Not drinking (red) wine outside of mass?

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I’m a protestant that is seriously exploring the Catholic Church and have a strange question. The more I read about the Real Presence, the more my eyes are opened to what I have been missing all these years in the protestant community. I am grateful for God leading me in the right direction! So the more I reflect upon the Eucharist the more I understand the sacredness of it all and that led me to this thought: Should I abstain from drinking red wine outside of the Mass? I understand that it’s not red wine that is sacred, but the blood of Christ and that until it is consecrated it is not the blood, but for some reason I felt I needed to ask and see if anyone has thought of that before. Thanks for any thoughts you may have for this newbie… 😊

Stephanie
 
rabby(name removed by moderator) said:
I’m a protestant that is seriously exploring the Catholic Church and have a strange question. The more I read about the Real Presence, the more my eyes are opened to what I have been missing all these years in the protestant community. I am grateful for God leading me in the right direction! So the more I reflect upon the Eucharist the more I understand the sacredness of it all and that led me to this thought: Should I abstain from drinking red wine outside of the Mass? I understand that it’s not red wine that is sacred, but the blood of Christ and that until it is consecrated it is not the blood, but for some reason I felt I needed to ask and see if anyone has thought of that before. Thanks for any thoughts you may have for this newbie… 😊

Stephanie
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Since white wine and rosé wine is also used, you’d have to abstain from wine completely. No it’s not necessary.
 
Thank you! I had no idea that different types were used. Is there a particular reason or is it just up to the Priest?
 
rabby(name removed by moderator) said:
Thank you! I had no idea that different types were used. Is there a particular reason or is it just up to the Priest?
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It can be the priest’s preference, certainly ours prefers pink or white, he doesn’t like red wine. Sometimes the ladies who clean the linens will plead for rosé or white because red wine stains are hard to remove
 
It’s fine to drink it outside of Mass as Catholics do not believe that the wine is “special” until the priest has blessed it (as you already stated you know anyway ;)).
 
rabby(name removed by moderator) said:
Thank you! I had no idea that different types were used. Is there a particular reason or is it just up to the Priest?
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I have heard in the past that white wine was deliberately used to make more clear that the change to the Blood of Christ is truly invisible to us.

Also, it stains less and is easier to clean.
 
rabby(name removed by moderator) said:
I’m a protestant that is seriously exploring the Catholic Church and have a strange question. The more I read about the Real Presence, the more my eyes are opened to what I have been missing all these years in the protestant community. I am grateful for God leading me in the right direction! So the more I reflect upon the Eucharist the more I understand the sacredness of it all and that led me to this thought: Should I abstain from drinking red wine outside of the Mass? I understand that it’s not red wine that is sacred, but the blood of Christ and that until it is consecrated it is not the blood, but for some reason I felt I needed to ask and see if anyone has thought of that before. Thanks for any thoughts you may have for this newbie… 😊

Stephanie
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To echo the previous posters: you don’t have to worry about abstaining from red wine outside of Mass.
I’ll pray for you on your spiritual journey, wherever you end up!
God bless you and your family,
Joy
 
rabby(name removed by moderator) said:
I’m a protestant that is seriously exploring the Catholic Church and have a strange question. The more I read about the Real Presence, the more my eyes are opened to what I have been missing all these years in the protestant community. I am grateful for God leading me in the right direction! So the more I reflect upon the Eucharist the more I understand the sacredness of it all and that led me to this thought: Should I abstain from drinking red wine outside of the Mass? :

Stephanie
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Sounds like the very thing that led me on my journey home…

God Bless!
 
rabby(name removed by moderator) said:
I’m a protestant that is seriously exploring the Catholic Church and have a strange question. The more I read about the Real Presence, the more my eyes are opened to what I have been missing all these years in the protestant community. I am grateful for God leading me in the right direction! So the more I reflect upon the Eucharist the more I understand the sacredness of it all and that led me to this thought: Should I abstain from drinking red wine outside of the Mass? I understand that it’s not red wine that is sacred, but the blood of Christ and that until it is consecrated it is not the blood, but for some reason I felt I needed to ask and see if anyone has thought of that before. Thanks for any thoughts you may have for this newbie… 😊

Stephanie
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May I ask why is it you think you should abstain from wine outside of Mass?
 
Until the wine is consecrated it is still just wine. I don’t see why you should abstain from all wine. It is just an alcoholic beverage at that point. Would you also refrain from eating bread? Because that’s a part of the Eucharist too. One could if one really saw a reason to, but I wouldn’t. Drinking wine reminds me of how amazing the Eucharist is, that this substance that I can drink as something totally normal can be transubstantiated by the power of God into the blood of Christ.
 
Thanks for all the nice responses! You know how sometimes you have to put a question “out there” and present it to others for clearer understanding? I guess that is how it was for me 🙂 Once I started writing my question and explaining it, I answered it myself. The lightbulb went on when I started thinking about it more…that the wine is not changed unless it is consecrated by a Priest. Duh. I guess on a surface level I was thinking about making it “special” for just the Mass, but the “specialness” (made up word) is the actual blood of Christ, not the wine itself. Bear with me as I increase in knowledge, LOL I appreciate the feeling of acceptance here! Thanks again-
Stephanie
 
there is nothing in Catholic teaching on the Eucharist nor in teaching on drinking in general that supports this idea. if you make that choice it is personal preference.

welcome home

(your question is a welcome change from people who sometimes accuse Catholics of drinking too much!).
 
I wish we followed the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches, which require only red wine to be used.

They also use red purificators so as to avoid the issue of “it’s hard to get the stains out of the purificators.”

Red wine has a better sign value than rose or white.

God bless,
 
rabby(name removed by moderator) said:
I’m a protestant that is seriously exploring the Catholic Church and have a strange question. The more I read about the Real Presence, the more my eyes are opened to what I have been missing all these years in the protestant community. I am grateful for God leading me in the right direction! So the more I reflect upon the Eucharist the more I understand the sacredness of it all and that led me to this thought: Should I abstain from drinking red wine outside of the Mass? I understand that it’s not red wine that is sacred, but the blood of Christ and that until it is consecrated it is not the blood, but for some reason I felt I needed to ask and see if anyone has thought of that before. Thanks for any thoughts you may have for this newbie… 😊

Stephanie
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Since that wine outside of mass is not part of the sacrament of communion, there is no reason to avoid it in moderation. You might consider sticking to organic wines (trader joe’s has a few), in order to avoid the very high insecticide load of grapes, and the added nitrates.
 
A bottle of Two Buck Chuck from Trader Joe’s isn’t the Blood of Christ. 😛
 
Traditionally white wine was used for consecration. The red wine came into use only recently, for human fragility: people need more for their senses.

Also as others pointed out, the consecration, and not the bread and wine in itself makes the sacrament. We Catholics eat bread and drink wine.
 
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