Refreshments during Mass?

[Jimmygill88]

Many people who have some huge medical problems do not appear, to the average non-medical person’s eye, to be anything other than a healthy adult. You don’t know what people have going on in their lives health wise, and quite frankly, it’s not any of your business.

Would you prefer that someone like me stay home and never attend mass because I might have some spasms? If I don’t drink, they become a huge deal and cause terrible pain and I can’t sit, can’t stand, can’t lay down, it’s really not fun and would be a huge disruption in mass. But if I have my water, I can take 4 or 5 swallows and they dissipate and no one is the wiser.

I find it crazy that someone swallowing some water would upset someone so badly that they want them to stay away from mass so that they aren’t offended by them.

So you have medical condition that is you say alleviated by water. Therefore you are ill and it is allowed. As for the rest of it I wouldn’t mention it EVER to you in person. And I am medically trained. I don’t approve AT ALL of people with no requirement to do so to eat or drink.

 

[gh4]

So you have medical condition that is you say alleviated by water. Therefore you are ill and it is allowed. As for the rest of it I wouldn’t mention it EVER to you in person. And I am medically trained. I don’t approve AT ALL of people with no requirement to do so to eat or drink.

I think part of the problem is this… years ago, we didn’t have bottles of water to carry with us all the time. We had to rely on a water fountain or a glass at a sink. So we don’t know if people who got up and left were going to the bathroom or going to get a drink if they needed it etc. Now we just carry the water with us and instead of getting up and leaving in the middle of mass, we just take our sips while we are sitting in our pews.

 

[Brendan_64]

Surely people can go for an hour without drinking water?

As to people saying readers ‘need’ water in case they get a tickly throat. What nonsense. There are many people whose jobs mean they talk almost constantly throughout the day (teachers for example) and don’t need to keep sipping water.

I think it’s a symptom of the custom now where people carry water bottles with them wherever they go and sip water on a fairly regular basis. This might be a healthy practice, but it is NOT necessary, and (unless someone has a specific medical condition) there is absolutely no reason for someone to drink from a water bottle during Mass.

It’s only 1 hour, show a bit of restraint and respect please.

 

[agapewolf]

I am in the choir, I am a cantor, I was a choir director for 13 years, and I am a lector. I do not take a water bottle into Mass. If I get a dry throat, so be it. If that is really the worst possible sacrifice I am called to make while at the foot of our Lord’s cross and receiving his physical body into my own, then I am a pretty lucky gal.

Perhaps for medical reasons, a bottle of water is allowable.

Because you sing and get a dry throat, nope.

Sorry, you are down right wrong here. It can damage a voice to sing while dry. There is nothing wrong with having access to water during mass when you have to do certain tasks that require access to water.

 

[agapewolf]

Surely people can go for an hour without drinking water?

As to people saying readers ‘need’ water in case they get a tickly throat. What nonsense. There are many people whose jobs mean they talk almost constantly throughout the day (teachers for example) and don’t need to keep sipping water.

I think it’s a symptom of the custom now where people carry water bottles with them wherever they go and sip water on a fairly regular basis. This might be a healthy practice, but it is NOT necessary, and (unless someone has a specific medical condition) there is absolutely no reason for someone to drink from a water bottle during Mass.

It’s only 1 hour, show a bit of restraint and respect please.

You are wrong. It can damage vocal chords/voices to sing while dry.

 

[PrayRosary]

I see no problem with bottled water. But I guess I can see how it is a slippery slope to a big gulp.

 

[SMHW]

Surely people can go for an hour without drinking water?

And I think most people do go an hour without water.

There are many people whose jobs mean they talk almost constantly throughout the day (teachers for example) and don’t need to keep sipping water.

Maybe that is true where you work. I would beg to differ that it is true in general. I think most broadcasters, politicians, lecturers, and plenty of teachers make a point of having a glass of water or other liquid refreshment.

I think it’s a symptom of the custom now where people carry water bottles with them wherever they go and sip water on a fairly regular basis. This might be a healthy practice, but it is NOT necessary, and (unless someone has a specific medical condition) there is absolutely no reason for someone to drink from a water bottle during Mass.

There is necessary and then there is what makes the Mass better for all.

I would agree that it is probably not necessary that they average parishioner in the pews have a bottle of water and sip it during Mass. However if someone has a bottle of water in their bag because it is normal for them to do so then I don’t think they need to make an effort to remove it so they can go to Mass.

However if someone has a cough, tickle, or asthma; if the weather is unusually dry (like California during the Santa Ana winds); if someone has the liturgical responsibility to read or sing properly (and it is a RESPONSIBILITY to speak or sing as well as one is able when one has a liturgical role where one speaks or sings); or any other good reason—

Then what’s the big deal if the person sips from a water bottle?

 

[Jimmygill88]

It’s not so long ago that we could not eat or drink ANYTHING at all from midnight if we wished to receive Holy Communion in the morning. That included summer, windy weather singers in fact everyone except the sick I can’t remember but I hope nursing mothers were exempted too. So no one was sipping from bottles or fountains and even children from age 7 onwards had fasted. I seen no reason whatsoever for anyone to drink or eat in church except for a medical condition.

 

[Zekariya]

So you have medical condition that is you say alleviated by water. Therefore you are ill and it is allowed. As for the rest of it I wouldn’t mention it EVER to you in person. And I am medically trained. I don’t approve AT ALL of people with no requirement to do so to eat or drink.

I’d say that the parish priest is a better judge of whether someone needs water than you. We might look healthy but, we don’t seek you out to tell all of our medical problems to you.

 

[Brendan_64]

However if someone has a bottle of water in their bag because it is normal for them to do so then I don’t think they need to make an effort to remove it so they can go to Mass.

However if someone has a cough, tickle, or asthma; if the weather is unusually dry (like California during the Santa Ana winds); if someone has the liturgical responsibility to read or sing properly (and it is a RESPONSIBILITY to speak or sing as well as one is able when one has a liturgical role where one speaks or sings); or any other good reason—

Then what’s the big deal if the person sips from a water bottle?

I don’t think someone ought to remove a bottle of water just so that they can go to Mass, just as I don’t need to remove a packet of sweets from my pocket so that I can go to Mass. However, just because the packet is in my pocket that doesn’t mean I should eat them at that time.

Then again maybe I am being a bit unfair, so why not install vending machines in our churches selling crisps (potato chips to Yanks), sweets (candy) and chocolate. Hungry parishioners can then have a quck munch after Communion if they are feeling peckish? Or if for whatever reason a person isn’t taking Communion they can munch at will throughout Mass. Or if you chew gum, but don’t swallow it, you could still take Communion (I don’t think there’s anything in Canon Law that deals specifically with chewing gum).

And for all you know, these people might be diabetics needing to up their sugar level for medical reasons.