02-03-2021, 02:01 PM
Treatise on the Spiritual Life by St. Vincent Ferrer
CHAPTER VI
On the Manner of Regulating the Body (page 22-23)
To regulate the body, you must first strive to resist, with energy and perseverance, intemperance in eating and drinking; for unless you are victorious over this irregularity, you will labor in vain to acquire other virtues. Observe then what I have to tell you. Be content with the usual fare that is given to your brethren, and avoid seeking anything special for yourself. Should any one outside the convent be disposed to send you something out of the usual course, take nothing for yourself; but if they should be willing to bestow it on the Community, let this be done. When you are invited by your brethren to dine outside the refectory, do not yield, under any pretext whatsoever, but stay always in the refectory, observing therein all the fasts which the rule prescribes, so long as it shall please God to preserve your health. For, when you are sick, it will be permitted to treat you according to your needs, asking nothing, and being content to receive with thanks whatever is given to you.
But in order not to exceed in eating or drinking, examine attentively your bodily temperament, and see what you have need of for your support, so that you may justly distinguish between what is necessary and superfluous. A general rule to be observed in this particular is, to take at least as much bread as is requisite for your support, according to your bodily requirements, especially on fasting days; and listen not to the suggestions of the devil, who would persuade you that you should not eat bread.
You may thus discover what is necessary for you, and what is superfluous, by the following test: Do you experience, on days when two meals are taken, a drowsiness after None, (It was customary in St. Vincent’s time to recite None about an hour after the first meal.) and feel in the stomach a certain heat, which hinders you from being able to pray, read, or write? This comes ordinarily from some excess. Do you feel in a similar condition after Matins, on days when you have supped, or even drowsiness proceeds from a like cause. East then, especially bread, according as you have need, so that after the repast you may be in a condition to read, write, and pray as before. If, however, you feel less disposition to these exercises during those hours than at other times, provided you do not experience the drowsiness to which I have alluded, you need not consider that a sign of excess.
Examine then, by this or other means, what is necessary to sustain you, and beseech God with simplicity that He would deign to instruct you in this. Be faithful in adopting the means with which He will inspire you. Always esteem what is served to you at table as coming from His hands; and when, by negligence, you have been guilty of any excess, omit not to impose on yourself a penance proportionate to the fault.
CHAPTER VII
Rules to be observed in regard to drink (page 24)
It is difficult to lay down precise rules on this point, unless it be to retrench something little by little every day, yet in such a way as not to suffer too much from thirst, either by day or during the night. You will easily be able to stint yourself to a small quantity of drink when you partake of soup; nevertheless, it is needful to drink sufficient to aid the digestion of food. Drink not out of meal-times, except at eventide on fasting days, or when exhausted with the fatigue of a journey or lassitude, and then with moderation. Diminish or increase what you take, according as the Lord shall inspire you.
CHAPTER VI
On the Manner of Regulating the Body (page 22-23)
To regulate the body, you must first strive to resist, with energy and perseverance, intemperance in eating and drinking; for unless you are victorious over this irregularity, you will labor in vain to acquire other virtues. Observe then what I have to tell you. Be content with the usual fare that is given to your brethren, and avoid seeking anything special for yourself. Should any one outside the convent be disposed to send you something out of the usual course, take nothing for yourself; but if they should be willing to bestow it on the Community, let this be done. When you are invited by your brethren to dine outside the refectory, do not yield, under any pretext whatsoever, but stay always in the refectory, observing therein all the fasts which the rule prescribes, so long as it shall please God to preserve your health. For, when you are sick, it will be permitted to treat you according to your needs, asking nothing, and being content to receive with thanks whatever is given to you.
But in order not to exceed in eating or drinking, examine attentively your bodily temperament, and see what you have need of for your support, so that you may justly distinguish between what is necessary and superfluous. A general rule to be observed in this particular is, to take at least as much bread as is requisite for your support, according to your bodily requirements, especially on fasting days; and listen not to the suggestions of the devil, who would persuade you that you should not eat bread.
You may thus discover what is necessary for you, and what is superfluous, by the following test: Do you experience, on days when two meals are taken, a drowsiness after None, (It was customary in St. Vincent’s time to recite None about an hour after the first meal.) and feel in the stomach a certain heat, which hinders you from being able to pray, read, or write? This comes ordinarily from some excess. Do you feel in a similar condition after Matins, on days when you have supped, or even drowsiness proceeds from a like cause. East then, especially bread, according as you have need, so that after the repast you may be in a condition to read, write, and pray as before. If, however, you feel less disposition to these exercises during those hours than at other times, provided you do not experience the drowsiness to which I have alluded, you need not consider that a sign of excess.
Examine then, by this or other means, what is necessary to sustain you, and beseech God with simplicity that He would deign to instruct you in this. Be faithful in adopting the means with which He will inspire you. Always esteem what is served to you at table as coming from His hands; and when, by negligence, you have been guilty of any excess, omit not to impose on yourself a penance proportionate to the fault.
CHAPTER VII
Rules to be observed in regard to drink (page 24)
It is difficult to lay down precise rules on this point, unless it be to retrench something little by little every day, yet in such a way as not to suffer too much from thirst, either by day or during the night. You will easily be able to stint yourself to a small quantity of drink when you partake of soup; nevertheless, it is needful to drink sufficient to aid the digestion of food. Drink not out of meal-times, except at eventide on fasting days, or when exhausted with the fatigue of a journey or lassitude, and then with moderation. Diminish or increase what you take, according as the Lord shall inspire you.