Pints With Aquinas - 46.5 Are Sundays part of lent?

Episode Date: February 28, 2017

Back when I worked as an apologist with Catholic Answers we received a lot of questions around this time of year. Perhaps the most common was, “are Sunday’s excluded from Lent?” The answer is . . . are you ready for this? No. Sunday’s are not excluded from Lent. According to the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, “Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper exclusive” (28). No exceptions are given for Sunday’s during Lent. In fact, a couple of paragraphs later the GN says: “The Sundays of this season are called the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent. The Sixth Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week, is called Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday)” (30). So there you have it. Now, does that mean that we cannot choose to allow ourselves the things we voluntarily gave up for lent? No, it doesn’t. These voluntary fasts are personal devotions. Because they have been voluntarily taken up, we can choose to set them aside. That said, be awesome and sacrifice this Lent. What my P.E coach told me in middle-school applies to Lent also, “mate, if it’s not hurting, you’re not doing it right.” Link to GN here: https://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDWLITYR.HTM --- SPONSORS EL Investments: https://www.elinvestments.net/pints Exodus 90: https://exodus90.com/mattfradd/  Hallow: http://hallow.app/mattfradd  STRIVE: https://www.strive21.com/  GIVING Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattfradd This show (and all the plans we have in store) wouldn't be possible without you. I can't thank those of you who support me enough. Seriously! Thanks for essentially being a co-producer coproducer of the show. LINKS Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/matt-fradd FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/ SOCIAL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattfradd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd MY BOOKS  Does God Exist: https://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Exist-Socratic-Dialogue-ebook/dp/B081ZGYJW3/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586377974&sr=8-9 Marian Consecration With Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Marian-Consecration-Aquinas-Growing-Closer-ebook/dp/B083XRQMTF/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586379026&sr=8-4 The Porn Myth: https://www.ignatius.com/The-Porn-Myth-P1985.aspx CONTACT Book me to speak: https://www.mattfradd.com/speakerrequestform

Welcome to Pints with Aquinas, Pints with Aquinas, episode 46.5. I'm Matt Fradd. Today I'm going to be answering a question that many people ask around this time of year, namely, are Sundays part of Lent? Great to have you here at Pints with Aquinas. This is the second episode this week. Did you listen to yesterday's episode? That was on the fifth way of St. Thomas Aquinas. If you haven't listened to it, you should because it's awesome.

How are you doing? Tomorrow is Lent, unless you're in the Eastern Church, in which case the Great Fast started Monday. But for the Roman Church, the Lent begins tomorrow. And I have some massively exciting news, and I don't know how to get it across loud enough. I wish I had a bell or something to kind of listen, listen, listen, listen. There is a book that Thomas Aquinas wrote, listen. There is a book that Thomas Aquinas wrote. And in this book, he writes a meditation for every day of Lent. Did you know that? No, you didn't. Well, you might have, but I didn't actually. This book is in the public domain. So guess what I've done? I have recorded audibly this entire book and I've broken it up into small meditations for every day. Here's how you listen

to it. If you want to listen to what St. Thomas Aquinas says for every single day this Lent, go to pintswithaquinas.com, click the Patreon banner. Those who support Pints with Aquinas for $5 or more a month, you have access to the entire audio meditations from this book. That's really cool. You can download the Patreon app and listen to a different meditation every day. It's got a great little audio player on that app, just like iTunes. And that could be a really beautiful way to, you know, A, pray more, right? B, maybe take on something extra. And C, almsgiving. You are giving to the Fradd family and you are giving to help keep Pints with Aquinas going. So just to make that clear again, in case you were sleeping, Aquinas wrote a book, Meditations for Lent. It's a meditation for every

day. You read it, it's about three to five minutes per meditation. I've recorded all of these things. I've put some gorgeous Gregorian chant in the background. And those who donate to Pints with Aquinas on Patreon get to listen to them, right? Oh, you know what I'll do? I just thought of this right now. At the end of this episode, I will play you the very first meditation for Ash Wednesday. Sound good? Of course it does. All right, let's get into today's discussion. All right, so look, many people this time of year ask the question, are Sundays a part of Lent? Back when I worked at Catholic Answers, we received a ton of questions around this time of year, but this was the most common. All right. Are you ready for the correct answer? I said, are you ready for the correct answer? I can't hear you.

