TrulyGrace

Bible Study: Newman's Sermon 3: Abstinence

Last night I attended the bible study focusing on Blessed John Henry Newman's sermon 3 on apostolic abstinence, a pattern for Christians. Near the beginning of his sermon he spoke of abstinence with respect to worldly excesses, not as a middle road or moderate path between poverty and his aforementioned excesses. As the sermon continues, he speaks "to be ever moderate, and at times to abstain, in the use of God's earthly gifts...to a more divine and traquil life than that of the multitude." Later in the sermon, he mentions God's supplying the spiritual pilgrim with ever "fresh and fresh grace," appropriate to one's place in one's spiritual growth. He also spoke of abstinence being a sort of good habit, that one will "feel no desire for those indulgences, wheher animal or mental, which savour of this work; and our tastes and liking will begin to be formed upon a heavenly rule. To those who are accustomed to self-denials, it is more painful to indulge than to abstain, as every one of common self-control must know, from ordinary matters of his own experience." He continues that "whether we eat or drink, or abstain, or whatever we do, we shall do all unto Him"...

I agreed with Newman's major points in this homily, that one should say yes to the present grace that God provides to one, according to one's current need; and reexamine one's life. This is difficult without a degree of humility.

We spoke about how Church requirements in the United States are less, save those for moral law, for example:
~ abstaining from meat on Fridays of Lent
~ the "fast" before Holy Communion is no longer 24 hours, but only one hour before receiving the Eucharist.
~ fasting during Lent means one large meal and two smaller meals during a day, with no snacks (that's the difficult part for many)

posted by Grace @ 3/13/2012 10:00:00 AM