bound to abstain from
flesh-meat on days when it is forbidden--Ash Wednesday and the Fridays
of Lent. The following persons are excused from fasting: (1) those who
are not yet twenty-one or who have begun their sixtieth year (from their
59th birthday onward); (2) those whose infirmity, condition, or
occupation renders it impossible or dangerous for them to fast. If you
think you should be excused from fasting or abstaining, state your
reasons to your confessor and ask his advice. On a fast-day, therefore,
you have to look both to the quantity and the kind of food, while on a
day of abstinence--as the Fridays in Lent other than Good Friday--you
have to look only to the kind.

394 Q. What do you mean by days of abstinence?
A. By days of abstinence I mean days on which we are forbidden to eat
flesh-meat, but are allowed the usual amount of food.

395 Q. Why does the Church command us to fast and abstain?
A. The Church commands us to fast and abstain in order that we may
mortify our passions and satisfy for our sins.

"Mortify our passions," keep our bodies under control, do bodily
penance. Remember it is our bodies that generally lead us into sin; if
therefore we punish the body by fasting and mortification, we atone for
the sin, and thus God wipes out a part of the temporal punishment due to
it.

*396 Q. Why does the Church command us to abstain from flesh-meat on Ash
Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent and to abstain from flesh-meat or do
some other chosen penance on the other Fridays of the year?
A. The Church commands us to abstain, from flesh-meat on Ash Wednesday
and the Fridays of Lent and to abstain from flesh-meat or do some other
chosen penance on the other Fridays of the year in honor of the day on
which Our Saviour died.

Lesson 36
ON THE THIRD, FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH COMMANDMENTS OF THE CHURCH

397 Q. What is meant by the command of confessing at least once a year?
A. By the command of confessing at least once a year is meant that we
are obliged, under pain of mortal sin, to go to confession within the
year.

"Within the year"--that is, the time between your confessions must never
be longer than a year, or, at least not longer than the period between
the beginning of one Eastertime and the end of the next. All persons who
have attained the age of reason are bound to comply with this precept,
and parents should remind their children of it.

*398 Q. Should we confess only once a year?
A. We sh