Diocese of Westminster Ordo 2026 FAST AND ABSTINENCE Traditional devotions such as making the sign of the cross with care and reverence, praying the Angelus and saying a prayer before or after meals, are straightforward actions which both dedicate certain moments in our daily lives to God and demonstrate our love and trust in his goodness and providence. If these devotions have been lost or even forgotten, particularly in our homes and schools, we have much to gain from learning them again. Every Friday is set aside as a special day of penitence, as it is the day of the suffering and death of the Lord.
It is important that all the faithful again be united in a common, identifiable act of Friday penance since the virtue of penitence is best acquired as part of a common resolve and witness. The law of the Church requires Catholics on Fridays to abstain from meat, or some other form of food or to observe some other form of penance laid down by the Bishops’ Conference. The Bishops have decided that this penance be fulfilled simply by abstaining from meat and by uniting this to prayer. Those who cannot or choose not to eat meat as part of their normal diet should abstain from some other food of which they regularly partake. This decision came into effect on Friday, 16 September 2011.
Re-emphasising the importance of penitence is but one of the responses the Bishops wish to make to the growing desire of people to deepen and give identity to the spiritual aspects of their lives. It is also clear than many of us forget our obligation to do penance on a Friday. On a Sunday our prayer is in thanksgiving to God for the new and eternal life brought to us by Christ’s resurrection from the dead. On a Friday our prayer is in thanksgiving for the gift of mortal life that we have been given, a life which Christ willingly sacrificed on the cross for our sake. A fitting prayer then, as part of our Friday penance, would be to ask Almighty God to turn away all threats to mortal life.
The act of abstinence itself can be offered consciously as a prayer for life and in reparation for sins against life. It can also be put at the service of others if we make a sacrifice and give financial savings made from our abstention (or fasting) to charities which assist those who are poor or suffering. If we are unable to make that financial sacrifice, we can still perform a ‘work of charity’, an act of kindness and love to another person who is in need or suffering in some way. Canon 1251 states:
‘Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the Conference of Bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fasting is to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Canon 1252 states: ‘The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.
Those under 14 years of age, the sick, the elderly and frail, pregnant women, seafarers, manual workers according to need, guests at a meal who cannot 11