Lent 2010 begins with

Ash Wednesday, February 17th

The Lenten season is to prepare both catechumens and the faithful to celebrate the paschal mystery.  The catechumens are prepared by the Rite of Election, Scrutinies, and catechesis for the Sacraments of Initiation.  The faithful are prepared for the renewal of their baptismal promises by being even more attentive to the Word of God, prayer, penance, and almsgiving.

The Church offers regulations and suggestions especially for Lenten abstinence and fasting.

Ash Wednesday (during the Season of Lent) and Good Friday (during the Triduum) are days of fast and abstinence.

This means that we do not eat meat and we have only one full
meal. The obligation to fast, limiting to one full meal and two
lighter meals in the course of the day without snacking,
binds Catholics from the age of 18 to 59. Those who are younger
or older may freely embrace these disciplines. Lenten disciplines
should never endanger one’s health.

The other Fridays of the season of Lent are also days of
abstinence from meat. This obligation to abstain from meat binds
Catholics 14 years of age and older. The Fridays of the year out-
side of Lent are also days of penance. Abstaining from meat is
the traditional way of observing these days of penance; however,
each person is free to replace this with some other practice of
voluntary self-denial or personal penance.

It is obvious that abstaining from meat is meaningless to
vegetarians; it is equally obvious that replacing meat with a gour-
met seafood meal is not in keeping with the spirit of Lenten pen-
ance. Abstinence from meat on the other Fridays of the year may
be replaced with time spent reading and studying the Scriptures,
special prayers, thoughtfulness and charity to those in need, or
acts of personal witness to one’s faith.

While the season of Lent is the primary period of
Catholic penitential practices, these regulations are not intended
to limit the occasion for Christian penance. The practice of spiritual
discipline is always appropriate during periods of special
need for the individual and the larger community.