INSTEAD OF OTHER PENANCES, I OFFER THIS TO THE GOOD GOD.

While waiting for the Papal Brief to be signed and handed over, Eugene confided to Henri Tempier his difficulties with the Lenten diet in the house where he was staying. The text is a reminder to us that all saints were human with their likes and dislikes

When Lent is finished, I will have a little more strength for I admit I have never in my life observed a Lent comparable to this one. It happens often that I go through the day with two badly cooked eggs in my stomach and even then it is forbidden to eat them three days of the week. It is beyond me, I cannot overcome the repugnance I have for the stinking oil they use in this house. When they give me fish, I swallow it without seasoning but sometimes it will not go down. I would bring up rather than eat three pieces of another kind of fish pickled in vinegar with spices that nauseate me. Often the soup is horrible; it is a mixture of cheese, bread and greens; I always force it down my throat; but I compensate myself with fruit, I eat my bread with nuts, almonds and usually two pears with which I am not parsimonious… Instead of other penances, I offer this to the good God.

I smile sometimes when I think of the advice that St. Bernard, I believe, gave to his religious on the dispositions with which they ought to go to the dining room. I have little trouble entering into the spirit of this saint, and certainly it is not an act of virtue for me to proceed there as if to martyrdom; my stomach is turned just by approaching the refectory. I have no fear of sinning there by sensuality. In spite of all that, I am very well. I have not been unwell for a moment since leaving France.

Letter to Fr. Tempier in Marseilles, 16 March 1826, EO VII n. 230