“pleasures of the table are of a nature to withdraw man from the good of reason, both because they are so great, and because food is necessary to man” St. Thomas
Each line is one thing said. Authors named first use those words. Those after “in nearly the same words” say the same thing differently; point at a name to see their words.
What It Is
St. Thomas, on St. Peter's “abstinence with knowledge”: “in abstaining from food a man should act with due regard for those among whom he lives, for his own person, and for the requirements of health”
The manuals: “Abstinence is a moral virtue inclining one to the moderate use of foods, according as right reason (or faith) shall have determined for the moral good.”
Natural, or supernatural: “If natural right reason is applied as the sole rule of abstinence, there is the natural acquired virtue of abstinence; but if reason illuminated by the virtue of faith is the directing rule, there is the supernatural virtue of abstinence.”
Not a diet: “The regulation of food, in the point of quantity and quality, belongs to the art of medicine as regards the health of the body: but in the point of internal affections with regard to the good of reason, it belongs to abstinence.”
Not going without for the body's sake: “Abstention from solid or liquid nourishment is not a virtue, however, if practised from purely indifferent or evil motives, for example, merely in order to recover health through diet, or to train for an athletic contest, or to preserve shape and beauty”
Not sobriety: “if someone drinks milk immoderately, he does not sin against sobriety but against abstinence; but if he drinks wine immoderately, he sins against sobriety, not against abstinence”
It belongs to the kingdom of God through faith and love: “Nevertheless they both belong to the kingdom of God, in so far as they are done reasonably through faith and love of God.”
Food, and the pleasure of it: “The remote material object is constituted by foods themselves and non-intoxicating drinks; but the proximate object is the pleasures of touch and taste which arise in their use.”
Drink too, as nourishment: “although abstinence is said to concern the moderate use of foods, it also moderates the use of drink, insofar as drink serves for nourishment”
Its mean: “abstinence, since it is a part of temperance, is named from deficiency, and yet it observes the mean, in so far as it is in accord with right reason”
The helper of chastity: “Yet abstinence is not prevented from being a special virtue through being a help to chastity, since one virtue helps another.”
to free the mind for heavenly things, “Secondly, we have recourse to fasting in order that the mind may arise more freely to the contemplation of heavenly things”
The sermon cited as St. Augustine's: “Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one's flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, kindles the true light of chastity.”
St. Leo the Great, in Koch–Preuss: “fasting makes us stronger in combatting sin; it conquers the carnal inclinations, drives away temptations, curbs pride, softens anger”
St. Augustine's likeness, in Bontempi: “for if I were to mount a horse which, being ferocious, could easily throw me headlong, would I not strive to tame it”
the second, “greater but partial abstinence, from a motive of virtue, by which man's appetite inclines less toward food and deprives itself of a certain quality of food, for example, meats”
Fasting, its chief act: “fasting is concerned with food, wherein the mean is appointed by abstinence. Wherefore it is evident that fasting is an act of abstinence.”
Fasting, and abstinence from certain foods: “The act of the virtue of abstinence is fasting and abstinence strictly so called, namely, abstinence from certain determined foods.”
Commanded by other virtues as well: “Yet it can be done also for other ends and be commanded by other virtues: by charity, religion, penance, chastity, etc.”
St. Augustine, in St. Thomas: “fasting loves not many words, deems wealth superfluous, scorns pride, commends humility, helps man to perceive what is frail and paltry”
With almsgiving: “The Church has always taught that fasting without almsgiving, i. e., without the simultaneous exercise of charity, is an act of covetousness rather than of self-denial.”
The ecclesiastical fast: “This, having been prescribed by the Church according to a special mode to be observed at a determined time, is then called ecclesiastical.”
Perpetual, or for a time: “Fast and abstinence are in respect to duration either perpetual (e.g., the abstinence from meat of the Carthusians) or temporary”
By the natural law in general; by the Church in the particular: “fasting in general is a matter of precept of the natural law, while the fixing of the time and manner of fasting as becoming and profitable to the Christian people, is a matter of precept of positive law established by ecclesiastical authority”
Binding for its ends: “Fasting considered in itself denotes something not eligible but penal: yet it becomes eligible in so far as it is useful to some end.”
The Church makes particular what nature binds in general: “On doing this the Church does not make a precept of a matter of supererogation, but particularizes in detail that which is of general obligation.”
Custom and times: “For confessional practice it cannot be sufficiently noted that in the matter of fasting the customs of places and the diverse circumstances of times have very great force.”
Not to the injury of health or duty: “It is by no means the desire of the Church that we should fast to the injury of our health, or that we should thereby be hindered from performing the duties of our station.”
Gluttony: “By defect there is opposed gluttony strictly so called, or surfeiting, by which someone uses food and non-intoxicating drink beyond the measure of right reason”
A saying St. Thomas gives to St. Jerome: “to afflict the body immoderately, whether by excessive lack of nourishment, or by eating or sleeping too little, is to offer a sacrifice of stolen goods”
Abstaining to harm oneself: “if from evil intention someone abstains, for example, so that he may die or become infirm, or be incapable of carrying out due offices, it is an act directly opposed to the virtue of temperance”