MEEEEAAAT!
That is the cry heard throughout the world.
In case you dont recognize it it is one of my 6'2"+ 200 pound sons. He thinks he is starving to death.
He probably is.
I have told him for two weeks to have a bottle of Guiness and go to bed- that's what the Trappists in Europe did when they were on this fast.
"Mom, I have to go to work."
Now what? I wonder...
BREAKDOWN-
I bought lunchmeat.
I know for most of my friends it is the season of joy, of overeating, of cakes, cookies, mulled wine and cider, hot cocoa. Not for me.
I found a Catholic Church that practices the ancient tradition of fasting during this season. Lucky me. Anyone who knows me knows that I start killing people when I don't eat. But for the forty days before Christmas we fast.
Now that that is settled, I have to start in the middle. The middle, because the Eastern Church begins their Church year On September 14, the feast of the Holy Cross. The middle because I have begun my blog in the midst of the “Nativity Fast”, or “Saint Philip’s fast”. During this fast, you may not eat meat, oil, dairy products or alcohol, except on Feast Days, or days when there is Liturgy. Our Pastor, sends out a calendar each month with the days for fasting marked. Those days say FAST, STRICT FAST, WO, FWO.
Being dedicated to trying to fast like everyone else in the Parish, at least for the first year I drank W ater O nly on the specified days. I ate F ish and W ater O nly on the specified days.
After Liturgy during the August fast, (It is not called “Mass”) I starved but watch everyone else wolfing down after- church goodies, not just the fruit and vegetables I was having to eat. Finally, I asked someone why they weren’t fasting. They said that they were…(At that point I felt like Lucy when Ricky teaches her how to play golf. Sorry if you haven't seen that episode.)
Then, I asked how they could eat food with OIL in it and still consider themselves fasting. The woman stared at me for a long time before she broke into a long belly laugh. (It took her that long to figure out that I had misunderstood the symbols.) FWO means that you can have fish on that day, oils, and wine- or alcohol , WO, meaning W ine and O ils. Vegetables and Fruits are also allowed, just no butter...or oil... So the joke was on me. And if you followed that you are probably happy that you are a Roman Catholic. You should be. But don't get too smug. This fast WAS practiced by the entire church for 1700 years, both east and west. Somewhere along the way, like women wearing mantillas, the fast was dropped. This last week is about the time in the fast when I start justifying going OFF the fast. After all, I am still a Roman Catholic. So like I said, I bought lunch meat. My husband came home for lunch because he knew we had MMMEEEEAAATTTTT. The doorbell rang. It was our Pastor.
He looked at Willard, then looked at me.
"I have to leave", he said.
Now we aren't sure if he had to leave because he was hungry for RED MEAT, or if he was annoyed with us.
We think it was the latter...