Lent calls us into a season of 40 days of fasting. It’s common for us to focus particularly on one edible attachment: chocolate, alcohol, dessert, etc. Throughout Christian history, however, Lent called everyone to a more rigorous time of general fasting and asceticism. Mandatory fasting may have been reduced to two days, but the season, in its essence, entails 40 days of curtailing our food intake. This entailed abstaining from all animal products (except fish) for the full 46 days, Sundays included, and not eating a full meal until evening on Monday through Saturday. Early Christians fasted completely until evening, but, over time, some collations (snacks) were allowed after noon.
Fasting entails not eating, but what we do eat during Lent should reinforce our focus on the goals of the season. Not eating should make us hungry for God and our higher needs. When we eat, this, too, should point us to God and conversion. To turn away from the flesh, we stop eating the flesh of animals, reminding us of the danger of following our own fleshy appetites. Fish could be seen as an exception to get around fasting (and Catholics love to find those), but eating fish positively points us to our true food.
From the beginning, the fish represented Christ himself, the Ichthus—Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior—who offers us the daily bread we need to survive. Eating fish also offers a sign of conversion as we turn to Christ in Lent and Fridays throughout the year. And when it comes to fish fries, let’s just keep it simple for a day of sacrifice!
Special foods have arisen to meet the demands of the Lenten fast, with pretzels made of flour and water being the most famous. The pretzel’s origin may be lost to history, but we do know with certainty that it arose in the early Middle Ages, the time of the monks, with the first recorded mention in the fifth century. By the 12th century, they were common enough in Germany to appear on the emblems of bakers as a symbol of their craft. The most likely etymology is brachiola, “little arms,” because if you flip the snack upside down, you will find an image of folded arms as an emblem of Lenten prayer. In addition, its three holes can be seen to represent the Trinity. If pretzels really do derive from Lenten fasting, then it would make sense even for this collation to point back to the spirit of the season.
But if you eat pretzels, won’t you need a beer to drink with them? Is that allowed during Lent? Early Christian fasting proscribed wine, along with oil, meat, and dairy. Beer was not widely consumed in Greco-Roman culture, making this barley-based drink another possible exception to the Lenten fast. Some have even claimed that monks survived solely on beer during Lent, but, based on my research for The Beer Option: Brewing a Catholic Culture Yesterday & Today (Angelico, 2018), it was used in Bavaria as a supplement during the day until the sole evening meal. Like the pretzel, beer, a staple of Northern European culture, helped sustain the fast. Beer and pretzels—that will lead us to asceticism, right? Well, if you embrace a fast as rigorous as St. Francis Paola’s Friars Minum (who founded the Paulaner Brewery in Munich), you may just need a beer to get you through the day. For my part, I’ll stick to water.
Finally, a simple Lenten soup offers a perfect course for the penitent. Father Xavier Weiser describes two Polish recipes in one of his many books on Catholic customs of the seasons (in this case, The Easter Book, which also addresses Lenten customs). The first is simply called Lenten (Postna) soup, made with sauteed carrots, celery and onions, which are then simmered in water. The second is Postna Grochowka, Lenten Pea Soup, comprised of a pound of split peas, seasonings (salt, pepper, bay leaves, and allspice) and a cup of carrots. All the ingredients should be boiled for four hours except the carrots, which are added halfway through. Add some pretzels alongside a bowl of Lenten soup, and you’ll have a perfectly simple meal for the season.
Why focus on Lenten foods? These examples point us to the ancient custom of more serious fasting throughout the Lenten season. They call us to abstain from meat, to refrain from eating between meals, to substitute meals for more simple snacks, and to curtail any luxury from our eating habits. What we eat should remind us of the call to fast, which in turn should point us to the Lord as the true sustenance of the season, which he offers us in our daily prayer with him in the desert.
(Dr. Staudt’s column is syndicated by the Denver Catholic, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Denver.)
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Thank you for this reminder of how much good I could gain if only the cookies would stop calling my name….
Nice suggestions, but is Mr. Staudt aware that in most Eastern cities fish costs as much or even much more than steak? And where is the fasting and penance in a meal of salmon, sea bass, Dover sole, or ahi tuna? The point of Lent is not culinary fetishism that strictly excludes “the flesh of animals” but poor and simple food. A meal of hot dogs and beans, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, or pasta with a sauce of basil or green peppers and mushrooms is far more in keeping with the purpose of Lent than beer and pretzels.
