Regarding the performance of Lenten devotions on Sunday, again, such would not be forbidden but is not in keeping with the joyful spirit of Sunday. For instance, reciting the Sorrowful Mysteries on Sunday is inconsistent with the commemoration of Christ’s Resurrection, unless perhaps one prays all four decades of the Rosary. Praying the Stations of the Cross on a Sunday is also inconsistent with the tenor of the day. The joyful nature of the Lord’s Day is captured by Pope John Paul II in his 1998 apostolic letter on observing the Lord’s Day (Dies Domini):
“Blessed be he who has raised the great day of Sunday above all other days. The heavens and the earth, angels and men give themselves over to joy.” This cry of the Maronite liturgy captures well the intense acclamations of joy which have always characterized Sunday in the liturgy of both East and West. Moreover, historically — even before it was seen as a day of rest, which in any case was not provided for in the civil calendar — Christians celebrated the weekly day of the Risen Lord primarily as a day of joy. “On the first day of the week, you shall all rejoice,” urges the Didascalia. This was also emphasized by liturgical practice, through the choice of appropriate gestures. Voicing an awareness widespread in the Church, Saint Augustine describes the joy of the weekly Easter: “Fasting, is set aside and prayers are said standing, as a sign of the Resurrection, which is also why the Alleluia is sung on every Sunday” (no. 55, footnotes omitted).Please feel free to call us at 1-800-MY FAITH or email us with any further questions on this or any other subject. If you have found this information to be helpful, please consider a donation to CUF to help sustain this service. You can call the toll-free line, visit us at www.cuf.org, or send your contribution to the address below. Thank you for your support as we endeavor to “support, defend, and advance the efforts of the teaching Church.”
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Dear Catholic Exchange:
Is it wrong to practice devotions and penance during Sundays of Lent?
Mr. Sanchez
Dear Mr. Sanchez,
Peace in Christ!
To say this is “wrong” is to imply the commission of sin. We are not aware of any Church discipline that indicates that one would commit a sin if he/she performed penances or Lenten devotions on a Sunday of Lent. However, it can be said that there are some types of devotion and penance that are inconsistent with the nature and spirit of Sunday.
Because Sunday is primarily a day of celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection (Catechism of the Catholic Church (Catechism), nos. 2174, 2177; cf. 2174-88), it is not counted among the “forty days” of Lent that are traditionally marked by penance, one form of which is fasting. Note, that in speaking of fasting we are not referring to the Communion fast, which is always appropriate before Mass, including Mass on Sunday. Given its commemoration of our Lord’s Resurrection, though, it would be spiritually incongruous to fast on a Lenten Sunday — or any other Sunday — as one does on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Such fasting would be inconsistent with the celebratory spirit of the day.
Nevertheless, the entire season of Lent, including the Sundays of Lent, is a time of penance (see Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Constitution on Fast and Abstinence, Paenitemini of February 17, 1966; see also the Code of Canon Law (1983), no. 1250). The penitential character of Sundays of Lent is reflected in the wearing of violet vestments and the prayers and readings of the Sunday Masses (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 346). It is also reflected in the prohibitions of the singing of the Gloria, the singing of the Alleluia, the adorning of the altar with flowers, and the playing of the organ and other instruments — except for the purpose of merely sustaining singing (General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2000 ed.), nos. 53, 62, 305, 313). [Note: flowers and the normal playing of the organ and other instruments are permitted only on the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday). They are also permitted on solemnities and feasts that occur during Lent.] (An on-line version of the GIRM is available on the U.S. bishops website.)
Throughout the centuries, however, the discipline of the Church and the piety of Christians have manifested that penance is expressed differently on Sundays of Lent from weekdays of Lent. In the early Middle Ages in the West, the weekdays of Lent were days of fast (one meal) and abstinence (at that time, from dairy products as well as from meat), while Sundays of Lent were days of abstinence only. The Holy See later permitted meat and dairy products to be eaten on Sundays of Lent (Herbert Thurston, “Lent,” Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Co., 1910)).
Today, only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are mandatory days of fast and abstinence (from meat), while all the Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence.
It is important to note that penance extends beyond fasting. The Catechism teaches:
The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works)” (no. 1438).Therefore, as the entire season of Lent is a time of penance, a person may wish to perform some penance on Sundays in keeping with the spirit of Lent (though they are not strictly days of penance). In this case, it may be more appropriate for the Sunday penance to take the form of prayer, almsgiving, pilgrimages, or retreats rather than fasting and abstinence.
