Thursday, March 24, 2011

Do not do Penance Tomorrow

Canon 1251  Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Annunciation!

It is a No Penance Friday! Good Christians have a duty to feast, even to eat swan, if you can get it. Though some medieval authorities would claim that as it lived in water it was a fish: liberals, we have had with us always. So have it as a fish course and perhaps something meatier afterwards.

Here is a recipe for the sauce:

Chaudon. Tak þe issu of þe swan & wasch it wel, & scoure þe guttes wel with salt, & seth þe issu al togedere til it be ynow, & þan tak it vp and wasch it wel & hew it smal, & tak bred & poudere of gyngere & of galyngale & grynde togedere & tempere it with þe broth, & coloure it with þe blood. And when it is ysothe & ygrounde & streyned, salte it, & boyle it wel togydere in a postnet & sesen it with a litel vynegre.
source

15 comments:

Gregor said...

Of course, can. 1251 CIC/1983 is a postconciliar idea. Under the former law, the requirement of fasting and abstinence only ceased on Holy Days of Obligations, and not even then during Lent (cf. can. 1252 § 4 CIC/1917).

And before the CIC/1917, having meat and fish at the same meal was never licit in Lent, not even on Sundays.

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬) said...

I trust that at your exhortation your readers in England will not rush out to strangle wild swans. Do not offend Her Majesty the Queen!

Poach the tame swans raised by your neighbor's children.

The Bones said...

Can we have beer and wine and stuff too? Can we have cheesecake and stuff like that?

I'm going online to order some swans right now. I hope you are able to treat yourself to a dairy product, Father.

Basil said...

I'm still confused -I thought traditionally solemnities and Sundays in Lent were no fast days, but that the obligation to abstain from certain things went on for the whole of Lent. Have I got this wrong?

pelerin said...

What a pity - Sainsburys, Tescos and the Co-op were out of swans today. There must have been a run on them. I don't think I would get one in my oven so perhaps it's just as well.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Gregor, the Law moves on.

Fr Z, Not all swans are HMQ's! That is a fiction. Some on the Thames belong to Livery Companies (google: swan upping), others to individuals, others are wild.

Lawrence, Yes, you can.

Gregor said...

It certainly does, Father, but for one thing we are allowed to question whether that is a good thing in each case (the virtually complete breakdown of the Friday observance would suggest otherwise), and for another, while the present law is uindoubtedly the law, it just strikes me as somewhat silly representing having a feast with meat tomorrow as something particularly catholic, when until very recently catholics were specifically forbidden (under mortal sin) to do so.

Gregor said...

On a lighter note: I remember some years ago buying a glass of cranberry suace from Fortnum & Mason's and reading at home on the label "Compulsory with turkey, but sadly illegal with swan".

Mick said...

I heard that as a result of your post Father, Abbotsbury are battening down the hatches !

Mike said...

I am totally confused. Having been away from the Church for a long time I am a little rusty on the rules about abstinence. (I am of an age when, apparently, I do not need to fast.) However, I thought that there was no longer an obligation to abstain from meat (“or other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference”) except on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. So how come all this fuss about being able to eat meat this Friday? And where does one go to find out whatever rules are determined by the Episcopal Conference? I have been to the website of the EC Scotland and can find no relevant information.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Mike, Our Episcopal Conference in E/W has substituted other penances (see http://marymagdalen.blogspot.com/2011/03/friday-penance-in-england-and-wales.html) but these are not binding tomorrow because of this canon.

Aaron Saunderson-Cross said...

Thank-you for this, Father! I was just preparing myself for a penitential early Friday start... and now it seems I shall do quite the opposite!

nickbris said...

Some time ago there was a Hoo-Ha in the Xenophobic Press about east europeans eating HM,s swans.

. said...

How about swan stuffed with widgeon?

Gigi said...

Yeuch. Do you have a recipe for a vegetarian alternative to swanfeast Father Ray? I couldn't see anything with quorn in Sainsos proclaiming itself to be "Swan-style" or "With an authentic taste of swan". Thank God.

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