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Let us continue with excerpts from Saint Augustine’s “Of the Morals of the Catholic Church,” where the kind Bishop reminds us of the Holy Bible’s teachings regarding the abstinence from flesh and wine. Chapter 33. Another Kind of Men Living Together in Cities. Fasts of Three Days. “At Rome I knew several places where there was in each one eminent for weight of character, and prudence, and Divine knowledge, presiding over all the rest who lived with him, in Christian charity, and sanctity, and liberty. These, too, are not burdensome to any one; but, in the Eastern fashion, and on the authority of the Apostle Paul, they maintain themselves with their own hands. I was told that many practiced fasts of quite amazing severity, not merely taking only one meal daily towards night, which is everywhere quite common, but very often continuing for three days or more in succession without food or drink. And this among not men only, but women, who also live together in great numbers as widows or maidens, gaining a livelihood by spinning and weaving, and presided over in each case by a woman of the greatest judgment and experience, skilled and accomplished not only in directing and forming moral conduct, but also in instructing the understanding.” “They remember, ‘Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them;’ 1 Corinthians 6:13 and again, ‘Neither if we eat shall we abound, nor if we refrain from eating shall we be in want;’ and, above all, this: ‘It is good, my brethren, not to eat flesh, nor drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother is offended;’ Romans 14:21 for this passage shows that love is the end to be aimed at in all these things.” “Those then, who are able, and they are without number, abstain both from flesh and from wine for two reasons: either for their brethren, or for their own liberty. Charity is principally attended to. There is charity in their choice of diet, charity in their speech, charity in their dress, charity in their looks. Charity is the point where they meet, and the plan by which they act. To transgress against charity is thought criminal, like transgressing against God.”
