A Fluid Measure...

...Returning for a moment to the proper measure of drink for imbibing clerics, the thoughts of two other good Catholic writers occur to me as essential guidance in this delicate matter.

Mgr. Ronald ('Ronnie') Knox opined that should a priest ask himself at a meal if it were wise for him to be taking more wine, then that point had already been passed and he must lay down his glass at once. A man of great natural whimsy as well as deep spirituality, Mgr. Knox's near aphorism here is a fair statement of the good use of an astute self-awareness (or as he himself would more likely have called it - an examination of conscience) to avoid breaking the bounds of either decorum or clerical discipline. As a J [Jesuit] his fine sense of what stands which side of the permissible [Jesuit casuistry in action] can hardly be faulted. [You will see below that I have been properly and promptly chastised for assigning J status to the good Mgr. Good to know that there are whole cyber-societies dedicated to the man's memory and mission. Who can say in years to come, will there be a comparable www.rev.palladas.org gathering? One can but so grandiosely dream!]

Acutely aware of human fallibility, in himself not least, he had a host of correct behaviours he believed would keep a man the proper side of rectitude. One such - his own invention to manage an abiding personal temptation - was to allow that as it was impossible for him to forsake the Times crossword completely during Lent, he would chastise himself for this weakness by only completing all of the Across clues before attempting the Down clues. Such heroic asceticism would surely have met with deep approval by the early desert fathers attempting such comparatively minor feats of holy endurance as standing on one leg on a pillar for endless years.

There is though another school of Xtian spirituality to which I feel far more drawn than that of the J's; it is that of Saint Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western monasticism. There were, of course, monks before St. B arrived on the scene - mostly these top-of-a-pillar athletic sorts - but it was he who gave the world the great Rule for monks by which, by and large, all since have lived.

Within this Rule there are many examples of St. B's tender regard for those attempting what he called 'this little school for beginners.' Apposite to the matter in hand, are his comments on the amount of wine a monk may drink a day. Naturally St. B wished monks to abstain from all intoxicants, but accepting in humility the feebleness of mankind he allowed that up to but no more than a "hemina" of wine could be a daily portion.

And what, I hear you ask, is a hemina? Well, that precisely is the generous point. There simply is no knowing how much a hemina might be. Some argue it is nearly a pint, others take it for a greater or a smaller amount. The upshot of this uncertainty is that, to this day, each monastic house has been able to provide sufficient wine to satisfy the respective thirst of its community, yet remain true to the letter and the spirit of the Rule.

Raise a sensible glass then to Saint Benedict and his fluid measure!