Sundays not counted during period of Lent

MANILA, Philippines - Did you ever wonder why it is called the 40 days of Lent but when you actually count the number of days from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday, the total would come up to 46 days?

According to Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) media office director Monsignor Pedro Quitorio III, Sundays are not counted during the period of Lent.

“You have to remove all the Sundays because it is not part of the penitential Lent. There is no penance during Sundays because all Sundays of the year are a participation of Easter Sunday, Christ’s resurrection,” Quitorio explained.

As such, Catholics should not practice fasting during Sundays.

The season of Lent is a period of praying, fasting and almsgiving.

CBCP secretary general Monsignor Joselito Asis said, “If we are already practicing this during ordinary days, during the season of Lent we have to double it (our effort) meaning more prayer, more fasting and more almsgiving.”

Asis said that Catholics are called to observe the Lenten season because “it is one way of sharing the sacrifices of Christ – he sacrificed for our sake, not because of his sin but because of our sins. So we are also invited to do the same for him.”

He also explained that fasting is different from abstinence and mortification.

In fasting, an individual aged 14 to 60 is asked to only take one full meal a day, while abstinence means refraining from eating meat. Mortification, on the other hand, is when a person decides to temporarily sacrifice comfort such as cutting down on eating junk food or not smoking cigarettes for 40 days.

Throughout the year, there are only two days – Ash Wednesday and Good Friday – when Catholics are required to practice both fasting and abstinence.