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Sommario
- Lent is not a holy day of obligation: canon 1246 lists Sundays and ten feasts, and no day of Lent is among them.
- Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fasting and abstinence from meat, not days on which Mass is required (canon 1251).
- Catholics 14 and older abstain from meat on Fridays; those from 18 until the beginning of their sixtieth year also fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
- Every Sunday in Lent remains a day of obligation; the Catechism excuses only for a serious reason such as illness or the care of infants (Catechism 2181).
- Catholic Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening.
- Orthodox Great Lent begins on Clean Monday; Episcopalians and Methodists keep Lent, and the Westminster Directory of 1645 kept only the Lord’s day.
Bibliografia (Clicca per mostrare)
- Code of Canon Law, canons 1245–1253. https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib4-cann1244-1253_en.html
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2181. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7O.HTM
- Congregazione per il Culto Divino, Norme universali sull'anno liturgico e sul calendario romano generale, nos. 19, 28–29 (English text, Liturgy Office of England and Wales). https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/Info/GNLY.pdf
- “Holy day of obligation,” Wikipedia (United States holy days and the USCCB complementary norm). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_day_of_obligation
- Archdiocese of New York, “Lenten Guidelines.” https://www.archny.org/posts/lenten-guidelines
- Irenaeus, letter to Victor of Rome, in Eusebius, Storia ecclesiastica, book 5, chapter 24, in Padri niceni e post-niceni, seconda serie, vol. 1. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250105.htm
- Athanasius, Festal Letter 6 (for 334), in Padri niceni e post-niceni, second series, vol. 4. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2806006.htm
- Orthodox Church in America, “Lenten Fasting,” La fede ortodossa, vol. 2. https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-church-year/lenten-fasting
- “Great Lent,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lent
- La Chiesa episcopale, Il Libro delle Preghiere Comuni (1979), “Il calendario dell'anno liturgico”. https://www.bcponline.org/General/calendar.html
- United Methodist Communications, “What is Lent and why does it last forty days?” 17 February 2020. https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-what-is-lent-and-why-does-it-last-forty-days
- The Directory for the Publick Worship of God (1645), “An Appendix, Touching Days and Places for Publick Worship”. https://www.covenanter.org/reformed/documents/the-directory-for-the-publick-worship-of-god
- Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version: Matthew 4:2; 6:16.
