Correct way to offer up suffering?

[Shin]

Think of it this way, people suffer all sorts of harsh training to become good athletes. So they can run the race to finish.

There are a lot of pains they suffer for that goal.

So too, in criminal courts, a judge may sentence someone to corporal punishment.

So, the penances that involve painful mortifications, from the small, such as wearing uncomfortable clothing, to the medium, such as striking oneself with a stick, to the larger, such as martyrdom… these are necessary because of the arduousness without which the work can’t be successful, and to satisfy the punishment due for one’s sins.

Asceticism may be rare, but when you see how many people can’t even bear the smallest of hardships without getting upset and giving up, and how much crime there is without just punishment, it really shows its value.

 

[oldgraymare2]

Hi again eric,

Yes, the saints would deliberately do things like self-mortification, for love of Our Lord. I personally don’t know of anyone who does things like this today.

They would do things like self-flagellation, and would sleep with their head on a rock instead of a pillow, and would do things to make themselves deliberately uncomfortable. They would deliberately look for sufferings in their lives, too.

Yes, it would be sinful it someone were to receive pleasure from pain.

If you read up on many of the saints, they had such a deep and tremendous love for Our Lord that they were willing to do whatever they could for Him. Many of them suffered and struggled too along the way, but they did amazing things in their love for God.

 

[JamalChristophr]

St Therese would only have done that with permission from her spiritual director / confessor.

These things are much less common today, but they do have a place and some degree of this corporal mortification is indeed still practiced, but God loves obedience more than sacrifice.