PAPA VERO ORA PRO NOBIS!
I happened to attend a mass said by Bishop Conry shortly after his consecration. A&B is my home diocese, though I long ago moved to London and lost touch with things there, it just happened I was staying there for something else and he was visiting the parish where I was staying that day, and when I went to mas there he was. He came across very well, and only afterwards did I find through the infamous Catholic Herald interview, that he is characterised as an ultra-liberal.
Well, if he is behind this it just goes to show one should not idly label people, including oneself, and not dismiss others who one has labelled opposite to oneself. Fr Tim shows us the way here in blessing a man with whom I guess he has disagreed on much in the past. Reality I suspect, and I know this is the case with me, is that most of us have liberal and conservative streaks, and sometimes it surprises me when one of these pokes up when I wasn't expecting it.
One of the benefits of the new ruling is that I shall enjoy white wine with my fish, having for some time observed Fridays by abstaining from alcohol and chocolate.
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