Today
Fasting and abstinence
The traditional discipline, described rather than imposed.
What we show, and what we do not
Each day shows the fast or abstinence attached to it in the traditional discipline. That is information about the practice, not a statement about what binds you.
Current obligations vary by episcopal conference, and they vary again with a person's age, health, work, and circumstances. Nothing here is a substitute for asking a priest, and nobody should read a website into a scruple.
The traditional pattern
- Fridays: abstinence from meat, or another penance in its place.
- Lent: a season of fast, with Ash Wednesday and Good Friday kept as fast and complete abstinence.
- Ember Days: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of four weeks of the year, kept as days of fast — twelve days in all.
- Vigils of certain major feasts, formerly kept as days of fast.