Catholic Fridays & Dunkin’ Free Donut Friday in Lent

March 6, 2020 techdecisions

https://news.dunkindonuts.com/news/thank-goodness-its-free-donut-fridays-at-dunkin

Thank Goodness It’s Free Donut Fridays at Dunkin’

“Every Friday in March, members of Dunkin’s DD Perks® Rewards Program can get a free donut with the purchase of any beverage

Cheer for Free Donut Fridays for the chance to win one of four prizes of free donuts for a year in Dunkin’s TGIFDF Sweepstakes, March 4 through March 26

CANTON, MA (March 2, 2020) – March can seem like the toughest part of the year: long and cold with few days, if any, off from work and even a lost hour of sleep. Leave it to Dunkin’ to introduce the perfect perk to bring a boost of optimism and sweetness to the month. Dunkin’ today announced Free Donut Fridays, offering members of Dunkin’s DD Perks® Rewards Program a free donut with the purchase of any beverage every Friday in March.*

Beginning this Friday, March 6, and on each Friday through the end of the month, DD Perks members can celebrate the workweek’s end with a free donut when they buy any beverage at participating Dunkin’ restaurants nationwide. Members can enjoy favorites such as Boston Kreme, Glazed, Glazed Chocolate, Strawberry Frosted with Sprinkles and more, including Dunkin’s new sweet treat for March, the Lucky Shamrock Donut.

Donut-lovers who are not currently DD Perks members can turn TGIF into TGIFDF (Thank Goodness It’s Free Donut Friday) by enrolling for free on the Dunkin’ App or DDPerks.com. DD Perks members earn five points for every dollar they spend on qualifying purchases at Dunkin’. Once a member accrues 200 points, they receive a free beverage reward for any size, redeemable at participating Dunkin’ restaurants.

Throughout March, with the help of cheerleader and television star Gabi Butler, Dunkin’ is also giving fans the opportunity to show their Free Donut Fridays spirit for the chance to win a year’s worth of free donuts. On Wednesday, March 4, Gabi will take to Instagram to kick off a special Dunkin’ cheer challenge in which fans can post their own Instagram video or story of their best original T-G-I-F-D-F cheer using #FDFSweepstakes and tagging @Dunkin. Winners will be randomly selected each Free Donut Friday**. NoPurchNec. Legal US/DC res 18+. Ends 3/26/20. For official rules, please visit: http://ddsweeps.com

“We’re so excited to offer Free Donut Fridays to give all of our DD Perks members – new and existing – an extra special sweet treat as they head into spring,” said Stephanie Meltzer-Paul, VP of Digital and Loyalty Marketing, Dunkin’ U.S. “We’re always looking for new ways to show our appreciation to Dunkin’ fans and our DD Perks Rewards Program allows us celebrate them with fun and exclusive offers throughout the year.”

-“Denial of Saint Peter”, 1615–17, by Valentin de Boulogne, oil on canvas, 67 1/2 × 94 7/8 in. (171.5 × 241 cm), Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi, Florence, while trying, inconspicuously, to warm his hands, the apostle Peter is recognized as a disciple of Christ. The assorted company of soldiers take notice—in varying degrees. Peter’s fate has changed as though with the throw of dice, depicted mid-air! The sculpted relief is based on Roman terracotta plaques, casts of which were collected and used as artists’ props. This picture originally belonged to Giovanni Battista Mellini (1591–1627), a lawyer and dean of the university of Rome and a collector of antiquities.

-by Br Bernard Knapke, OP

“The Catholic Friday should be different than the world’s Friday. In fact, the Catholic weekend should be different. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are to be red, blue, and white days—not because of patriotism, but because of the Passion, the Fiat, and the Empty Tomb. The mysteries of the Rosary upon which we mediate each of these days also reflects this triple character: Friday prompts us to ponder the sorrowful mysteries; Saturday, the joyful; and Sunday, the glorious. Rightly, the weekend ought to remind the Christian that discipleship entails the heaviness of the cross, the help of grace, and the hope of eternal life. Every weekend should be a little Triduum.

In special seasons, the three-note weekend chord can shift in key. In Advent, as we turn with expectation to Our Lady, every day seems to sound like a Saturday suspended chord. Throughout Easter, a series of major chords result from a progression of Sunday celebrations: Resurrection, Divine Mercy, Jubilate, Good Shepherd, Pentecost. In Lent, a clear focus on Fridays sets up a 40-day score set to a minor key that eventually gives way to the sheer silence of the Friday that is Good.

