In our time, some of the most popular luxuries to give up include social media, sweets, electronic devices, and caffeine.

Some of the more die-hard types may decide to keep the Friday abstinence from meat throughout the entire season.

The monks of the 17th century, however, had a much more hardcore approach: a liquid diet.

In the 1600s, the Paulaner Monks of Southern Italy relocated to the Cloister Neudeck ob der Au, in Bavaria.

The strict order required the brothers to refrain from all solid foods for the entire 40 days of Lent, which naturally brought about questions of how the order would maintain proper nutrition throughout the season.

Turning to what they knew, they concluded that beer, or "liquid bread" as they called it, could sustain them.

The Paulaners brewed a special, unusually strong beer that would provide high levels carbohydrates and nutrients to fight off malnutrition.

This early doppelbock-style beer eventually became the original product of Paulaner brewery, founded in 1634, under the name "Salvator," named after "Sankt Vater," which CNA reports can be roughly translated as "Holy Father beer."

Vine Pair explains that the monks, proud of their work, became worried that the brew was too delicious to count as a Lenten sacrifice.

Hoping for a conclusive ruling, the Paulaner monks sought guidance from Rome and shipped a barrel of their best to the pope, who could determine if the beer was appropriate fasting fare.

In a bit of a twist, during the long trip from Bavaria to Rome, the beer spoiled.

When the pope tasted it, he deemed it so foul that consuming it was considered a "sacrifice unto itself."

He gave the monks the go-ahead and they enjoyed their liquid Lent with clear consciences. Continue reading

One of the events is Splendid Drop, a beer-tasting night at which Petal and Pestle, a Belgian Red Ale brewed in honour of Mother Aubert, is set to make a debut appearance.

Flavoured with rosehip, the ale takes inspiration from Aubert's herbal remedies.

Brewing began about a month ago at Tuatara's microbrewery and bar The Third Eye. Anglican Archdeacon of Wellington Stephen King stopped by to help add the hops.

While he's Anglican, King said the work of Aubert and her Catholic sisters was in his "hood" and he wanted to add the hops.

Tuatara head brewer Carl Vasta and the Sisters of Compassion worked together to create the brew - everything from flavours to the name.

"The sisters are delighted the community is engaged. That's part of the mission, to raise [Aubert's] story," King said.

The Compassion Soup Kitchen in Tory Street is the focus charity for the festival.

CompassionFest was officially opened on Sunday. A variety of events will take place from 4-7 October.

As well as the beer tasting evening that takes place on October 6, the programme includes:

• Art exhibition
• Reflective Taize service
• Kidsfest
• Children's tour of the Home of Compassion
• Virtual trip around Island Bay with the Historical Society
• Pop-up soup kitchen
• Combined church service
• Compassion Mass
• Native tonics workshop
• Symposium with politicians on the subject "What has compassion to do with running the country?"

Suzanne Aubert (1835 - 1926) devoted her life to helping others. Her work took her from France to the Whanganui River and finally to Island Bay in Wellington.

Along the way, she founded a new Catholic congregation, cared for children and the sick, and documented her work in Maori, English and French.

Source

• ibpc.org.nz
• wn.catholic.org.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Alcohol abuse is no laughing matter, but is it sinful to drink and make merry, moderately and responsibly, during a holy season or at any other time?

As a historical theologian, I researched the role that pious Christians played in developing and producing alcohol.

What I discovered was an astonishing history.

Religious orders and wine-making
Wine was invented 6,000 years before the birth of Christ, but it was monks who largely preserved viniculture in Europe. Religious orders such as the Benedictines and Jesuits became expert winemakers.

They stopped only because their lands were confiscated in the 18th and 19th centuries by anti-Catholic governments such as the French Revolution's Constituent Assembly and Germany's Second Reich.

In order to celebrate the Eucharist, which requires the use of bread and wine, Catholic missionaries brought their knowledge of vine-growing with them to the New World.

Wine grapes were first introduced to Alta California in 1779 by Saint Junipero Serra and his Franciscan brethren, laying the foundation for the California wine industry.

A similar pattern emerged in Argentina, Chile and Australia.

Godly men not only preserved and promulgated oenology, or the study of wines; they also advanced it.

One of the pioneers in the "méthode champenoise," or the "traditional method" of making sparkling wine, was a Benedictine monk whose name now adorns one of the world's finest champagnes: Dom Pérignon.

According to a later legend, when he sampled his first batch in 1715, Pérignon cried out to his fellow monks: "Brothers, come quickly. I am drinking stars!"

Monks and priests also found new uses for the grape.

The Jesuits are credited with improving the process for making grappa in Italy and piscoin South America, both of which are grape brandies. Continue reading

• Michael Foley is Associate Professor of Patristics, Baylor University, Texas

Grand Rapids residents, Dan and Carrie Elzinga discovered Beer and Hymns two years ago when they were attending a religious festival in North Carolina.

