Wednesdays and Fridays are still days of penance in most Eastern Catholic Churches (and among the Orthodox), but in the Roman Church, only Fridays, as memorials to the day our Lord was crucified, remain as weekly penitential days on which abstinence from meat and other forms of penance are ...
1 Tim. 4:3 – when Paul refers to doctrines that require abstinence from foods, some Protestants refer to this verse to condemn the Catholic Church’s practice of fasting. But Paul is referring to abstinence and any other practice that is performed apart from Christ’s teachings. Fasting, on...
Much later, in the eighteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church began to distinguish fasting from abstinence. Roman Catholic religious authorities defined fasting as going without food and abstinence as refraining from eating certain kinds of foods, such as meat. In everyday speech, however, people...
Ven. Mary of Agreda:"Temperance includes the two virtues of abstinence and sobriety...Abstinence also includes fasting. These virtues take thefirst placein treating of temperance; for nourishment, being necessary for the preservation of life, is among the principal objects coveted by the appetites....
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry. Catholic Public Domain VersionAnd when he had fasted for forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.New American BibleHe fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.New Revised ...
Many Christians will make personal vows of abstinence during Lent, which could include anything from refraining from eating candy, meat, vowing not to gossip, or being less selfish. Others will make a vow to do more for others including volunteering and working for social justice. All are expec...
As voluntary abstinence from food, that we are more than our physical drives. Not that eating is a bad thing, but any instinct--aggression, self-protection, or sexuality, for instance--can be distorted to ends destructive to oneself and one's relationships. Fasting serves as a means to ...
2.2. Anthropometric and Laboratory Measurements Demographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, and medical history were identified using questionnaires during medical examinations. Alcohol consumption was categorized as near abstinence, moderate (<30 g/day), or severe (≥30 g/day). Smoking history was st...