Bishop Christopher Coyne on Lenten Fasting & Abstinence
I met Bishop Coyne on Twitter (@bishopcoyne). He is a great figure to follow, as he regularly makes apposite comments and posts reflections on scripture daily. We did plan to meet up when he was in Rome for the ad limina visit last year, and I was on a jolly, but alas, he was too busy on the day. He is currently an auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Today he posted this comment about fasting during Lent on his Facebook page, which I thought was very interesting and worth sharing~ I' m one of those who does not count Sundays in Lent as days of fasting and abstinence. I do this for many reasons, much of which, I guess, comes from my studies in liturgy and history (I have a doctorate in liturgical studies). You know, if you count up all the days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, there are forty-six days in Lent. But if you subtract the Sundays, there are forty days. That is because the ancient practice was that Sundays were outside of the fas...