Okay. I've obviously had too much coffee this morning. Here's the answer. Yes. Sundays are part of Lent. And I'll tell you why in a minute. But first of all, I think the reason people ask this question is that they want to be able to eat their food or do the thing they gave up on Sundays. So I'll show you why, A, Sundays are part of Lent, and then I'll answer the question, can I break my fast on Sundays? So Sundays are not excluded from Lent. To put it positively, Sundays are part of Lent. According to the general norms for the liturgical year and calendar, quote, Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord's Supper exclusive. No exceptions are given for Sundays during Lent. In fact, a couple of paragraphs later here in the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, it says this,

The Sundays of this season are called the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of this season are called the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent. The sixth Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week, is called Passion Sunday, end quote. So there you have it. Now, to answer that second question, does that mean that we cannot choose to allow ourselves those things we gave up for Lent. No, it doesn't mean that, right? These things, these fasts that we impose upon ourselves, we impose upon ourselves voluntarily. And so because we've taken them up voluntarily, we can set them aside and that's okay, not just on Sunday, but any day of the week. You must, you are obliged to follow the church's commandments in regards to fasting. But since you voluntarily took up a particular fast, you can voluntarily set it aside on Sundays, if you wish,

on other days. That said, be awesome and sacrifice this Lent. What my PE coach, physical education coach, told me in middle school applies to Lent also. Mate, if it's not hurting, you're not doing it right. I pray that all of you would have a blessed Lent. As I promised, I will play you the very first meditation from St. Thomas Aquinas for Ash Wednesday. You'll listen to it. Hopefully you'll love it. And then you'll go to Patreon. Again, the way you go there is by going to pintswithaquinas.com, clicking the Patreon banner. And if you begin supporting the show for $5 a month or more, you'll have access to all of these. And then you'll get to listen to St. Thomas Aquinas every single day of Lent, and that'll be awesome. Hope you're well, guys.

God bless you, and chat with you next Tuesday. Bye. Okay, I'm just realizing what is about to come next is super serious, so I have to somehow settle down a little bit. Are you now ready to listen to this meditation? Good. Take a breath. I will too. Meditations for Lent from St. Thomas Aquinas. Ash Wednesday. Death. By one man sin entered into this world and by sin death. If for some wrongdoing a man is deprived of some benefit once given to him, that he should lack that benefit is the punishment of his sin. Now in man's first creation he was

divinely endowed with this advantage that so long as his mind remained subject to God, the lower powers of his soul were subjected to the reason and the body was subjected to the soul. But because by sin man's mind moved away from its subjection to God, it followed that the lower parts of his mind ceased to be wholly subjected to the reason. From this there followed such a rebellion of the bodily inclination against the reason that the body was no longer wholly subject to the soul. Whence follow death and all bodily defects. that the body was no longer wholly subject to the soul. Whence follow death and all bodily defects.

For life and wholeness of body are bound up with this, that the body is wholly subject to the soul, as a thing which can be made perfect is subject to that which makes it perfect. So it comes about that conversely, there are such things as death, sickness, and every other bodily defect. For such misfortunes are bound up with an incomplete subjection of body to soul. The rational soul is of its nature immortal, and therefore death is not natural to man insofar as man has a soul. It is natural to his body, for the body, since it is formed of things contrary to each other in nature, is necessarily liable to corruption, and it is in this respect that death is natural to man. But God who fashioned man is all-powerful, and hence by an

advantage conferred on the first man, he took away that necessity of dying which was bound up with the matter of which man was made. This advantage was however withdrawn through the sin of our first parents. Death is then natural if we consider the matter of which man is made, and it is a penalty inasmuch as it happens through the loss of the privilege whereby man was preserved from dying. Sin, original sin and actual sin, is taken away by Christ, that is to say, by him who is also the remover of all bodily defects. He shall quicken also your mortal bodies because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you. But according to the order appointed by a wisdom that is divine, it is at the time which best suits that Christ takes away both the one and the other, that is, both sin and bodily defects. Now it is only right that, before we arrive at the glory

of impassibility and immortality which began in Christ and which was acquired for us through Christ, we should be shaped after the pattern of Christ's sufferings. It is then only right that Christ's liability to suffer should remain in us too for a time, as a means of our coming to the impassibility of glory in the way he himself came to it.