The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-17
CHURCHES DEFINE
LENTEN OBSERVANCE
Season Begins Today With the
Usual Services for Catholics
and Episcopaiians.

| obligations as a matter of fashion or
| hypocrisy without regard to spiritual
| meanings will hunger more than ever
| for the aesh-pots of sin.
| Lent this year will be expensive.
| Parsimony cannot masquerade as yir-
| tue. Little money will be saved by abb
| staining from meat when fish is al
most flesh in price, and eggs are 3
cents apiece. Not mere eggs, of course.
but eggs that dare venture into polite
| circles.
Society, however, will gain its usual
rest. Nerves, compilations and bank
accounts may now recuperate during
six weeks. Receptions, dinners. balls,
are always cheapest in the abstract; to
talk about the theater, or the OPERAS
II St. Paul had one-is a most instruc-
tive diversion; to stay away from card
| parties augments ones assets both in
this world and the next.
Today, Ash Wednesday, like the re-
mainder of the penitential season. will
| be observed as usual In Catholic and
Episcopal churches. At the 9 o'clock
mass this morning the symbolic ashes
VIII be blessed and distributed by the
clergy. Among the special services
| each week in the Catholic churches will
be those on Wednesday, Friday and
| Sunday evening. Friday fevening the
| stations Of the cross will be observed.
| Episcopalians will conduct again this
year the MONDAY meetings" that have
been held down town for. several sea
sons TO meet the convenience of BUSH
ness men and women. The service will
! begin promptly at 1905 o'clock and will
end at 1925. The opening service to-
day will be held at Fifth and Jackson
| streets. 1t will be in charge of Bishop
Edsall The remaining services of the
| week will be conducted by DR.. John
| Wright. Other rectors, in turn. will
| serve during subsequent weeks.
in the -Lenten regulations for the
archdiocese Of st. Paul, as issued by
Archbishop Ireland and read in all
churches last Sunday, no change has
been made, save that Of date, from the
rules laid down ayeart ago. The regu-
lations are therefore sufficiently ia
miliar to most Catholics.
| But some people interested may
care to note that there are forty-six
days from today until Easter Sunday,
April 8. The forty days of penance are
| week days only. The six Sundays are
pre-eminently days of respite.
! On week days two obligations are
| 1mposed-one must fast and one must
| abstain He must fast by limiting his
| daily food to the equivalent Of some
thing less than one and half meals.
He must abstain from flesh food by
| eating 1t not at all or at one meal
only, according to the day Of the week.
| On Sunday, however, it is not neces-
sary to limit either the amount or the
kind of food eaten. One restriction
only is decreed-both fish and flesh
cannot be eaten at the same meal.
| Neither Is the law OF the church arbi-
| trary or unjust, as is sometimes de-
[ clared by the needless, who argue
| that many persons, for various rea-
sons, have not the strength to endure
fasting and abstinence without suf-
fering and perhaps injury. All these
reasons have been considered; all the
cases meriting indulgences are ex-
| empted.
Catholics Lenten Regulations.
The archbishop's announcement
Al the days of Lent, the Sundays ex-
cepted are days of fast.
The precept Of fasting restricts the use
| OF food to one meal towards the middle
| OF the day. and collation. In the evening
| not exceeding the fourth part of an ordi-
nary meal-custom, however, authorizing
the. taking in the morning of a cup of
coffee tea or chocolate with a small
When the meal or principal repast can
not be taken without serious Inconvenience
towards the middle of the day, the order
principal repast being taken in the even
ing, and the collation. at an earlier hour.
Lenten Abstinence.
The use of flesh meat is allowed at all
meals on Sundays, and at the principal
meal on Mondays, Tuesdays. Thursdays
and aI Saturdays, except the Saturday Of
Of Holy week april o..
The use of flesh meat is forbidden on
Wednesdays, Fridays, the Saturday Of
ENzal1N II Ito CN~L,
week; on other days. outside of Sundays,
/ 1t is forbidden at all repasts, except the
one meal, or principal repast.
a. Inc t use 81 a tS noweyes Is permitted
Both fish and flesh meat cannot be TAX
en- at the same meal, even on Sundays.
Persons legitimately excused or dis
pensed from the .precept of fasting, may
use flesh meat at all meals on whatever
1 day there IS general permission to use
it at the principal repast,
Exemptions From Fast and Abstinence.
From the precept of fasting are excus-
| ed: Those under the age Of twenty one
years or over the age Of sixty; the infirm
and the convalescent; women bearing or
| nursing children; those engaged in hard
| labor or other duties exhaustive of ply
steal strength; those who from poverty are
unable to procure for the principal re-
past a Suf1ciency of nutritive food
| From the precept of abstinence from
flesh meat are excused: The young under
,
! who are so situated as not to be able
| to procure for themselves abstinence food.
Exemption for working People,"
In virtue of the authority conceded to
| bishops in the United States by a recent
pontifcal indult, permission is granted to
| working people to use meat on all days
Of Lent, with the exception of Fridays,
| Ash Wednesday, the Wednesday and the
Saturday of Holy week.
| This dispensation from abstinence ex-
| tends to all three repasts In the day.
| The usual prohibition remains against
| using flesh meat and fish at the same
! meal.
Where the wage-earner, in virtue of the
| fndult, uses meat, all the members Of the
| household may likewise use 1T. The church
| does not wish to impose upon the house
| hold the Inconvenience OF double cook
ing. But In cases of this kind those
| members of the household who may be
bound by the precept of fasting. are al
| lowed the use of meat only at their prin-
| cipal repast.
The sovereign pontiff exhorts all who
| may make use Of the privileges of the
| indult to be still mindful of their duty
| to practice self-denial, and he counseIs
| that instead Of the abstinence from meat
| some other sacrifice of bodily comfort be
| practiced, the sovereign pontiff himself
| suggesting as such sacrifice abstinence
from intoxicating drinks.
General Remarks
When a doubt exists as to whether ones
condition or circumstances allow exemp-