It is no secret that Lenten fasting has recently become much more relaxed within the Catholic Church. This lessening of Lenten practices, which has frankly been happening for the past few centuries, has come to what must hopefully be its final and most simplified form in this progression.
For those who don’t know, the current fast for all Latin Rite Catholics is this: All Catholics from the ages of fourteen up must abstain from meat and animal products on all Fridays during Lent, and all between the ages of eighteen and fifty-nine must fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday meaning that only one full meal is eaten in the day and two collations which do not together add up to a full meal may be taken.
When we compare this to the rigorous practices of our ancestors in the faith there is a sense of unimportance that fills our modern Catholic paradigm. Although Lenten observances have changed and decreased since the first few centuries of the Church’s history, even into the late Renaissance and early industrial period fasting was taken extremely seriously and upheld with the greatest of fervor.
The purpose of this article is not to outline the changes in fasting over time, so I will just give a general outline of what the fast often consisted of for much of the Church’s history with slight variations. If one wants an analogy, this is likely the fast kept by Christians in the time of St. Thomas: Catholics were meant to fast every single day of Lent (except Sundays), which meant that only one meal was eaten, and oftentimes a collation was allowed (somewhere between two and eight ounces).
Catholics were also expected to fast every day except for Sunday until 3 pm, the hour of Our Lord’s death. For abstinence, the general practice was to forego meat, dairy, eggs, and sugar for the entirety of Lent including Sundays.
This is also similar to that which our Eastern brethren would also keep with the addition of abstaining from fish and oil as well. This practice made it so that our daily mortifications and Christ’s Passion are always at the front of our minds and hearts. It is said that it’s good that the fast was reduced because now more people can go above and beyond by their own volition rather than coercion.
While this is true in theory, most people don’t go above and beyond, as it seems in the minds of most Catholics that there is no reason to do so. In the East, the mentality that surrounded the traditional fast is still there: the standard is set high and you do the best and the most that you can for God. For us, the standard is set so low that one could complete the Lenten requirements sometimes by happenstance or by accident.
It can be argued that people nowadays live much more strenuous lives in the modern workforce suggesting that it is more difficult to fast as much and so it makes sense to lower it to something more manageable.
Regardless of the efficacy of the premise, this gives the impression that our mother the Church thinks we are weak and can’t live up to the example of the saints. The Second Vatican Council rightly brings to us the call of universal holiness and the crucial role of the laity in the Church and to be ministers of Christ in the world.
In keeping with this, it would seem that the Church would so greatly encourage severe fasting to prepare us for the glory of the coming Easter season, to strengthen us for the spiritual warfare in our lives, and to unite us with the great saints who took up their empty stomachs as a weapon against sin and vice.
If you ask people in the East, many will likely tell you that no one keeps the fast in its entirety; everyone is tempted and everyone struggles with it because we are not Christ, and that’s okay.
We are meant to offer as much as we can and do all that we are able for God in order to serve Him in the world. This is the encouragement the Church should give us in these turbulent days: fast hard, and when we struggle pick our crosses back up and keep going. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, let’s act like it!
Born and Raised to Jewish parents in New York City, Kai Breskin is a recent convert to the Catholic Faith. A member of the Boston College class of 2026, he is studying Political Science, Philosophy, and History. His intellectual passions include Christian theology, history, and liturgical study. His hobbies include sailing, playing the piano, and singing, with a specific focus in Gregorian Chant.
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