Friday Abstinence

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Am I the only person who is finding the period between 2359 on Thursday and 0001 on Saturday a serious trial?  How much meat there is out there!  Why is cooked breakfast the thing everyone goes to on Friday? 

This isn't to complain, but for me at least not eating meat on Friday isn't a simple flick between two pages in a recipe book, but a fairly brutal instruction to give something up regularly in a way that two days a year could never hope to manage.  I hope in a way that it doesn't become less challenging, and that it keeps on being so hard, because it will make me better.

I still haven't had a dinner invitation, but I had one to go out for breakfast: I said "No thanks - I don't eat meat on Fridays" and was rewarded with a tremendous laugh, as if I 'd told the best joke ever.  They still expected me to turn up though, and were petulant with me for not doing so.  It's certainly not martyrdom, but I catch myself wishing that if I have to make a Catholic fool of myself it could be because of my brilliant defence of Scholasticism, or my brilliant new insight into the procession of the Holy Spirit, not for turning down a couple of sausages, some rashers and a bit of black pudding.

Did I mention that I've not eaten meat today?

I suppose black pudding is meat.  Did the Fathers say anything about it?
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