The Pillar Podcast Ep. 245: Fasting, abstinence, and what is a parish?
Jan 24, 2026
They debate paying kids for manners and how incentives can turn duties into jobs. They unpack whether a national day of penance forces fasting or abstinence and explain the canonical rules. A discussion follows about whether a parish is a place or a people and the tensions between territorial obligation and self-selecting parish culture.
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Paid Handshakes Backfire
- JD Flynn tells a parenting story about paying his shy eight-year-old a dollar to greet adults until he earned a hundred dollars.
- The scheme created a paid contract mindset rather than a fading habit, and JD learned to be clearer about expectations.
Use A Sunset Clause With Incentives
- Ed Condon advises using a sunset clause and brutal honesty when incentivizing children with money.
- He recommends framing unpleasant social tasks as temporary obligations toward maturity and independence.
Penitential Days Aren't Automatically Binding
- Canon law separates universal penitential days from particular ones and links fasting/abstinence to universal days like Fridays and Lent.
- JD Flynn argues a bishops' conference must explicitly prescribe fasting/abstinence for an extra day to make it binding.