Level III · Sacred Time · practice 6 of 7

Friday fast in reparation

A small Friday fast — abstaining from meat, or from a comfort or pleasure — offered in reparation to the wounded Heart.

Why this practice

Friday has always been a penitential day in the Church. Reparation to the Sacred Heart adds love to penance: the small denial is offered not as an obligation but as a gift back to the Heart that gave everything.

The form can be light — abstaining from meat (long the universal Catholic practice), or from a particular comfort. Croiset would say: what matters is not the size of the fast but the love it carries.

How to begin

1Choose a Friday discipline that you can actually keep — abstinence from meat, no dessert, no entertainment, fasting on bread and water, a simple meal.

2Make it specifically for reparation: as you fast, recall that you are offering this for a wounded Heart.

3Pair the fast with a specific intention — for an offender, for a sinner, for the conversion of someone you love.

4If you must break the fast (illness, travel), don't be scrupulous — simply offer something else.

It is not the bread we withhold from ourselves that consoles His Heart, but the love expressed in withholding it.

— Traditional

A prayer for this practice

Sacred Heart of Jesus, this small Friday I keep for Thee. It is nothing compared with what Thou didst suffer on Friday; but it is what I have to give. Receive it as a kiss given to Thy pierced side.

Amen.

When you're ready

Lenten meditations on the Passion →