By “Eastern” cities, do you mean the cities of the US East Coast? This week in the largest city of the PNW (US Coast), you can purchase a 3.75 oz. Chicken of the Sea can of sardines for only $1.25 ($5.28/#). At the local Kroger, Starkist chunk light tuna, 5.0 oz. can, be had for $1.00 ($3.++/#).
When one cannot afford tuna or sardines, one can do what my family did (many kids, no money)….We ate potato dumplings in gravy. We ate fried cabbage and potatoes. We ate potato pancakes. We ate peanut butter on bread (baked fresh, homemade because that was cheaper).
Surely fasting may take many forms.
And here’s the main point: Lenten fasts strengthen our spiritual faculties of intellect and will to control bodily urges, appetites, impulses, desires. Causing our bodies to fast likely leads to some bodily suffering. We may grow in holiness as a result since our spiritual faculties are given more reign over the impulses of flesh.
A Lenten bodily fast which causes bodily suffering is pursued because we will or choose to suffer as an act for love of God. As Jesus fasted for us, ought we not fast for Him? Our finite acts of love produce infinite effect—God repays our charity 100-fold. ANYTHING we do in our daily lives OUT OF LOVE AND ATTENDANT DIFFICULTY OR SUFFERING in union with God or out of love for Him is a fast.
Although the 2-mite widow gave less than most others, God acknowledged her and her greater charity as she gave up what little she had out of love.
Thank you for this reminder of how the Church has fasted and how we can observe our own fast. The use of beer in the Middle Ages and Renaissance period was cultural and practical – people didn’t know what germs were, but they knew they got sick less often when they drank beer. Beer saved a lot of lives, but we don’t have that situation now. I have known people who felt that giving up meat and eating fish was not truly Lenten, so they gave up shrimp, lobster and salmon but ate chicken (not on Wednesday or Friday) and canned tuna. We try to remain simple, prayerful and generous. Fasting takes a third place to almsgiving ad prayer, but it is a good exercise. Pretzels would be okay if they’re not gourmet. Flour and water, right?
The emphasis has to be on devotion and introspection, and self-sacrifice helps. The Church guides, and we learn. And the blessed nuns and monks are examples for us.
I was studying a little about the Coptic Church & saw this info. The amount of complaining we do in the West about what’s been reduced to just two days of fasting & abstaining from meat on Fridays in Lent is interesting when we look at the churches in the East:
“Besides eating vegan every Wednesday and Friday, the Coptic Church fasts for several periods in the year.
Here are the dates for 2024 (updated 1/8/24):
Jonah’s Fast: February 26 – 28 (no seafood)
Great Lent: March 11 – April 26 (no seafood)
Apostles’ Fast: June 24 – July 11 (seafood allowed except Wed/Fri)
St. Mary’s Fast: August 7 – 21 (seafood allowed except Wed/Fri)
Nativity Fast: November 25 – January 6 (seafood allowed except Wed/Fri)”
Frankly, when I first saw in the local parish the rule you mentioned (two days of fasting & abstaining from meat on Fridays in Lent) I did not know what to make of it and still do not know. The Eastern Orthodox rule for non-fasting periods is no meat/dairy on all Wednesdays and Fridays. It is not hard at all.
The Coptic rule for fasts is almost identical to the Eastern Orthodox (we do not have Jonah’s fast). I will add that this is an ideal and those who are unwell or whose work demands an additional nutrition can lessen their fast. Such things are decided together with a confessor who gives his blessing.
Thank you for sharing that Anna. There’s a lot we can learn from the Eastern Church I think.
One of my children is traveling to Ethiopia this year and I hope they can visit one of the beautiful churches carved out of rock. Or bedrock maybe.
Someone attached to fasting will consider himself devout because he doesn’t eat, even though his heart is filled with bitterness; and while, out of love for sobriety, he will not let a drop of wine, or even water, touch his tongue, he will not scruple to drench it in the blood of his neighbor through gossip and slander. St. Francis de Sales
On fasting during Lent:
On the weekdays of Lent I try to stick to plain and simple fare such as bread without butter, with either salmon paste or tinned tuna, sometimes bread and jam with tea or coffee without sugar or milk.
Fruit, fresh or tinned can supplement your diet without breaking any traditional fasting regulations.
Intake of appropriate doses of simple food can be the right medicine for the wellbeing of the body and the nourishment of the soul – declares the science of naturopathy.