"After the close of each day's agenda, the people would gather and drink beer and sing only hymns," said Carrie. "Hundreds of people would stand shoulder to shoulder and belt out these deeply meaningful old songs while drinking beer." Read more

Tim Lewis is the PR Manager for Brains, the company which owns the City Arms Pub in Cardiff, Wales.

He said that re-naming one of the seminarians favourite beers was a small thank you for the group's good humour in being mistaken as a bachelor party and nearly kicked out of City Arms Pub. Continue reading

Bible Society Australia has teamed up with Coopers Premium Light to produce a video an openly gay agnostic, and a Christian conservative, debate marriage equality while drinking Coopers Premium Light beer.

The campaign website claims the men were able to enjoy their debate "because there was both a Bible and good beer on the table".

The brewery is owned by the Coopers family, who have been long time donors to the Bible Society.

The video has not been well received.

• Watch Video
• Read Eureka Streetblog

Now they've added beer to the blend, and people are flocking to the monastery in Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict, about 70 miles northeast of Rome in the Umbrian countryside.

But for the 18 members of St. Benedict's monastery, life is still about prayer.
"If the prayer doesn't come first, the beer is going to suffer," said Father Benedict Nivakoff, director of the Birra Nursia brewery and subprior of the monastery.

The monks in Norcia initially were known for their liturgical ministry, particularly sharing their chanted prayers in Latin online- http://osbnorcia.org/blog — with people around the world.

But following the Rule of St. Benedict means both prayer and manual labor, with a strong emphasis on the monks earning their own keep.

After just a year of brewing and selling their beer in the monastery gift shop and through restaurants in Norcia, financial self-sufficiency seems within reach, and the monks are talking expansion.

"We didn't expect it to be so enormously successful," said Father Cassian Folsom, the U.S. Benedictine who founded the community in 1998 and serves as its prior. "There's been a huge response, and our production can't keep up with the demand and the demand continues to grow."

But even with the talk of expanding the brewery, and perhaps exporting some of the brew to the United States, the Mass and the liturgical hours are still the centerpiece of the monks' lives.

"Our life is very much unified by the liturgy, which forms a kind of skeleton around which everything else takes shape," Father Folsom said.

Many visitors tread a path between the church and the gift shop and, increasingly, from the crates of beer to the church. Continue reading

Their unique Abbey Beer beat off competition from across Yorkshire to walk away with the accolade less than six months since it was first put on the market.

"Although Ampleforth Abbey Beer is based on a centuries old recipe, it's only recently that the public have been able to enjoy it" said Peter Berry, Marketing Executive at Ampleforth Abbey.

"We're delighted that it has achieved this recognition for its quality," he said.

Benedictine monks have brewed beer since the 1600s when some fled to France to during the reformation and developed "la biere anglaise". They returned to England and settled at Ampleforth in 1802.

Source: The Tablet

In the video, the "nun" opens a sliding glass freezer to grab a beer. The "nun" looks around and then places the beer underneath the clothing.

Moments later, the "nun" is caught on tape stealing a bottle of water and another can of beer and then walks out of the store.

"I'm no wowser" says Nathan Burdon. "During my playing days I enjoyed the social side of rugby as much as anyone, but I was very much an amateur, with few pretensions about ever going any further in the game".

"Call me naive, but the stories of boozing rugby teams that have come out during this World Cup have left me baffled," he says. "If you were asked whether you would give up six weeks of the sauce for the chance to become a living legend, a figure to be revered for generations to come, what would your response be?"

There are those who say things are much better than they used to be so "get real". Martin Johnson says he has drawn three main conclusions from controversy that engulfed him:

1. International rugby will be a sadder, sorrier place if players cannot knock back one too many at the bar on a rare free evening. "Rugby player drinks beer: shocker,"
2. With mobile phone cameras clicking a hundred times a minute and security videos finding their way on to the internet in the time it takes a man to swallow the last of his spirit-based shots, drinking is very different in New Zealand now, than it in was when the Lions were here in 1993.
3. If the attention on leading players becomes such that managers have no option but to keep them away from the general sporting public, by locking them in their rooms if necessary - he would rather push off and do something else. "I'd rather be at this kind of event and enjoy the atmosphere around it."

J Wilson, who is a home brewer intends to blog about his experience as he investigates a 300 year old tale about doppelbock beer, that is "liquid bread," first developed for Lent by Bavarian monks in Munich, Germany.

Wilson said the got the idea a couple of years ago and wanted to explore it first-hand. His plan is to drink four 12 oz beers a day and lots of water in between.

"Getting drunk is the last thing on my to-do list at this time. This is an historical study."

"The idea is a little bit crazy", Wilson admits but in "beer-geek" circles the story is often told of how the Paulaner monks created a dark, hefty carbohydrate-packed beer in the mid 1600's to sustain themselves through Lent when no food was pass their lips.

"I have a genuine love for beer, and am very drawn to the rich history it carries. Forty-six days is a long time without food. But if the the Paulaner brothers could do it under the guidance of God, I should be able to as well. A spiritual journey of this nature is no laughing matter, and I very much look forward to sharing it with you."

Sources
desmoinesregister.com
Catholic Herald