Friday is famous for a fish fry during Lent. For the past several years, around five o’clock p.m. on Fridays in Lent, I joined the lineup of cars at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Tucker, GA. Patiently, I waited to pick up our family’s Friday fish fry. Their crew is as organized as a Ford assembly line. Knights of Columbus and Scouts promptly and precisely filled our dinner orders, come rain or shine. They do that every Friday during Lent.

Fish on Friday is a custom that has lost its religious significance for many people. Some families choose fish on Friday as a menu staple because they like fish. My natal family often had fish on Friday because my grandaddy usually got a delivery of fresh fish for his country store. Fish on Friday was convenient, not a religious practice.

For Catholics, eating fish on Friday is a spiritual discipline. Fish is not considered meat. Therefore, giving up meat is an act of self-denial. As part of the practice of fasting during Lent, a person denies themselves meat, eating fish instead to fulfill their personal sacrifice of giving up meat on Fridays. Certain people choose to fast to lose weight, but fasting by penitents during Lent is a specifically spiritual discipline.

The season of Lent, ending with Easter, has always been a time of new beginnings. The earth springs forth its new buds and blossoms. Christians seek to purge faults and failures and receive new life offered through the Holy Spirit.

This Friday will be deliciously different for me. At home, my new bride, Jane, my favorite culinarian, is preparing our own Lenten fish dinner. Not only do I look forward to our dining together, but this season of Lent is special for both of us; we are observing this holy season together for the first time.

To be clear, my fish on this Friday is not necessarily for spiritual purposes. It is mainly because I like fish, and Jane serves it up delightfully. Jesus certainly had some terse remarks about people who performed religious practices in public for show or bragged of their own piety displayed in plain sight. Jesus was clear that the point of spiritual disciplines is they help us develop an inner spirituality which has nothing to do with public notice.

©Copyright Willis H. Moore 2026