The Catholic Friday is always penitential because of Good Friday. But that looks different depending on which Friday it is. The year looks something like this in the United States:

During the whole year, Catholics are urged to observe practices of penance on Fridays (abstinence from meat is given “first place” among recommended penances).
During Lent, Catholics 14 years and older are to abstain from eating meat on Fridays.
On Good Friday, Catholics 14 years and older are to abstain from eating meat and Catholics 18 years and older, until they turn 59, are to fast.

Whether we are in Lent or not, Friday is always to be a “special day of penitential observance” for the Catholic. The United States bishops teach that “Friday should be in each week something of what Lent is in the entire year” (“Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence,” 23). What changes, however, is the degree to which we as Catholics unite in doing penance as we near the Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion. Together, we gradually enter more deeply into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings.

The Catholic says, “Thank God it’s Friday,” because salvation was wrought on a Friday. Out of love, Jesus Christ—the Word Incarnate, true God and true man—embraced death and suffering, transforming them into the means by which the wounds of sin are healed and man is led to eternal life with God. When we do penance on Fridays, we recall this unfathomable gift. We express sorrow for our own personal sins as well as those of all the world. We unite our own sufferings to those of Christ, asking that they too might become salvific. We take up our cross and follow him.

The Catholic Friday should be different than the world’s Friday. The Roman guards drank and gambled on Good Friday (Mark 15:23-24; Ps 22:18). Peter kept comfortable by the fire (Mark 14:54). The penitential witness came from Mary and John at Calvary’s height (John 19:25-27). A Catholic Friday entails joining in this Marian and Johannine witness. And lest we forget, the Catholic Friday leads to the glory of the Catholic Sunday.

✠

Love,
Matthew

Summa Catechetica, "Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam." – St Anselm, "“Si comprehendus, non est Deus.” -St Augustine, "Let your religion be less of a theory, and more of a love affair." -G.K. Chesterton, “When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.” -St Jerome, "As the reading of bad books fills the mind with worldly and poisonous sentiments; so, on the other hand, the reading of pious works fills the soul with holy thoughts and good desires." -St. Alphonsus Liguori, "And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels." –St. Angela Merici, “Yet such are the pity and compassion of this Lord of ours, so desirous is He that we should seek Him and enjoy His company, that in one way or another He never ceases calling us to Him . . . God here speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways.” —St. Teresa of Avila, "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, and who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity… I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism, and where lie the main inconsistences and absurdities of the Protestant theory.” (St. John Henry Newman, “Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View,” Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England), "We cannot always have access to a spiritual Father for counsel in our actions and in our doubts, but reading will abundantly supply his place by giving us directions to escape the illusions of the devil and of our own self-love, and at the same time to submit to the divine will.” —St. Alphonsus Ligouri, "The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." –St. Padre Pio, "Screens may grab our attention, but books change our lives!" – Word on Fire, "Reading has made many saints!" -St Josemaría Escrivá, "Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you." —St. Jerome, from his Letter 22 to Eustochium, "Encounter, not confrontation; attraction, not promotion; dialogue, not debate." -cf Pope Francis, "God here speaks to souls through…good books“ – St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, "You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.” -St Athanasius, "To convert someone, go and take them by the hand and guide them." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP. 1 saint ruins ALL the cynicism in Hell & on Earth. “When we pray we talk to God; when we read God talks to us…All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.” -St Isidore of Seville, “Also in some meditations today I earnestly asked our Lord to watch over my compositions that they might do me no harm through the enmity or imprudence of any man or my own; that He would have them as His own and employ or not employ them as He should see fit. And this I believe is heard.” -GM Hopkins, SJ, "Only God knows the good that can come about by reading one good Catholic book." — St. John Bosco, "Why don't you try explaining it to them?" – cf St Peter Canisius, SJ, Doctor of the Church, Doctor of the Catechism, "Already I was coming to appreciate that often apologetics consists of offering theological eye glasses of varying prescriptions to an inquirer. Only one prescription will give him clear sight; all the others will give him at best indistinct sight. What you want him to see—some particular truth of the Faith—will remain fuzzy to him until you come across theological eye glasses that precisely compensate for his particular defect of vision." -Karl Keating, "The more perfectly we know God, the more perfectly we love Him." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP, ST, I-II,67,6 ad 3, “But always when I was without a book, my soul would at once become disturbed, and my thoughts wandered." —St. Teresa of Avila, "Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me." –St. Augustine, "Without good books and spiritual reading, it will be morally impossible to save our souls." —St. Alphonsus Liguori "Never read books you aren't sure about. . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?" -St. John Bosco " To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer." —St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. "Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading." –St. Isidore of Seville “The aid of spiritual books is for you a necessity.… You, who are in the midst of battle, must protect yourself with the buckler of holy thoughts drawn from good books.” -St. John Chrysostom