You are bound to whatever promise you make to God, though our diocese observes the following concerning Lent.
We are encouraged to fast throughout Lent. Everyday but Sunday is a FAST day meaning one big meal and two smaller meals. Liquids are ok throughout the day.
Every Lenten Friday, Ash Wednesday Ember days and Good Friday are also abstinence days (no meat, excepting fish and cold blooded animals). Sundays are free from dietary penance.
The following days are also diocesan feasts and are dispensed from the Fasts- you may also dispense from your Lenten promise depending on the nature of your promise (if you promised “Lord, I will do XYZ for the 40 days of Lent then keep that). These days are: 7th March (St Thomas Aquinas – just past), 17th March (St Patrick), 21st March St Benedict), 24th March (St Gabriel), 25th March (Annunciation), and 3rd April (Our Lady of Good Hope).
Spiritual Practices
Fr. Hardon’s Seven Ways of Penance and Reparation
Here’s the practical list of Fr. Hardon, a list of seven things you can do to perform penance and please God. The first three things are for penance and the following four are reparation:
- Pray
- Share
- Forgive
- Work
- Endure
- Deprive
- Sacrifice
Read more here.
Reflection on the Body after death (remains) and Relics
“Venerating the remains of saints is seen by many as a bizarre throwback, impossible to justify to modern people. For while the tradition spans millennia, times and beliefs have shifted. In a world where science, we’re told, has explained everything, bodies hold neither mystery nor importance. They are modified and commodified, changeable and interchangeable, something to be transcended and replaced.”
Read more here.