Is it okay to drink coffee while doing the Liturgy of the Hours?

[mythbuster1]

The only time eating or drinking during prayer is prohibited is while preparing to receive the Eucharist, and even this doesn’t apply to water, or if you have some medical condition which requires you to eat or drink on short notice.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

Where does “common sense” stop & scruples begin?

Good question. I would expect your conscience to provide the answer, and in cases like this one, your answer and someone else’s may not be the same.

 

[Prodigal1984]

Yah I think the simple answer is this after reading comments though some it seems would disagree.
If you are saying the Hours alone in the privacy of your home and not in a vow to recite them, such as laity, you are doing something praiseworthy in the site of the Church in taking part in its official Prayer along with the Church and it isn’t inappropriate.
However if you are doing it formally in a group in a Church setting or in a religious order, priest or sister in a group it would be inappropriate.
I think it all comes down to the circumstances of setting for this.
I appreciate all of the feedback.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I have on occasion smoked a vapor pipe (gave up tobacco five years ago and never looked back) during lectio divina. For the rosary and other devotions I might sip water — I tend to have dry mouth — but nothing else. A cup of coffee sipped on during the entire 15-decade rosary doesn’t seem out of order.

I choose not to recite the luminous mysteries. Not saying there is anything wrong with them, it’s just not my practice.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

However if you are doing it formally in a group in a Church setting or in a religious order, priest or sister in a group it would be inappropriate.

While I wouldn’t be so bold as to bring my coffee into the chapel for parish lauds (for example), I also don’t think it’s my place to tell anyone in religious life what’s appropriate for their house and their chapels. I’m thinking of monks, for example, where their choir stalls may be in a separate space from where they celebrate Mass - so if they chose to have a cup in the stall and as brothers were OK with it, I have no role in saying otherwise.

 

[Socrates92]

It’s ok if you’re a Jesuit. If you’re a Franciscan, it’s a sin… XD

(A reference to the joke where both a Franciscan and a Jesuit asked their superiors whether it was ok to pray and smoke. The Jesuit was clever enough to word it as “Is it alright if I pray while I smoke”, while the Franciscan asked to smoke while he prayed.)

 

[Bluebright]

On occasion I had said the office of readings (silently of course) in a coffee shop with a coffee…and Ive said it many many times in a train going to visit my parents. Also often with a coffee. Also Evening prayer and night prayer. It’s not my favourite place to pray when I’m on a train but if it’s that or forget then so be it. I wouldn’t take a coffee into a church or chapel though even if there was no mass on. I also wouldn’t have coffee when praying in my community.