The bishops have invited Catholics to consider fasting and abstaining from meat on Fridays out of a special concern for issues pertaining to life, marriage, and religious liberty.

Here are some suggestions to consider each Friday as you pray for the weekly intention:

• Abstain from meat*

• Abstain from any particular food or beverage

• Fast (one full meal and two smaller meals which do not equal one full meal)*
  

• Offer up the day’s inconveniences

• Give up some form of entertainment for the day

• Give up anything else of your choice

• Offer a work of charity
  

*Abstain from meat and/or fast on Fridays

Fasting and abstinence unite us to the redemptive suffering and death of our Lord. "The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice." - Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1438

The practice of fasting: In the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal.

The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onward.