Tomorrow [at time of writing] begins Lent for 2025. If I am to be honest I do not look forward to this time of year as it is a burden in many ways. But on the other hand I do look forward to it as a time where I can make progress in my devotion to God. A bit of a love/hate relationship. If you follow the Vatican II rules then Lent is not much of a burden at all; just some moderate fasting on a couple of days and that’s it. However, if you follow the directions for Lent predating Vatican II then it is far more compelling. This video goes into how Lent has been watered down and weakened over the centuries. The specific Lent rules that sedevacantists follow are from the pontificate of Pio XII, (according to the Canons 1250-1254 of the Plan-Benedictine Canon Law of 1917, modified by the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites of 16 September 1955 and the Sacred Congregation of the Council of 25 July 1957).
The rules I follow are as follows: Lent consists of days of fasting and abstinence. On fasting days you may only eat one main meal usually after sunset of no more than 250 grams, as well as two smaller bites of 60 grams each. On abstinence days you must avoid meat and meat based products, such as broth made from meat, but eggs and dairy products are allowed.
During Lent, every day is a fasting day except for the Sundays. Abstinence days are every Friday and Saturday, as well as Ash Wednesday. Fasting days are to be observed by Catholics between the ages of 21 – 60. Abstinence days by everyone over the age of 7. There are exceptions which I won’t go into here.
In addition, if you want to get very serious then there is the Black Fast or Passion Fast to undertake. Fasting ends on Thursday of the Holy week of Easter but abstinence is still observed until Easter Sunday. The Black Fast is to not eat anything on Good Friday or Holy Saturday, breaking the fast only with lunch on Easter Sunday after having also fasted on Sunday morning before taking Communion. In other words, dinner on Thursday evening and then no food until Sunday lunch.
Okay, so those are the rules that we try to follow. Let’s turn our attention to the question of why these rules exist, and what should our attitude be towards Lent. A typical response to Lent is to ask what is the minimum that I can do? In other words, what can I get away with and still show that I’m a good Christian? But this approach misses the underlying point of Lent.
Ostensibly, Lent exists to bring us closer to God. We follow the forty days of Lent to imitate Christ’s forty days in the wilderness. We then conclude this with a fast for His Passion. But the focus of Lent is not fasting. Rather, the focus of Lent is prayer. Fasting and abstinence are the vehicles that make prayer more efficacious.
To illustrate this point, let us consider what happens to souls when people die. Most souls unfortunately go to hell because they have rejected God. Of the remaining souls, a very few go straight to heaven. The remainder must spend time in Purgatory before they are able to enter Heaven. The reason for this is that these souls must be cleansed of their attachment to sin before they can stand before the perfect Beatific Vision.
On the one hand, time spent in Purgatory is difficult because the soul must be cleansed and this entails suffering. On the other hand, this time is bearable because the soul knows that God is real and exists, and the soul knows that it will definitely enter heaven; the soul only does not know when that will occur.
However, for souls still on earth we do not have these absolute sureties. We believe in God, we have our faith, but we do not absolutely know, and nor do we know if we will ever gain heaven. Because of these unknowns, the time that we spend here on earth removing our attachment to sin is worth much more than the same time spent in Purgatory. Our lives on earth are our greatest opportunity to accept God as our savior, to seek to enact His will here on earth, and to do our best to remove our attachment to sin.
That is why Lent is so valuable. The focus during this time should be on prayer, on removing our attachment to sin, on drawing closer towards God, on contemplating His divine sacrifice. Fasting and abstinence are tools to keep us committed to that journey. This then culminates on Easter Sunday when we celebrate Holy Mass and then enjoy a hearty Sunday lunch as a reward for our efforts during Lent.
I hope that each one of your own journeys during Lent is a great success.
Originally published at Pushing Rubber Downhill on March 4, 2025. You can purchase Adam’s books here.
