Doing the assigned penance

[Tis_Bearself]

There is a worry that you will forget, and some people will actually obsess over how to go about anything that isn’t concrete and direct.

I know in the case where I got told to “do something nice for X”, I’m not sure if I accomplished it in the week I was supposed to. I’m pretty sure that at some point in the ensuing months I did something nice for the person, but the problem is, I wasn’t even in the same state with X when I was getting the penance, and I do not recall what my schedule was. I had every intent to do the penance and like I said I’m pretty sure I accomplished it at some point, but a more scrupulous person than me would probably be going off the walls in that situation.

 

[babochka]

Arnold1N2D:

1 Our Father, 3 Hail Mary’s, 1 Glory Be, and Act of Contrition

Certainly nothing wrong with them, but just out of curiosity are these examples still common place? They almost seem stereotypical. I can only recall one confession in the last 10 years where a priest assigned me a penance like the examples given.

Interested in hearing.

I have had the same regular confessor for about 10 years and two or three that I confess to occasionally, when I can’t manage to meet with the first one.

My regular confessor tends to give penances that are tailored to me and my particular circumstances and struggles. I went to Confession last night and my penance was to take a five minute walk in the sunshine. This one will have to wait a bit, since we’re in the middle of storm system. I know it sounds like a strange penance, but it fit the circumstances.

The other priests don’t know me as well and their penances are usually prayer of some type, but not ever a “standard” set of common prayers.

I seem to be in the minority around here, but I actually like penances that take a while and make me think. They serve the purpose better of turning me toward God because they bring me back to him time and time again over the course of a week or two.

 

[Anne1964]

My regular confessor knows me very well and while he always gives a prayer for penance he will sometimes add something else based on what I confessed.

My backup confessor who I go to when the other one isn’t available always gives the same penance of prayers

 

[HeDa]

I like that there are different penances given and not just the standard “pray one Our Father or Hail Mary”. I have one confessor who asks me to pray (using my own words) for 1-2 people I sin against and say one OF for each of them. Others are more “seasonal” in that they give penances that fit Pentecost, Christmas, Lent, Easter like praying the sequences sung after the Gospel reading or meditate on X mystery from the rosary, praying one Station of the Cross. Or the Litany of Humility, or sitting in silence before the Blessed Sacrament or … … … The confessors seem to find out what I need at that moment to love Christ more.

 

[exnihilo]

I believe I at least one time was told to pray a prayer slowly. Slowness was part of the penance.

What if a person was in the middle of praying the Our Father (his part of the penance) while sitting then suddenly remembered that “Oh I need to kneel!” then he did and prayed the rest… Do you think he needed to start the prayer again or not?

I would not start over because I don’t think you’ve started. Kneeling is part of the penance. I’d finish the Our Father, then kneel and do the prayers assigned for penance, including the Our Father. An extra Our Father is good. The penance itself is easy (unless you have a handicap in which case you’d ask for another penance).

 

[Joe_5859]

For example the assigned penance to me was to Pray:

1 Our Father, 3 Hail Mary’s, 1 Glory Be, and Act of Contrition while KNEELING DOWN in the Church.

Do you think the KNEELING DOWN portion while praying the assigned penance is part of the penance itself?

Just to circle back to the OP, if you are speaking of an actual thing that happened to you, I’d say it would depend on exactly what the priest said. I’ve had priests who will basically say, “And you can just go on out in the Church and pray your penance right now” not in a way that indicates I must do it now, but rather as a suggestion on what I could do. I could see them phrasing it as “you can just go out, kneel down, and pray [insert prayer]” not in the sense that they are mandating that you kneel, but just as part of their suggested course of action.

But then, maybe the priest was more specific with you and did ask you to go and kneel while you pray as a part of the penance.

If it were me, I’d just go ahead and kneel. If I started praying before kneeling (and it was clear that kneeling was a non-optional part of the penance), I would start over. Generally, I add extra prayers to my penance anyway. It’s not like saying 1 Our Father, 3 Hail Mary’s, 1 Glory Be, and an Act of Contrition is hugely time consuming. Nor is saying a few extra prayers a bad thing.

Of course, if you are prone to scrupulosity, and the priest phrased it in such a way that kneeling was more of a suggestion, then my advice would be different. I would suggest not getting hung up on it, and letting it go.