Various questions. Please Help!

[plainandsimple]

To start, I have some questions regarding gluttony. I was reading about gluttony, and I read that St. Gregory the Great said that "Seeking after sauces and seasonings for the enjoyment of the palate."en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluttony is gluttony. Would that mean that trying to make food taste good, or putting syrup on a pancake, or mustard on a hot-dog is gluttony?

Second, I read the following Bible passage:
[BIBLEDRB]1 Corinthians 10:31[/BIBLEDRB]

Does that mean that anything that we do not involving prayer or worship of God is a sin? For example, if I wanted to watch a baseball game on T.V, I would be doing it in leisure time and for pleasure, but it doesn’t have much to do with God. Would that be a sin? Or if i wanted to play a sport like ping pong for example, I would be playing that for fun, would that be a sin?
Please help me, I have been worrying about the gluttony question for a while, but only the second one recently. Thank You!

 

[1ke]

To start, I have some questions regarding gluttony. I was reading about gluttony, and I read that St. Gregory the Great said that "Seeking after sauces and seasonings for the enjoyment of the palate."en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluttony is gluttony. Would that mean that trying to make food taste good, or putting syrup on a pancake, or mustard on a hot-dog is gluttony?

You need to remember that not everything a Saint says is Church teaching. Disciplines they set for themsevles are not binding on you or those under their authority.

No, putting sauce on something or mustard on a hot dog is not gluttony.

Does that mean that anything that we do not involving prayer or worship of God is a sin?

No.

Please help me, I have been worrying about the gluttony question for a while, but only the second one recently. Thank You!

Sounds like you may tend towards scrupulosity if these things have you so troubled. You should be under regular direction from your priest if that is the case.

 

[AddictedToTruth]

Disciplines they set for themsevles are not binding on you or those under their authority.

Agree, but he is a Doctor of the Church so his writings hold a lot of good instruction for us. Also, I’m not sure where this Wikipedia excerpt came from, but I’m sure it doesn’t give the whole picture of St. Gregory’s writings on this subject. Also if you read further on the wikipedia page, you find:

St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote the following when explaining gluttony:

"Pope Innocent XI Odescalchi has condemned the proposition which asserts that it is not a sin to eat or to drink from the sole motive of satisfying the palate. However, it is not a fault to feel pleasure in eating: for it is, generally speaking, impossible to eat without experiencing the delight which food naturally produces. But it is a defect to eat, like beasts, through the sole motive of sensual gratification, and without any reasonable object. Hence, the most delicious meats may be eaten without sin, if the motive be good and worthy of a rational creature; and, in taking the coarsest food through attachment to pleasure, there may be a fault.

So, we can see that the natural pleasure derived out of eating food is intrinsically good, it only becomes bad when we allow this pleasure to dominate our desires ex. Eating an abundance of pulled pork because you crave the taste, or spending tons of money ordering pizza for every meal because you crave it…(pregnancy might be the exception to this example…lol)

In regards to your first question, no its not sinful to go for the mustard and ketchup.

What might possibly be sinful is refusing to eat the perfectly good hotdog because there is no more ketchup and you won’t eat it unless there is ketchup to go with it.

To your second question, again no, its not sinful to watch the game or play ping pong at your leisure (provided you have the time to do so).

However reflecting on the bible verse, I would suggest that you can do these things for the Glory of God. Before you watch the game, say a little prayer something like: “Lord God, thank you for allowing me this time to relax and watch one of my favorite sports, and I offer this time that I spend watching in thanksgiving to you.”

Also, Offer any work that you do for the Greater Glory of God, there is a religious group called Opus Dei, (literally means: God’s Work), and one of the things they focus on is sanctifying work. Which means:

“Sanctifying work means to work with the spirit of Jesus Christ, to work competently and ethically, with the aim of loving God and serving others…”

opusdei.org/

I also think it would be helpful to find a spiritual director, ask your parish priest if he could recommend someone.

 

[plainandsimple]

Thank you all for the replies!