Is the week after the Publican and the Pharisee fast-free?
The first of the pre-Lenten weeks is entirely fast-free, even on Wednesday and Friday. It is deliberately so: having just heard the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, who boasted that he fasted twice a week, the Church suspends fasting to teach that fasting without humility is worse than useless, and that the tax-collector's lowly 'God, be merciful to me a sinner' is the true beginning of the Fast. Enter this week in humility, preparing for the Lenten struggle under the care of your parish priest.