Fasting Penance and Sacrifice, what do you do?

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Edward_H said:
Smile when you don’t feel lke it.
Park a little father away and offer the extra work up for atonement or some other intention, perhaps an apostolic one.
Take the smallest portion if it can be done without notice.
Work a little longer, work a little better.
Wake up a bit more cheerful than you want to.
Wake up with a spark.
Do the most unpleasant task you have first.
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Thanks Edward this is the kind of thing I wanted to hear. Great ideas.
 
Remember: Never fast alone…do it with Jesus.

Fasting is simply the prayer of the senses…we use our body’s natural reflexes to remind us to talk with God, to unite our little suffering’s with Jesus’s as He offers Himself to the Father.

So our intention shouldn’t be to detoxify, or lose weight, it should be a purer intention, one of self-donation…an act of love to God.
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
Yes, people still do these types of corporal mortification. They do them under the direction of a spiritual director, and generally do not discuss it should they fall into spiritual pride.

I typically do cold showers, Friday abstinence, and middle of the night Holy Hours, aside from the daily penances I get to deal with.
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Agreed.

I do little things like cold showers, giving up my seat to someone who is not old or pregnant (I wear heels, so trust me it hurts :D), eat bland foods. I do abstain on Fridays, but I try to eat less as well. I started fasting a bit on Wednesdays like the Eastern Christians do, but somehow I fell away from that.

And if I ever did do corporal mortification under the care of a spiritual director, I wouldn’t announce it. :o
 
TrueLight said:
Agreed.

I do little things like cold showers, giving up my seat to someone who is not old or pregnant (I wear heels, so trust me it hurts :D), eat bland foods. I do abstain on Fridays, but I try to eat less as well. I started fasting a bit on Wednesdays like the Eastern Christians do, but somehow I fell away from that.

And if I ever did do corporal mortification under the care of a spiritual director, I wouldn’t announce it. :o
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Fasting doesn’t really work for me because I’m single and often too lazy or forget to eat regularly as it is. It would actually be a greater penance for me to have to eat healthy food, in the healthy quantity during the appropriate times of the day.

I stumbled upon a new penance for Fridays to help mortify my hearing and attachment to music. Listening to newbie oboists playing scales on YouTube. There are two careers I think require the most patience. Being a band director and driver instructor.

I too would never announce doing corporal mortifications.
 
Edward_H said:
Remember: Never fast alone…do it with Jesus.

Fasting is simply the prayer of the senses…we use our body’s natural reflexes to remind us to talk with God, to unite our little suffering’s with Jesus’s as He offers Himself to the Father.

So our intention shouldn’t be to detoxify, or lose weight, it should be a purer intention, one of self-donation…an act of love to God.
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Excellent point. “Never fast alone…do it with Jesus.” I love it. Re-reading my post I see that I used a bit too much kindling getting my fire going and ended up failing to get at the heart of the matter. Detox fasting has become a Hollywood fad, but with the right intentions it is a wonderful sacrifice that will truly work wonders. Sorry to delve so much into the physical aspects.
 
Petersmate said:
Even though Fasting penance and sacrifice have been relegated to the realms of the almost non existent these days they are still very much expected of us Catholics.

What do you do and if you don’t you had better start because what you do or don’t do can…no not can WILL change the world for the better or worse depending on what you do or don’t do.

So what do you do?
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Its not up to you to tell what we should or should not be doing.
We follow what the Church tells us to do.
 
thistle said:
Its not up to you to tell what we should or should not be doing.
We follow what the Church tells us to do.
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The Church tells us we are to abstain from meat on Fridays unless our respective Conference of Bishops have allowed to substitute another suitable penance instead, outside of Lent. Throughout Lent we are required to do some type of penance every day, as well as abstain from meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, which are also mandatory fasting days.
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
The Church tells us we are to abstain from meat on Fridays unless our respective Conference of Bishops have allowed to substitute another suitable penance instead, outside of Lent. Throughout Lent we are required to do some type of penance every day, as well as abstain from meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, which are also mandatory fasting days.
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Your point is what?? The OP is implying all Catholics should be doing a lot more than that!! That is not up to him!
 
thistle said:
Your point is what?? The OP is implying all Catholics should be doing a lot more than that!! That is not up to him!
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How many Catholics even know about Fridays outside of Lent still require penance? People around here think I’m making this up and it’s just a “Traditional Catholic thing”.

