A brilliant priest of my acquaintance has sent a photo after having filled the rectory coffee nook with Mystic Monk Coffee K-Cups.
They also have very good taste in coffee mugs there.
I especially like the spiffy Star Trek effect from off the coffee maker’s light.
“But Father! But Father!”, some of you are saying anxiously, “What about Ash Wednesday? May I drink my Mystic Monk Coffee? I can drink my Mystic Monk Coffee, can’t I? Can’t I?”
As I have explained in the past, you can drink your Mystic Monk Coffee, even on Ash Wednesday with and as part of your full meal and two small snacks.
BUT…. no other kind of coffee is permitted.* Therefore buy lots of Mystic Monk Coffee NOW… before it’s TOO LATE!
Coffee would break the Eucharistic fast (one hour before Communion), since – pace fallentes – coffee is no longer water, but not the Lenten fast on Ash Wednesday.
(A different priest friend argues that morning coffee is medicinal and, therefore, permitted. Auctores scinduntur.)
*Kidding.
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As coffee is not drunk for its taste, then of course, it is medicine.
GRRRRRR
Double grrrrr.
I pray this comment does not give dear Father Z the need to invoke moderation but, it is a wonderful
thing to be readying for bed and to have such a hearty belly laugh over coffee. Thanks to Kerry, Father Z and Wanda. Now I will hoist a cup of the “good stuff” in a toast to all of you…… some Yogi “Bedtime” Tea.
Basically, coffee was originally an herbal drink intended to produce medicinal stimulation, focus, and thus calmness. So it would seem that coffee would be permitted during a Eucharistic fast, particularly if you are trying to medicate yourself into a state where one would not crash one’s car and cause harm to others.
Contrariwise, it would seem that those who are addicted to coffee would find it rather an obstacle to health of body and mind instead of remaining a medicinal compound, and therefore it would not only break the Eucharistic fast but possibly be kinda sinful, and anyway would not dispose them properly for Communion.
However, it would also seem that those who do not need coffee in order to get to Mass, and who are not addicted to coffee so that it keeps them from being properly disposed to receive Communion, would benefit from fasting from coffee because it is a good thing; and certainly would leave out the cream and sugar unless those are required for proper digestion.
In conclusion, I think this is a matter of prudence, and that people should choose for themselves in a spirit of repentant fasting and love of the Lord, but regard other people’s different choices with the assumption that those folks are also prudent and have good reason for doing stuff (unless you’re their spiritual director, in which case it’s your job to be nosy and picky).
(It’s kinda hard to break the Eucharistic fast these days anyway, and so it’s probably better and easier to fast from coffee than not, during the short official time. Those who voluntarily keep a longer fast also have room to voluntarily lighten their fast by drinking coffee, so there’s that.)
If humble OTC coffee is “medicinal,” glazed doughnuts must be prescription worthy.
I think I need to learn Latin so that I can stop using Google to find the meaning of some the phrases you insert. This particular time, while searching for “Auctores scinduntur” I landed on one of the worst examples of “catholic” representation at a major university. I don’t know how to scrub it from my mind now that I’ve seen it.
Timely post, seeming as I’m drinking coffee (unfortunately no mystic monk), whilst reading this. Coffee does actually have proven medicinal properties, particularly for those with asthma, though I can’t remember the exact statistical number, it reduces the severity and frequency of attacks.
I was kidding you know…
As the region of “ill health as excusing” region is a bit of a playground for my personal interior rigorist,
well here we go.
“illness” is, apart from states which we really know are illnesses, if you have a fever (begins at 38 ° C). I’d allow someone with merely an elevated temperature (begins at 37° C) to call himself slightly ill.
“medicine” is what the doctor prescribes to you, and which you then buy at the chemist’s, to take to overcome an illness. If I’ve got a cold (to the point of being really ill), I will sleep the day through and drink lots of tea, quite different from what I’d do in health, but I wouldn’t even call that tea a medicine.
Is coffee medicine? It is, if a doctor ordered to take it because he feels this patient needs his coffee, and for other reasons than “I want a coffee” or “overcome sleepiness” or colloquially so-called “addiction” (and I doubt real addiction to coffee is a phenomenon occurring in any sort of frequency).
– I don’t know, though, if I agree with myself. I might be too harsh.
“Basically, coffee was originally an herbal drink intended to produce medicinal stimulation, focus, and thus calmness. So it would seem that coffee would be permitted during a Eucharistic fast, particularly if you are trying to medicate yourself into a state where one would not crash one’s car and cause harm to others.”
Back then, (we are talking 1600’s), coffee was more of a recreational drug, if anything, in Europe (it was considered medicinal in other parts of the world). Nowadays, coffee is medicinal in the same way that a candy bar is medicinal to a hypoglycemic person – it is a stopgap measure. If one truly needed to be medicated by caffeine to stay awake, then taking a caffeine pill is both licit and does not break the fast (assuming doctor’s permission to take the pill).
So, I don’t find coffee to be, ordinarily, medicinal at this point in history. Before pill technology existed, maybe.
“and I doubt real addiction to coffee is a phenomenon occurring in any sort of frequency”
This is controversial. The psychiatrist’s DSM-V lists coffee as a subject for further study, but it does recognize caffeine withdrawal as a genuine disorder.
The Chicken
I know you were kidding, Kerry. As an avid coffe drinker, I was just seconding Fr. Z.’s grrrrr. In good fun. I think my coffee is finished brewing – gotta go!
Thank you for the timely post, as the last time I fasted, I also included my coffee. The spliting headache and general fatigue made me less than my best at work caring for patients. And the chemicals used for most decaf processes are worse, so I dont suggest that option. I will plan to leave out the creamer.
Wanda, whew, that’s a relief.