drink question

[Guest guest]

hi there! just a little question to ease my consience,
well i was babysitting last night for some good friends and i stayed the night over there as they wernt going to get back untill late. They always tell me i can do what ever i like and act like i'm at home, anyway after getting the kids to bed, i watched a film and helped myself to a few glases of wine as i would do on a normal friday evening at home, i didnt get at all drunk and didnt have the entention of doing so, but i did feel a bit typsy! but do you think i was abusing there openess ? i'm not really sure if i actually did anything actually wrong!

[Cam42]

[quote name='guest' date='Feb 18 2006, 05:49 AM']hi there! just a little question to ease my consience,
well i was babysitting last night for some good friends and i stayed the night over there as they wernt going to get back untill late. They always tell me i can do what ever i like and act like i'm at home, anyway after getting the kids to bed, i watched a film and helped myself to a few glases of wine as i would do on a normal friday evening at home, i didnt get at all drunk and didnt have the entention of doing so, but i did feel a bit typsy! but do you think i was abusing there openess ? i'm not really sure if i actually did anything actually wrong!
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Here is what I think. I think that prudence should reign supreme. These people have left their children in your care. Insofar as this was the case, it was imprudent to impede your senses and/or reactions due to alcohol.

Do you always drink on the weekends? I would assume not. So, I think that while there is nothing inherently sinful in having "a few glasses of wine" (assuming that you are of legal age to drink), it was imprudent.

An example.....you admit that you got "tipsy." Had one of the children needed to be taken to the hospital or driven someplace in an emergency would you have been in a safe position to move them? Would your reactions have been sharp enough, due to your "tipsiness" to protect those children?

I think that you were being a bit imprudent.

Here is what the Church teaches:
[quote name='CCC #1806']Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." "Keep sane and sober for your prayers." Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.[/quote]
[i]Prov 14:15
1 Pet 4:7
St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,47,2[/i]

You decide based upon this teaching. I have told you what I think.