We might as well do penance for our sins in this life because if we don’t, we’ll have to do it in the next life and it will be a lot more severe.
 
thistle said:
Its not up to you to tell what we should or should not be doing.
We follow what the Church tells us to do.
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Absolutely.

Do you think the church should talk more about Fasting Penance and Sacrifice
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
How many Catholics even know about Fridays outside of Lent still require penance? People around here think I’m making this up and it’s just a “Traditional Catholic thing”.

We might as well do penance for our sins in this life because if we don’t, we’ll have to do it in the next life and it will be a lot more severe.
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I’m curious…Why do you believe that penance in the next life will be “a lot more severe”?

Peace
James
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
How many Catholics even know about Fridays outside of Lent still require penance? People around here think I’m making this up and it’s just a “Traditional Catholic thing”.

We might as well do penance for our sins in this life because if we don’t, we’ll have to do it in the next life and it will be a lot more severe.
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Care to explain what you mean?
 
They must mean Purgatory. I’ve read something along the lines that the purification to be undergone in Purgatory is a lot harder because you can’t pray whereas on earth you can do penance and purify yourself but it’s not as hard because you can pray for yourself
 
JRKH said:
I’m curious…Why do you believe that penance in the next life will be “a lot more severe”?

Peace
James
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Because the Church teaches that if we are not purified in this life, or we haven’t made reparation for our sins in this life we will have to go through a “cleansing fire” and be purged of everything so that we are spotless before we can enter into heaven.
thistle said:
Care to explain what you mean?
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If we haven’t been purified in this life, or haven’t made reparation for the temporal punishment of our sins in this life we must be purged and purified in the 'cleansing fire" of purgatory.
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
Because the Church teaches that if we are not purified in this life, or we haven’t made reparation for our sins in this life we will have to go through a “cleansing fire” and be purged of everything so that we are spotless before we can enter into heaven.
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Thanks for the clarification…

Peace
James
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
Because the Church teaches that if we are not purified in this life, or we haven’t made reparation for our sins in this life we will have to go through a “cleansing fire” and be purged of everything so that we are spotless before we can enter into heaven.

If we haven’t been purified in this life, or haven’t made reparation for the temporal punishment of our sins in this life we must be purged and purified in the 'cleansing fire" of purgatory.
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I will be very happy if I die and find myself in Purgatory because it means I have been saved.
 
TrueLight said:
True, but we are to aim for heaven, not purgatory.
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Aye. My priest has mentioned this countless times during his sermons. It’s not good enough for us to “just make it to purgatory” as we are called to be saints and the active and passive purgation is actually the beginning of the spiritual life that we should be striving to get through in this life. “I’ll just be happy to make it to purgatory” is a cop-out for not doing all one can to strive for perfection in one’s spiritual life and is the recipe for lukewarmness.
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
Aye. My priest has mentioned this countless times during his sermons. It’s not good enough for us to “just make it to purgatory” as we are called to be saints and the active and passive purgation is actually the beginning of the spiritual life that we should be striving to get through in this life. “I’ll just be happy to make it to purgatory” is a cop-out for striving for perfection in one’s spiritual life.
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I might have asked you this before, but do you attend an FSSP parish? I find FSSP priests tend to stress that we are to aim for heaven! I’ve heard some say it live and I’ve heard some say it on audiosancto.com.

The way I see it is you aim for heaven, you might end up in heaven, you might end up in purgatory. You aim for purgatory, you might end up in that bad place. :eek:
 
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