‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2023 March 11

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Saturday, 11 March, in the year of our Lord 2023. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Saturday (today): 5:00 PM, Mass, Lenten Feria.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Lent III.
• Monday: 10:00 AM, Mass, Lenten Feria.
• Tuesday: 6:30 PM, Sung Evensong.
• Wednesday: 12:10 PM, Sext (monastic Noonday prayers).
• Thursday: 6:30 PM, Mass, Lenten Feria, followed-by Soup and Study.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, Saint Patrick, Bishop & Confessor, with Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Stations of the Cross & Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
  5:00 PM, Stations of the Cross.
• Saturday: 5:00 PM, Mass, S. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Mothering Sunday (Lent IV).

'Another busy week for us, here at S. Matthew's. I will be out of the Parish at the beginning of the week, for several days of meetings with the Archbishop, in Myrtle Beach. Thus, there are slight changes to the schedule on Tuesday and Wednesday. Also, the Mass will not be said on either of those days.

On Friday, we will Celebrate the Feast of Saint Patrick, Patron of Ireland. As Anglicans, abstinence means refraining from the consumption of red meat. We do this in-order to consume no blood, on the day when the Christ shed His blood for us, thereby honouring Him and His Sacrifice.

The Prayer Book admonishes us to do so on virtually all-of-the Fridays of the year, but particularly during Lent. The exceptions are the major Feasts of Christ Mass and the Epiphany. This opens-up a larger question about the relationship betwixt and between Feasts and Fasts.

Even during Lent, there is never any fasting on Sundays; indeed, the intervening Sundays are not counted in the forty days that compose Great Lent. This is because some centuries-ago, all Sundays were elevated to being first-class Feasts, in light of the mandatory attendance of the faithful at Church on those days.

One of the most common instances of this dichotomy is when Feasts occur during Great Lent. Whether the Feast in-question is Red or White in liturgical colour, it is not ~ clearly ~ Violet. Thus, on those days, the recitation of the Greater Gloria (Gloria in Excelsis), and the lesser Glorias, is restored. The Missal provides other liturgical clues, on those days, to remind us that we are indeed in Great Lent. Among these is the use of the Lenten Preface, and the commemoration of the Feria, the Mass that would have been said, had the non-Feast not occurred.

Now for S. Patrick. His Feast, being White in Colour, as he was not martyred, cannot, technically, be a day of fasting or of abstinence. However, this year it is not only in Lent, but falls on a Friday. What to do?

Using the rules, so-to-speak, you should be in the clear, when eating your corned beef. As a part of my personal Lenten devotions, I have for some years abstained completely from meat throughout Lent. As-such, I usually have my corned beef after Easter.

Taking an overview of these questions, there are several points that must be made. One is that eating meat ~ or not ~ will neither save nor condemn our souls. Abstinence is what is called a sacramental ~ things that we do for holy purposes, to aid us in better apprehending and living our faith. They are spiritual tools. If violating the rules for abstaining and fasting were enough to condemn us, we'd all be damned, which is not what our Lord seeks for us. He is not a legalist, in this strict, perhaps petty, sense.

The extent to which we follow these practices does not make us any holier than another person. Doing so can take us deeper-into communion with our Lord, and His holy Church; also with understanding His Sacrifice. They can help us to improve, relative to our former selves, but not in-regards to the spiritual status of other faithful.

Lastly, if health considerations make abstinence or fasting dangerous to you in any way, then all bets are off ~ don't do them. There are many, many other ways, other sacramentals, that can be used to attain the same spiritual goals that we pursue through these perhaps more common means. Regardless of the methods used, the entire point of Lent is to recognise our sins, and to draw further-away from them, and their pain, as we come nearer to Jesus, and His grace. I remain

in His praise,

The Rev'd Fr. T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish